Patterns / In-app help
In-app help: shortcuts, disclosure, feedback and what's new
Candor has no help centre component, no general feedback form and no what's-new panel. It has the pieces an agent app needs most, and this page says how to put them together and where your own work starts.
ShortcutsDialog lists every keyboard shortcut grouped by where it works, printed for the person's platform (the command key on a Mac, Ctrl elsewhere), and is usually opened with "?". List only shortcuts that are really bound: it is a reference, not a wish list. AiDisclosure tells people they are talking to an AI, as a first line in a thread or a badge in a header that opens to your own explanation, naming the agent only as your app names it. The AI disclosure page has the detail, and the same caution: whether it meets any rule is your call.
For feedback about a reply, use ReportReply: the person picks a reason (wrong, unsafe, harmful or something else) and adds an optional note. You pass reviewer, such as "the quality team", and the confirmation names that team, so say who truly reads it. onReport receives the reason and the trimmed note, and the button waits on a returned promise. It reports one reply. For general feedback, such as a bug or a request, build a form from Candor's inputs and send it to your own system; the kit doesn't send anything or choose who reads it.
For what's new, publish your release notes where your app can fetch them. Candor's own site publishes its changelog as an RSS feed at /changelog.xml, which is about Candor's releases and not your app's. Fetch your feed on your server, keep the text as text, and show it in an ArtifactPanel in a side panel tab: it reads a document's text into safe headings, lists and emphasis and never renders HTML or links from it. Mark what the person hasn't seen from a date you store, and say "nothing new" when there is nothing.
The components
- Shortcuts dialogProEvery bound shortcut, grouped by where it works, for this platform (Pro).
- AI disclosureFreeA plain notice that this is an AI system, as a first line or a header badge.
- Report replyProFlag a reply with a reason and a note, to a named reviewer (Pro).
- Artifact panelProRelease notes as safe blocks of text beside the work (Pro).
- Side panelProWhere the release notes open (Pro).
See it working
More in the examples: AI disclosure
Install
Each component brings in what it depends on. The free ones install as they are; Pro and Premium ones need a licence key.
Good to know
- Left to the app: the feedback form and where it goes, support contact, the help articles, a tour, release notes and which ones a person has seen, and the shortcut bindings themselves.
- A report is a record of what someone said. Don't show the person that a fix is under way unless your system says so.