Phase has two different chat experiences:

Current planning paths include desktop Plan for Crop Plan Studio, More → Planning & Imports → Crop Plan Import, and More → Data Centres → Spatial for Phase Ultra.

Phase has two places to type a request about the farm. Ask Phase is the Agent tab in Crop Plan Studio's left column (also the Agent button in the Studio's top bar; the message box is labelled Ask Phase). It works on the crop plan you are looking at: "bring all the wheat up to 100 units of N", "swap Roundup 570 for Crucial", "which paddocks are missing a fungicide?". It shows every change as a proposal first, applies it through the same path as an edit made by hand, and one Undo Agent change takes the whole change back. See the Creating Crop Plans article for what it understands.

A few things Ask Phase now handles more carefully:

Agent answers across the whole farm (stock in the shed, weather windows, yield, soil, labels, livestock, jobs and finance) and prepares supported changes for review. Opened from the Studio, Agent knows you are in crop planning.

Agent's first screen asks "What would you like to know?" and shows Try asking Phase: three example questions at a time, changing every two seconds. They are written from your own farm. A new farm gets help getting set up, a farm with paddocks gets questions about its own paddocks, and questions about stock, soil, yield, rainfall or labels only appear when the farm has those records and your login can see them.

Typing, Speak or holding the microphone hides them.

Examples:

Ask "compare potassium across Home Farm" or "which paddocks have low sulphur?" and Agent checks the recorded soil tests for the whole farm, or every farm in the account, in one go. Depths and units are kept separate rather than averaged together, and the answer shows each sample date and which paddocks have no result. The map with the answer shows the sampling sites behind the result, not just the paddock outline; only sites for the paddocks, dates and depths in that answer appear. A site needs a recorded location or boundary to show on the map. Soil readings on their own do not tell you a fertiliser need or an application rate.

For acidity, ask "which paddocks need an acidity check first?" or name the paddocks. Agent gives an investigation shortlist rather than a lime rate: for each paddock it shows the sampling depths, the pH method (calcium chloride and water results are shown separately, not ranked against each other), the sample dates, any lime recorded since, and links to the Australian sources it relied on. A test taken before a later lime application is flagged as needing a fresh sample rather than pushed to the top. Missing information stays visible. The shortlist does not set a lime rate or create a prescription. The same shortlist is available in Spatial's agent panel and in the Studio's Agent tab, and a follow-up such as "and their canola yields last year?" keeps the same paddocks.

For soil results over time, ask "show my soil pH results over time" (or potassium, sulphur and so on). Agent draws a chart for each paddock and sampling site, with each sampling depth as its own line, unless you asked for one depth. Tests sit at their real dates, a depth not sampled on a date is left out rather than drawn as zero, and different units and pH methods are never put on the same chart. The pH scale runs in whole numbers around the readings, so readings from 3.8 to 7.1 show on a 3 to 8 scale. Recorded values under each chart lists every reading.

Ask "how much rain have we recorded this year?" or "how much rain at Black Hill since April?" and Agent answers from the recorded rainfall, with a bar chart by month and the Recorded rainfall total. Recorded values under the chart lists each month.

Agent checks the live forecast for your own paddocks and answers from the same outlook as the Conditions widget on Overview, as a Go, Watch or Avoid verdict for each day (the widget itself says Within limits, Watch or Outside limits): the next workable window, what is limiting it (wind, gusts, Delta T, rain), frost risk and rain ahead. It uses the tile's standard limits, not limits you have tuned in the tile, and says so. Paddocks need a saved location on the map; without one Agent tells you rather than guessing. This is guidance, not a spray recommendation.

One ranked list: overdue and due-soon jobs, machine services due by date or hours (for example "18 hours to the 500-hour service", with the parts the service template lists), crop-plan activities due, stock expiring in the shed and shed checks due. If a section could not be read or a list was cut short, Agent says so instead of implying nothing else is due.

While Agent works on a question, the answer space shows the run as it happens: "Working" with a running clock and the number of checks so far, then each step on a line of its own, described by the records being checked, with the records it read and what each one found under the step. The answer then writes itself in as the last step. Stop in the message bar stops it (on a computer, Esc does too) and keeps whatever Agent has already found. When Agent has finished, the steps fold into one line above the answer, How Phase worked it out · 4 checks; tap it to open them again, with how long each check took. If a check fails Agent says which one and why. If it reaches the most checks allowed for one question it answers from what it did verify and lists what it did not get to. If it times out, the figures it had already grounded stay in the answer under "Phase stopped early". Figures worked out earlier in a conversation are remembered, so "how much do I need to buy then", "do that for the barley" and "and at Black Hill?" continue the same investigation.

A missing permission is explained instead of asking you to retry. Cost and gross margin questions need the Financials permission (farm owners and managers have it; a manager can give it to an employee or adviser). Without it Agent says up front that the login doesn't have access to farm financials, and reads no cost or price.

Agent's header is one row: the conversation's title, New chat and the Actions menu (•••). On a computer, past conversations sit down the left, grouped by day, with the conversation beside them. Actions → Details opens a column on the right showing everything the current answer rests on: the paddocks on a small map with their areas, the label sections it read with a link to each label, the products it looked up in your shed, and for a drafted change the product needed, the cost from your prices and where the change lands. While Agent works, that column lists each step as it finishes. The first screen shows example questions for your farm (see Example questions above).

On a phone, New chat reads New on a narrow screen, and Actions holds Past conversations, which opens as a sheet. The newest answer opens at its beginning with its map and short summary; long answers offer Show full answer, and supporting charts and tables sit in Details under the answer. A soil or yield question shows a small map above the answer, zoomed so the paddock fills it (a soil answer marks the sampling sites it used), and a label question puts an Open label button under the answer. The map under a yield answer is a thumbnail; open the paddock in Spatial for the full-detail yield map. The message bar stays clear of the keyboard.

Every answer has Copy and Regenerate under it. Answer cards (a figure, a map, spray windows, label extracts, a soil trend) show each status as a word beside a small dot, never colour alone.

Agent starts a fresh conversation each day and keeps the last 30 for each farm: down the left on a computer, or Actions → Past conversations on a phone. Open one to read it, or type to carry on with it. A line above the message box says which day it is from and that earlier edit previews need a fresh review; Today’s chat takes you back to today's conversation. Deleting a past conversation asks first.

Under the latest answer, Continue in Studio takes your question and its paddocks into Crop Plan Studio's Agent tab as a draft, and Continue in Spatial (shown when the answer is about one paddock) does the same in Spatial's agent panel. Nothing changes until you send it there and approve what it proposes.

Ask whether two products can go in the same tank, what the withholding period is, or how long before you can sow after a spray, and Agent answers from the registered label on file for more than 3,000 crop-protection products in the Phase Library: the label's own compatibility, withholding, plant-back and mixing sections, naming the label version it read and giving the link. It never says two products are compatible unless the label text says so, and it does not fill a gap in the label from memory. Ask with the exact product name or strength; if several match, choose the correct one. Once you have picked, or answered "yeah" or "no" to Agent's check on which product you meant, it carries on with your original question, including the crop you asked about.

Withholding periods. Ask "what's the harvest withholding on Velocity for wheat?" or "can I graze after Sakura?" and Agent gives the period the label sets for that crop (harvest, grazing and export slaughter where the label has them), with the label's own words beside each.

Plant-back. Ask "how long after Sakura before I can sow canola?" and Agent gives the label's plant-back rule for that crop: the interval, plus any rainfall, rate band or soil pH the label attaches, with the label's words and page.

For both: if the label does not name your crop, Agent says so and lists the crops it does name. If the label's rule is for "all other crops", Agent shows that line and leaves you to judge whether your crop falls under it. If the answer is in a table Phase cannot read from the label text, Agent says the table has to be read on the label. It never carries a period or interval over from one crop to another, and it never says a paddock is clear to plant. These are the same periods and rules Crop Plan Studio's harvest-withholding check and Found on the label plant-back rows use, so the two agree.

Rainfast. If the label on file gives no rainfast period, Agent may quote the manufacturer's Australian technical guidance instead, with a link, and says plainly that it is the manufacturer's guidance, not the label. If neither has one, it says what is missing; it never says a product is not rainfast just because nothing was found.

Mixes. Ask about several products at once and Agent keeps each product's findings (rainfast, withholding, mixing restrictions) under that product and answers every check you asked for. A known restriction still shows when another product in the mix could not be identified. One product's rainfast period never stands for the whole mix, and a rate the label mentions is shown for you to check, not as approval of your rate.

Agent reads only current labels. Products taken out of the Phase Library, such as household pest sprays and baits and a handful of turf-only products, no longer get label answers.

Every answer that used a label ends with a short notice: Phase read the registered label on file, which may not be the latest version; the label on the container is the legal document and overrides anything Phase says; check rates, compatibility, withholding and plant-back on that label and with an agronomist before mixing or applying; this is not agronomic advice. It appears even when no label was found.

A paddock treatment check follows the mobs currently there back through treatments recorded in earlier paddocks, so a move cannot make an outstanding withholding period disappear. An incomplete treatment history still cannot prove stock is clear to sell.

Edits to plans, rates, products or activities are never applied without your approval. When Agent proposes a change to your records, the answer says what is waiting, for example "Ready for review: raise urea on North 40 to 120 kg/ha", and the change shows as before and after: under the product and pass it belongs to, the value now with a minus and struck through, the value after with a plus, and the paddocks it covers. Under it Agent asks, for example, "Apply these 3 changes to 3 records?" with Reject and Approve.

A high-impact change says so before you decide, with the paddocks, hectares and any warnings. A draft of a new recommendation or activity keeps its own form and its Confirm reco or Confirm activity button.

A draft for several paddocks. Ask "create a spray reco for all the wheat at Black Hill" and Agent opens one draft listing the matching paddocks (Paddocks · 4). Check the products, rates and timing once, then save each paddock with its own button, such as Confirm North 40. The draft counts them off ("2 of 4 paddocks saved"), and each saved paddock has its own Undo. A change to the shared details applies only to paddocks not saved yet; to change which paddocks are in it, ask Agent for a revised draft. If saving a paddock is interrupted, its button reads Check saved status: look at that paddock's records before trying again.

Short corrections change a draft and keep the rest of it: "actually barley" or "no, at Black Hill". If a correction would lose something you said earlier, Agent asks rather than guessing. Once the page has reloaded, an earlier draft can't be confirmed; ask for it again.

To take back a change you approved, ask Agent to "undo that change" in the same conversation. It can reverse the latest approved product-rate, water-rate or schedule change in that conversation: it checks the records are still as the change left them and shows the reversal as a new change to approve. It refuses if the records have changed since or the activity has been completed.

Tap Speak beside the message box to talk to Agent and hear its answers spoken back. Speak is on the Phase Agent page for everyone who has Phase Agent; the first time, allow Phase to use the microphone.

During a call, Speak turns into a moving orb that listens, swirls while Phase checks your records and pulses as the reply is spoken, with a two-line caption above it of what you said or what Agent is saying. The message box becomes the call: the microphone button (Mute) turns your microphone off without ending the call, the time on the call shows beside it, and End finishes it. When the call ends, the message box comes back. The answer area above becomes the Speak view, with What I heard and the map, figures or change for what you are talking about. A proposed change or a draft recommendation keeps one button, Review changes or Review draft, which opens Approve and Reject (or Confirm). An answer that used a label shows the read-the-label notice in the Speak view.

In a web browser the orb moves with the real sound of your voice and the reply; in the iPhone and Android apps it shows listening, checking and speaking by its shape.

While Agent checks your records, Speak says a short line about what it is doing, such as "Alright, I'll pull up those yield records", then gives the answer in a sentence or two:

If your login or device does not offer Speak, the microphone button is in its place: hold it while you talk and let go when you have finished, and Phase turns what you said into text and sends it straight away. Anything you had already typed in the box is kept in front of it. Misheard chemical names snap to the product before Agent thinks ("sakoora" to Sakura, "flexy n" to Flexi-N, "john dear" to John Deere, "units of end" to units of N). In Spatial's agent panel, the microphone puts the transcription in the message box so you can edit it before Send. Leaving the page or backgrounding the app ends capture. The Studio's Agent tab is typed only.

Asked who made it, Agent says it was built by Drage Industries for Phase; it will not name or claim to be any outside AI model. It can join in with a short, dry joke when you are clearly having a laugh, a genuine question always gets a straight answer, and "seriously" ends the joke at once.

Phase Agent answers from the data available in your workspace. If records, labels, inventory, weather or yield data are missing, answers may be limited.

Use Phase Agent for navigation help, record search, summaries and supported edits. Do not rely on it as a replacement for product labels, agronomic decisions, legal compliance, veterinary advice, tax advice or professional judgement.

For changes, always review the before and after before you approve.

Help chat opens Intercom's new-message composer. The conversation is created after you send the message. An unread badge can appear on More and beside Help chat when there is a reply.

Include the farm, paddock and season involved, the page you were using, what you expected, what happened, the exact error and a screenshot. For an import problem, include the source file name and import reference.

Do not send passwords, payment-card details or unnecessary sensitive personal information.

If Help chat or Help centre has not opened within ten seconds, Phase says "Help chat couldn’t load on this device" under them, next to Email Phase support; the support button in Settings says the same. That usually means a VPN, ad blocker or content filter on the phone or computer is blocking it: turn it off and try again, or use More → Email Phase support or email support@phase.ag. An open chat stays open while Phase refreshes your sign-in in the background.