AI features and how to test them

The assistant is a chat that answers questions about your projects, sessions, and pins and organizes them once you confirm each proposal. The local app runs it with the AI you set up; in Pinar Cloud it is part of Pro and each message uses 3 AI credits. Ask the assistant covers how it works.

In Pinar Cloud, reproduction is available to eligible signed-in accounts, and each generation of the written steps uses 1 AI credit; a generation that fails gives it back. Pinar Cloud AI credits for voice and the assistant explains balances and refunds.

Start a pin comment and choose the microphone. Record for up to 120 seconds, then stop to place the transcription in the comment, or send it directly. In Pinar Cloud, voice transcription needs a Pro account and uses AI credits; the Pinar Cloud AI credits for voice and the assistant guide explains the charging tiers and refunds. In the local app, voice uses the transcription model set in Settings → AI Assistant on your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, without credits. The endpoint's API key must allow audio transcription.

Open the Pinar capture toolbar and press G to start recording. Use the page normally, reopen Pinar, add a pin, and finish with Command+Enter on macOS or Alt+Enter on Windows and Linux. The extension records navigation, clicks, typed values, keys, and relevant scrolling; sensitive values remain redacted.

Open the saved session. Reproduction shows the raw timeline, which you can edit before choosing Generate written steps. AI turns that timeline and the pin comments into concise instructions saved with the session and included in the handoff to your local agent.

• Edit or remove noisy timeline events before generation.
• Review the generated instructions before handing them to your local agent.
• Let the local agent create project-specific automated tests with the repository and its conventions in context.

The local app can transcribe voice comments, clean them up, and run the assistant with AI you provide instead of Pinar Cloud. Open Settings → AI Assistant and choose a mode: “Disabled” switches AI off, “Local AI” uses a server on the same computer, and “BYOK” connects directly to a remote provider with your own key. Both active modes take an OpenAI-compatible endpoint and the exact model it exposes, plus an optional transcription model: leave that field empty to keep voice off.

With “BYOK”, the API key is stored in your operating system's credential vault, not in Pinar's preferences. “Test connection” and “Save” check the model and the transcription model before they finish. If only the transcription model fails, the message says why — for example, that the key lacks audio permission — and saving still works for the features that do not need voice. Voice comments need an endpoint that allows audio transcription. The Local AI and BYOK guide covers setup, privacy, and model requirements.

• Voice transcription, cleanup, and the assistant in the local app use your provider directly and no Pinar Cloud credits. The viewer's “Generate written steps” action is offered only in Pinar Cloud.
• Requests go from the local app to your endpoint only; they never switch to Pinar Cloud on their own.

By default, a recorded voice comment places the raw transcript into the pin. The “Clean up transcription with AI” switch in the extension options — and the “Clean up voice transcriptions” switch in Settings → “AI usage” in Pinar Cloud — send the transcript through the AI model first, so the pin receives the comment you intended: fillers and false starts are removed, and the model may add short acceptance criteria beside the comment.

With the switch off, the transcript is used directly as the comment, up to the comment length limit, without AI rewriting. In the local app the cleanup uses the model you configured in Settings → AI Assistant. In Pinar Cloud it runs with the same AI credits that voice transcription already uses.

• Before you save the pin, review the original transcript in the voice panel or choose “Use transcription” to insert it into the comment. The original transcript is also copied to your clipboard; it is not saved separately with the pin.
• Cleanup is off by default. Turn it on in the extension options for local captures, or in Settings → “AI usage” for Pinar Cloud.