Opening the chat
There are three ways to start a conversation with Alva:- Click the Alva icon in the bottom-right corner of any page
- Press Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K on Windows) to open the command palette, then select “Chat with Alva”
- Type directly into the command palette search — if Alva can help, it’ll offer to take over
Context awareness
Alva knows what page you’re on. If you’re looking at a specific deal and ask “what’s the health score?”, Alva understands you mean that deal. If you’re on the companies page and say “show me the top 5 by deal value”, it knows you mean companies. This means you can ask short, natural questions without specifying what you’re referring to — Alva picks up the context automatically.How conversations work
Streaming responses
Alva responds in real-time — you’ll see words appear as they’re generated, not all at once. This means you can start reading before the full response is complete.Tool use
Behind the scenes, Alva has a wide range of capabilities that let it query your data, create records, draft emails, navigate the app, and more. When Alva is working on something, you’ll see a brief indicator showing what it’s doing (e.g. “Searching deals…” or “Creating contact…”). You don’t need to know the tool names — just describe what you want in plain language and Alva will figure out which tools to use.Conversation history
Your conversations are saved automatically. When you reopen the chat panel, you’ll see your recent conversation. You can start a new conversation at any time by clicking the New chat button.Cost efficiency
Continuing an existing conversation is significantly cheaper than starting a new one — Alva reuses context from earlier messages. In practice, you don’t need to think about this, but it’s why longer conversations don’t become prohibitively expensive.What to ask
Alva can handle a wide range of questions and tasks. Here are some examples to get you started:Querying your data
- “How many open deals do I have?”
- “Show me deals closing this month”
- “What’s the total pipeline value?”
- “Which deals haven’t had activity in the last two weeks?”
- “List contacts at Acme Corp”
Taking action
- “Create a new company called Acme Corp”
- “Add a deal for Acme Corp, £50k, in qualification stage”
- “Move the Acme deal to negotiation”
- “Log a call with Sarah at Acme — discussed pricing”
- “Draft an email to John about the proposal”
Analysis and insights
- “What’s my win rate this quarter?”
- “Which deals are at risk?”
- “Compare my pipeline to last month”
- “Show me deals where methodology is less than 50% complete”
- “What are the most common reasons we lose deals?”
Navigation
- “Take me to the deals page”
- “Go to Acme Corp”
- “Open settings”
Tips for better conversations
Be specific
“Show me deals over £100k closing in Q1” works better than “show me some deals”.
Ask follow-ups
Build on previous answers. “Now filter those to just the at-risk ones” is a natural next step.
Use natural language
You don’t need special syntax. Talk to Alva like you’d talk to a colleague.
Let Alva chain tasks
Ask for multi-step things: “Find all contacts at Acme Corp and draft a check-in email to each one.”
The adaptive persona
Alva adjusts its communication style based on your role:- C-suite and founders get a strategic partner mode — Alva acts as a senior business adviser, frames things in terms of strategy and market positioning, and proactively shares growth ideas it has generated from analysing your business.
- Managers get a team-focused perspective — pipeline summaries, team performance, and coaching suggestions.
- Sales reps get tactical support — deal-specific guidance, email drafting, and methodology help.