> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://pigeonholeapp.co.uk/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI in Pigeonhole

> Every place Pigeonhole uses AI, what it can and can't do, and how your data is handled.

Pigeonhole uses AI in a number of places to save you time — drafting observations and reports, answering questions about your setting, and getting your data in without retyping it. Everything the AI produces is a suggestion for you to review. Nothing is published, saved or sent on your behalf.

## The rules that apply everywhere

These four things are true of every AI feature in Pigeonhole, so you don't have to check each one:

* **AI output is always a draft or a suggestion.** It fills in the box you're working in, and you edit it before you do anything with it. Nothing is saved or published automatically.
* **Writing rules checks are advisory.** They show a reminder and a **Proceed anyway** button. They never stop anyone publishing.
* **Photos and videos are never sent to the AI.** Drafting works from text only.
* **Approval is unchanged.** Every workflow that needed a person to approve it still needs a person to approve it.

## Writing observations and reports

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Observation AI assist" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/docs/staff/observations-and-reports">
    Turn rough notes or a voice note into a first draft, with suggested learning links you accept or dismiss one at a time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Voice dictation" icon="microphone" href="/docs/staff/using-the-app/observations">
    Speak your notes into your phone and have them transcribed, ready to turn into a draft.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Observation writing rules" icon="list-check" href="/docs/managers/observations">
    Plain-language rules the AI checks staff writing against before an observation is submitted or published.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Test your rules" icon="flask" href="/docs/managers/observations">
    Paste in sample text and see exactly what staff would be shown, before you commit to the wording.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Draft a report from observations" icon="file-pen" href="/docs/managers/reports">
    Build a first draft of a progress report from a child's published observations, shaped by your learning frameworks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Report writing rules" icon="list-check" href="/docs/managers/reports">
    A separate set of rules for reports, because reports are written for a different audience.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Getting answers and finding things

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="AI Assistant" icon="comments" href="/docs/managers/using-the-ai-assistant">
    Ask questions about children, attendance, finance and funding, export what you find, or get early years advice.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Document search and summaries" icon="file-magnifying-glass" href="/docs/managers/documents">
    Find a document by what's inside it, not just its file name, and read a summary of a long one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Custom Agents" icon="robot" href="/docs/managers/custom-agents">
    Describe a report in plain English, save it, and have it emailed to you on a schedule.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Getting data in

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="CSV column mapping" icon="table" href="/docs/onboarding/importing/csv-import">
    Upload a CSV in any format and the AI works out which column is which. No template needed.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Chrome extension capture" icon="chrome" href="/docs/onboarding/importing/chrome-extension">
    Pull children and parents straight off your old system's pages, and fill council forms from your Pigeonhole data.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Term date lookup" icon="calendar-days" href="/docs/onboarding/term-dates-and-holidays">
    **Populate** searches for your council's published term dates. Always check them before you save.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Form submissions to child records" icon="file-import" href="/docs/managers/custom-forms/managing-submissions">
    Turn a completed registration form into fields on the child's record without retyping.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Safeguarding

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="DSL summary generator" icon="shield-halved" href="/docs/safeguarding/editing-concerns">
    The wand icon next to the **DSL Summary** field drafts a summary from the concern, its history and its actions.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Warning>
  A generated safeguarding summary is a starting point, never a finished record. The Designated Safeguarding Lead remains responsible for the accuracy of the summary and for any risk assessment or decision that follows from it. Read it in full and edit it before saving.
</Warning>

## Turning AI features off

You control which AI features your setting uses:

* **Observation AI drafting** — the **AI drafting** switch on **Settings → Observations**. Turning it off hides the **Assist** panel and dictation from staff.
* **Report AI drafting** — the **AI drafting** switch on **Settings → Reports**.
* **Observations and Reports as a whole** — the **Features** card on your Site Profile. Switching a feature off hides it from staff and families. Nothing is deleted.
* **Writing rules** — leave the rules box empty and no check runs.

<Note>
  Turning **AI drafting** off does **not** turn the writing rules check off. A setting that would rather staff wrote observations themselves usually still wants its house rules checked, so the two are controlled separately.
</Note>

## How your data is handled

* Pigeonhole sends the AI only the text needed for the task you asked for — the notes you typed, the observation text a report is summarising, or the concern details a safeguarding summary covers.
* **Photos and videos are never sent to the AI.** For documents, only the text extracted for search and summaries is used.
* Your data is not used to train models and is never shared with another setting.
* The AI Assistant only reads your own nursery's data, and only when you ask it a question that needs it.
* **Journal digest emails to parents are not written by AI.** They are a fixed template that lists the new moments published since the last one.
* For child protection topics the Assistant will point you to the appropriate authorities rather than advise you itself.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Are children's photos ever sent to the AI?

No. Drafting observations and reports works from text only. Photos and videos stay in Pigeonhole.

### Can the AI publish something without me seeing it?

No. A draft replaces the text in the box you're editing and saves nothing on its own. You still save, submit and publish yourself, and any approval step your setting uses still applies.

### Are the journal digest emails written by AI?

No. They are a standard template listing the observations published since the last digest.

### Can a writing rule stop staff publishing?

No. Rules are advisory — staff see a reminder with suggested wording and can choose **Proceed anyway**. If you need a hard line, that comes from your policy and your approval workflow, not from the rules check.

### Can I turn all of this off?

Most of it, yes — see [Turning AI features off](#turning-ai-features-off) above. The AI Assistant itself is currently available to managers and staff and cannot be switched off per setting. If that's a problem for your setting, contact [Pigeonhole Support](mailto:support@pigeonholeapp.co.uk).