---
title: Workbook Agent
description: Use the AI agent inside a workbook to build reports, create and edit dashboards, and run analysis with natural language.
---

Inside a [workbook][ref-workbooks], the AI agent is a full **authoring**
assistant. Where the read-only [Dashboard Agent][ref-dashboard-agent] only
answers questions about a published dashboard, the workbook agent can act on
your behalf — it builds reports, and assembles and edits dashboards, all from
plain-language requests.

<Note>
  **Workbook Agent vs. [Analytics Chat][ref-analytics-chat].** Analytics Chat is
  a standalone, chat-first analytics experience for asking questions and saving
  results into a workbook. The Workbook Agent lives **inside a workbook** and is
  oriented around authoring the workbook's own reports and dashboards. Both run
  read-only queries against your semantic model; the Workbook Agent additionally
  creates and edits workbook content.
</Note>

## What the Workbook Agent can do

In addition to everything the read-only [Dashboard Agent][ref-dashboard-agent]
can do (answer questions, run read-only semantic-layer queries, explain metric
and dimension definitions), the Workbook Agent can:

- **Create and save reports** in the workbook from a natural-language request
- **Search existing reports** to find and reuse work already in the workbook
- **Build and edit dashboards** — add and configure chart, KPI, filter,
  time-grain, and text widgets
- **Publish dashboards**

## How charts get added to a dashboard

When the agent adds a chart to a dashboard, the chart widget references a
**saved report**, not a one-off query. So to put a new chart on a dashboard, the
agent first saves it as a report in the workbook, then adds a widget that points
at that report. This keeps every dashboard chart backed by a reusable,
governed report.

## Getting help with Cube

While working in a workbook, you can also ask the agent questions about Cube
itself — it can answer using the Cube documentation, which is handy for
"how do I…" questions without leaving your analysis.

## Limitations

- **Report search covers published reports only.** When the agent searches for
  existing reports to reuse, it sees published reports.

## Learn more

- [Dashboard Agent][ref-dashboard-agent] — the read-only Q&A assistant on
  published and embedded dashboards
- [Querying data in workbooks][ref-querying-data] — point-and-click, AI agent,
  and Semantic SQL
- [Analytics Chat][ref-analytics-chat] — the standalone conversational
  analytics experience

[ref-workbooks]: /docs/explore-analyze/workbooks
[ref-dashboard-agent]: /docs/explore-analyze/dashboards/dashboard-agent
[ref-analytics-chat]: /docs/explore-analyze/analytics-chat
[ref-querying-data]: /docs/explore-analyze/workbooks/querying-data
