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Ask the Assistant about your table

After this lesson you can open the Assistant beside a table, ask it questions about your rows, and know what each answer costs.

2:00 video with captions, written steps and transcript. Checked against Duckrow on October 3, 2026.

0:00 / 2:00

Narration: preview voiceA sales rep checks a list of 40 conference leads. The people and companies are example data.

The short answer

Open any table and click Assistant in the toolbar, or press Cmd or Ctrl+J. The panel opens beside the table and answers questions about your rows in plain words, showing each step it takes. On Duckrow's key an answer costs a few credits, based on the work it did; on your own Anthropic key, chatting is free.

Step by step

  1. 1Open the AssistantOn any table, click Assistant in the toolbar (next to Export), or press Cmd+J on a Mac or Ctrl+J on Windows. It opens on the left of the table and never opens by itself.
  2. 2Ask a questionClick one of the suggestions or type in Ask the Assistant, then press Enter. Shift+Enter adds a new line.
  3. 3Read the stepsEach tool it uses shows as a line with a check, such as Looked at the table and Read rows, before the answer.
  4. 4Keep questions to lists it can readIt reads up to 100 rows at a time and takes a limited number of steps per message, so counting questions work best on lists of a few hundred rows.
  5. 5Pick a modelSonnet 5.5 is the default; Opus 5.5 is there for harder jobs. Both are Claude models from Anthropic.
  6. 6Know the costOn Duckrow's key, each answer is charged from the work it did (at least 1 credit a step), and the line under the box says what the last answer used. With the workspace's own Anthropic key (Settings, AI keys), chatting is free; paid column runs still cost credits.
  7. 7Start over or closeNew chat clears the conversation. Each person has one chat per table, kept for 30 days after the last message. Close with the X or the same keys.

Try it in Duckrow

About five minutes, in your own workspace.

  1. Open a table with at least a few rows.
  2. Press Cmd+J (Mac) or Ctrl+J (Windows) to open the Assistant.
  3. Ask: How many rows are missing an email? and read the steps it shows.
  4. Ask one follow-up about your own data, then read the line under the box to see what the answer used.

You're done when you've had two answers about your own table and know what they cost.

Check what stuck

Three quick questions. Nothing is saved.

  1. 1. You're on a table and press Cmd+J. What happens?

  2. 2. Your workspace added its own Anthropic key. What does chatting with the Assistant cost?

  3. 3. You want a quick count over 30,000 rows. What's the best move?

Transcript

0:00One question about a list

You have forty leads from a conference, and one question: who is missing an email? You could scroll and count. Or you can ask. This is the Assistant.

0:12Open it beside your table

Open any table. Click Assistant in the toolbar, or press Command J, or Control J on Windows. The panel opens on the left of your table, and the table stays in reach. It opens only when you call it, and the same keys close it.

0:30Ask in plain words

To start, click a suggestion, or type your own question. Each step the Assistant takes shows with a check. It looks at the table, reads the rows, and then answers: twelve of the forty rows have no email.

0:46Keep asking

Ask a follow up in the same chat. Which companies are in Austin? It reads the rows again and names them. Questions work best on lists of a few hundred rows, because it reads a hundred rows at a time.

1:01Models and credits

The Assistant runs on Claude Sonnet 5.5. For harder jobs, pick Opus 5.5. On Duckrow's key, each answer costs a few credits, based on the work it did, and the line under the box shows what the last answer used. With your workspace's own Anthropic key, chatting costs no credits.

1:24New chat and close

New chat starts over. Your chat with this table is yours, and it is kept for thirty days after your last message. Press Command J again, or click close, and you are back to the table.

1:38Recap

To recap. Open the Assistant from the toolbar, or with Command or Control J. Ask in plain words, and watch each step it takes. Answers cost a few credits on Duckrow's key, and nothing on your own. Next, import a list and run checks by chat.