What is Cogniplane?

Cogniplane is an AI assistant built for enterprise teams. Unlike a simple chatbot, Cogniplane can:

How it works at a glance

When you send a message, Cogniplane understands your intent, selects the right skill for the task, and uses tools (like searching a database or reading a document) to get you a real, grounded answer. All tool activity is shown in the conversation so you always know what happened.

Getting Started

Cogniplane runs in your browser. Your admin will give you a link to your organization's Cogniplane instance. Here's what to expect on your first visit.

Signing in

Cogniplane uses your organization's existing identity provider — the same login you use for other work tools. Click Sign in with your organization, complete the login prompt, and you'll land on the chat interface.

The interface at a glance

The main screen has three areas:

• Sidebar (left) — your past and current sessions. Click any session to return to it.
• Chat area (center) — the conversation. Messages from you appear on the right; Cogniplane's responses and tool actions appear on the left.
• Input bar (bottom) — type your message or attach a file here. Press Enter or click Send.

Starting your first conversation

1. Click "New session"

   Each conversation lives in its own session. Sessions keep your context separate and can be resumed later.

2. Type your question or task

   Be as natural as you like. You can ask a direct question ("What were our top 5 products last quarter?") or describe a task ("Summarize this PDF and list the key action items").

3. Watch Cogniplane work

   You'll see the agent's reasoning and any tool calls in the conversation. Read-only actions (like searching a database) happen automatically. Actions with side effects will ask for your approval.

4. Follow up naturally

   Cogniplane remembers the full conversation within your session. You can ask follow-up questions, correct misunderstandings, or change direction at any point.

Having a Conversation

Cogniplane is designed to feel like talking to a knowledgeable colleague — one that also has direct access to your company's data and tools.

What to ask

Cogniplane handles two types of requests well:

Tips for better results

• Be specific about the goal. "Give me a 3-bullet summary" produces a more focused answer than "tell me about this."
• Mention the data source if you know it. "Check the HR policy database" helps Cogniplane pick the right tool faster.
• It's okay to correct the agent. If the answer is off, say so. Cogniplane will adjust and try again.
• Ask multi-step tasks in one message. Cogniplane handles compound requests — you don't need to break them up.

Understanding the response

Cogniplane responses often include:

• Tool activity — a collapsible card showing which tool was used, what was queried, and what came back.
• The answer — the main response, grounded in the data retrieved.
• Follow-up suggestions — the agent may suggest related questions when they're relevant.

When Cogniplane says it can't help

There are a few reasons Cogniplane might decline or say it's unable to help:

• The data source you're asking about isn't connected yet (talk to your admin).
• The task requires a capability that hasn't been enabled for your team.
• The request falls outside the scope of the active skill.

In any of these cases, Cogniplane will explain what's missing so you can follow up with the right person.

Using Skills

Skills are what give Cogniplane specialized knowledge and behavior. Think of a skill as a mode — when a skill is active, the agent knows how to behave, which tools to use, and what kind of answers to give for that domain.

How skills work

Your admin publishes skills for your organization. Skills might include things like:

• A Sales Intelligence skill that queries your CRM and revenue data
• A HR Policy Advisor skill that searches your HR documentation
• A Contract Analyst skill that reads uploaded documents and flags key clauses
• A Financial Reporting skill that pulls data from your data warehouse

Activating a skill

In most cases, skills are available from the session setup screen or a skill selector in the chat interface. Your admin configures which skills are available to your team.

What a skill changes

When a skill is active, Cogniplane:

• Follows domain-specific instructions for how to behave and what to prioritize
• Gets access to specific tools and data sources relevant to that domain
• Uses terminology and formats that match the skill's context (e.g., financial formatting for a finance skill)
• Knows which actions require approval vs. which can run automatically

If the skill doesn't cover your question

Skills are scoped. If you ask something outside the skill's domain, the agent will let you know. Try switching to a different skill or asking your admin whether a skill for that use case exists or is planned.

Tool Actions & Approvals

To answer questions or complete tasks, Cogniplane uses tools — connections to your company's databases, document repositories, and services. Here's how that looks in practice.

Read-only actions run automatically

Most of what Cogniplane does is read-only: querying a database, searching a knowledge base, reading a document. These actions run automatically and are shown as collapsible cards in the conversation so you can inspect exactly what was queried and what came back.

Actions with side effects ask for approval

If Cogniplane wants to take an action that could change data or run a command, it will pause and show you an approval prompt before doing anything. This applies to:

• Write operations — submitting a form, creating a record, triggering a workflow
• Shell commands — when your admin has enabled command execution for a skill, each individual command is shown for your approval before it runs
• File changes — modifications to files in the agent's workspace

Viewing tool activity

Every tool call is visible in the conversation thread. Click the tool activity card to expand it and see:

• Which tool was used
• What input was sent to the tool
• What the tool returned
• How long it took

This transparency is intentional — you should always know how Cogniplane reached its answer.

Working with Files

Cogniplane can read and analyze files you upload directly in the chat. This is useful when you have a document you want the agent to work with — a contract, a report, a data extract.

Supported file types

How to upload a file

1. Click the attachment icon in the input bar

   Or drag and drop a file directly into the chat window.

2. Wait for the upload to complete

   A progress indicator shows while the file uploads. Large PDFs may take a few seconds.

3. Ask your question

   Once the file is attached, type your question. Cogniplane will read the file as part of answering. For example: "Summarize the key obligations in this contract" or "What does this document say about renewal terms?"

Files stay in your session

Uploaded files are attached to the current session. You can reference the same file multiple times throughout the conversation without re-uploading. Files are not shared across sessions or with other users.

Managing Sessions

Every conversation in Cogniplane happens inside a session. Sessions keep context separate — each one remembers its own history, files, and state.

Your session list

The left sidebar shows all your sessions, most recent first. Sessions are auto-named from your first message. Click any session to resume it exactly where you left off — the full conversation history is preserved.

Starting a new session

Click New session at the top of the sidebar. Use a new session when you're switching to an unrelated topic — it keeps your conversation history clean and focused.

Resuming a session

When you return to a previous session, Cogniplane picks up the conversation in full context. You don't need to re-explain what you were working on.

Replaying a session

You can scroll back through any session to review what the agent did, which tools it used, and what it found. This is useful for audit trails and for picking up where you left off after time away.

Platform Overview

As an admin, you control how Cogniplane behaves for your organization. You publish skills that define what the agent knows and can do, connect data sources via MCP servers, set permission boundaries through capability profiles, and manage who has access.

What admins manage

The Admin Workbench

All admin tasks happen in the Admin Workbench — a dedicated interface accessible only to users with admin or owner roles. Reach it from the user menu in the top right corner of Cogniplane.

Architecture in brief

Cogniplane runs a dedicated agent runtime per user session. When a user starts a session, the platform launches an isolated process with the compiled configuration for that skill. The runtime connects to your MCP servers through an HTTP gateway that enforces auth and audit on every tool call. This means:

• Sessions are fully isolated — no cross-session state leakage
• Tool calls are logged and auditable
• Configuration changes are staged and applied safely
• Multi-tenant deployments use row-level security to prevent data cross-contamination

Creating & Publishing Skills

Skills are the primary way you shape what Cogniplane does for your users. A well-written skill gives the agent clear purpose, focused capabilities, and predictable behavior.

There are two ways to create a skill:

• Write it in the Admin Workbench — structured form that compiles into a skill definition.
• Import a skill bundle — upload a ZIP file or point to a GitHub repository containing a packaged skill.

Anatomy of a Skill

Every skill is built from the same core sections. Understanding these sections will help you write skills that behave predictably and give users great experiences.

# ── Metadata ────────────────────────────────────────────────
name: HR Policy Advisor
version: 1.0.0
description: Answers HR policy questions using the company policy knowledge base.

# ── Activation ──────────────────────────────────────────────
# When should this skill be used? This helps the platform and
# users understand when to pick this skill.
## When to use this skill
Use this skill for questions about HR policies, benefits, time-off,
leave entitlements, expense policies, and employee conduct guidelines.

# ── Instructions ────────────────────────────────────────────
# How the agent should behave in this skill context.
## Instructions
You are an HR policy advisor for ACME Corp. Always cite the specific
policy document and section when answering. If a policy is ambiguous,
say so and recommend the user speak with HR directly. Do not speculate
about policies not found in the knowledge base.

# ── Tools ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Which MCP server tools this skill can access.
## Tools
- search_knowledge_base: Search the HR policy knowledge base
- query_hr_database: Query structured HR data (read-only)

# ── Workflow ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Optional: describe a structured approach the agent should follow.
## Workflow
1. Clarify the employee's question if ambiguous.
2. Search the knowledge base for relevant policy sections.
3. Synthesize a clear, cited answer.
4. Offer to find related policies if helpful.

# ── References ───────────────────────────────────────────────
# External documents or resources the skill should know about.
## References
- Employee Handbook v2024 (linked via knowledge base)
- Benefits Guide 2025 (linked via knowledge base)

Section reference

Writing Your First Skill

The fastest way to create a skill is through the Admin Workbench form. It walks you through each section and compiles your input into a skill definition that the platform understands.

1. Open the Admin Workbench and go to Skills

   From the user menu, select Admin Workbench, then navigate to the Skills section.

2. Click "New skill"

   Give the skill a name, version (start with 1.0.0), and a one-line description that users will see in the skill picker.

3. Fill in the Instructions section

   This is the most important part. Write a clear description of the agent's persona, what it should focus on, how it should handle uncertainty, and any hard constraints (e.g., "never speculate about legal obligations").

4. Select tool access

   Choose which MCP server tools this skill can use. Only tools from connected MCP servers will appear here. If the tool you need isn't listed, you'll need to connect an MCP server first.

5. Add a workflow (optional)

   If the skill should follow a structured approach — for example, always searching the knowledge base before querying the database — describe that sequence here.

6. Save as draft

   Your skill is saved as a draft. It won't be visible to users until you activate it. This gives you time to review and test before publishing.

Testing your skill before publishing

Before activating a skill, use the built-in Skill Workbench to run test conversations against the draft. This lets you verify the skill behaves as expected without exposing it to users.

Importing a Skill Bundle

For more complex skills — or when distributing skills across multiple Cogniplane deployments — you can package and import skills as bundles. A bundle is a structured ZIP file (or GitHub repository) containing the skill definition and any companion files.

Bundle structure

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md          # Required: skill definition
├── README.md         # Optional: human-readable documentation
├── config/
│   └── defaults.json # Optional: default configuration values
└── assets/
    └── prompts/      # Optional: prompt fragments or reference materials

Importing a bundle

Reviewing & Activating a Skill

Before users can use a skill, it must be activated. This applies to both skills you write in the workbench and bundles you import.

The skill lifecycle

Activating a skill

1. Open the skill in the Admin Workbench

   From the Skills list, click the skill you want to activate.

2. Review the compiled definition

   Read through the instructions, tool list, and capability profile assignment. Confirm everything looks correct.

3. Click "Activate"

   The platform compiles the skill into a runtime manifest and makes it available for new sessions immediately.

Rolling back a skill

Every activation creates an immutable revision. If a newly activated skill has unexpected behavior, go to the skill's Revision History, select a previous revision, and click Activate this revision. The rollback takes effect for new sessions immediately.

Connecting an MCP Server

MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers are how you give Cogniplane access to your company's data and services. Each MCP server exposes a set of tools — named operations the agent can call during a conversation.

Examples of what an MCP server might expose:

• A search_knowledge_base tool that queries a vector search index
• A query_database tool that runs read-only SQL against your data warehouse
• A get_policy_document tool that fetches a specific document from a document store

Before you connect an MCP server

You'll need:

• The HTTP endpoint URL of the MCP server (it must be reachable from the Cogniplane backend)
• Any authentication credentials the server requires (API key, service account token, etc.)
• A list of the tools the server exposes — names, descriptions, and input/output shapes

Adding an MCP server

1. Go to MCP Servers in the Admin Workbench

   Click "Add MCP server".

2. Enter the server details

   Provide a name (used in skill configuration), the HTTP endpoint URL, and a short description of what this server does.

3. Configure authentication

   If the server requires an API key or token, add it here. Credentials are encrypted at rest and never exposed to users or to the agent directly.

4. Run the connection test

   The platform will call the server's discovery endpoint to verify connectivity and retrieve the tool list. If this fails, check the URL, firewall rules, and credentials.

5. Review the discovered tools

   Each tool the server exposes will appear with its name and description. Verify the list is complete and the descriptions are clear — the agent uses these descriptions to decide when to call each tool.

6. Save and assign to skills

   Once saved, the server's tools are available to assign in skill definitions. Go to a skill and add the tools you want that skill to have access to.

Tool descriptions matter

The agent decides which tool to call based on the tool's name and description. Vague descriptions lead to incorrect tool selection. If tool calls aren't firing when you'd expect them to, improving the tool description on the MCP server side is usually the fastest fix.

Capability Profiles

Capability profiles define the permission boundaries for a skill or a set of tools. They answer the question: what is this skill allowed to do, and under what conditions?

What a capability profile controls

Default approval behavior

The platform's safe default is:

• Read-only tools (queries, searches, document reads) — auto-approved. No user prompt needed.
• Write tools (creating records, submitting forms, triggering workflows) — suggest mode. The agent pauses and shows an approval prompt before executing.
• Shell commands — disabled by default. Must be explicitly enabled in the capability profile. When enabled, every command requires individual user approval.

Creating a custom capability profile

1. Go to Capability Profiles in the Admin Workbench

   Click "New profile" and give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Read-only data access" or "Finance write-enabled").

2. Set the tool allowlist

   Select which tools this profile permits. Adding a tool here does not automatically grant access — the skill definition must also list the tool.

3. Set approval modes per tool

   For each allowed tool, choose auto-approve, suggest, or block. When in doubt, use suggest — it's always safer and users can approve quickly for low-risk actions.

4. Assign the profile to a skill

   In the skill definition, select this capability profile. The profile takes effect when the skill is activated.

Tenants & Members

Cogniplane is multi-tenant. Each organization (or internal business unit) is its own tenant. Tenants are fully isolated — users, sessions, skills, and data from one tenant are never visible to another.

Roles

Inviting members

1. Go to Members in the Admin Workbench

   Click "Invite member".

2. Enter the user's email address

   The user must have an account in your organization's identity provider. Cogniplane uses your existing SSO — no separate account creation required.

3. Assign a role

   Choose Member, Admin, or Owner. You can change this at any time from the Members list.

4. Send the invitation

   The user will be able to sign in to Cogniplane with their existing organizational credentials. No separate email invitation is required if SSO is configured.

Removing a member

From the Members list, find the user and click Remove. Their active sessions will remain in the system for audit purposes but they will immediately lose the ability to start new sessions.

Tenant settings

From the tenant settings page, you can update:

• The tenant display name
• SSO configuration (identity provider settings)
• Default skill (the skill selected automatically when users start a new session)
• Session and audit retention settings