How do I use Ask AI — the three CrossBeam chatbots?
Quick answer: CrossBeam has three chatbots, each with a different scope: the California Permit Assistant (statewide, at /chat), a city-scoped assistant (per onboarded city, at /chat/{city-slug}), and the Plan Review Assistant (inside a pre-check, scoped to your project's findings). All three stream responses, support image/screenshot attachments, and save your conversation history.
1. California Permit Assistant — /chat
Click Ask AI in the top nav. You land on the statewide assistant ("Placentia, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, and 252+ more cities").
Best for:
- Comparing rules across cities — "does Laguna Beach have stricter ADU setbacks than Costa Mesa?"
- Statewide questions — "what does the 2025 code cycle change for Title 24?"
- When you don't know which city yet.
Suggested prompts on the empty state:
- I need a ADU permit in Placentia
- I need a ADU permit in Buena Park
- I need a ADU permit in Costa Mesa
- I need a ADU permit in Laguna Beach
- I'm not sure what permit I need
2. City-scoped assistant — /chat/{city-slug}
Open a specific city's chat directly, e.g., /chat/buena-park. This is the chatbot that's linked from each city's portal landing page and from the "Try Chatbot" CTA on the marketing site.
Best for:
- "What are the setbacks for an SFR in Buena Park?"
- "Does Huntington Beach require Class B minimum roofing?"
- "What's the fire setback for WUI in Laguna Beach?"
The suggested prompts auto-generate based on which permit types that city has wired up (ADU, EV charger, reroof, solar, etc.).
3. Plan Review Assistant — inside a pre-check
Click the Assistant button top-right on any pre-check's Findings tab. This is the Cursor-style chatbot scoped to your specific project's findings — it has your plans loaded, can see the sheets, and can chat about individual findings.
Best for:
- "Why is finding 7 a Fail?"
- "Summarize all critical issues."
- "Draft a response letter for every Flag."
- "Cross-check the floor area between CS and A1."
Full guide: Plan Review Assistant.
Features common to all three
Chat history
The History link (top of the chat page) opens a sidebar showing your past conversations. Click one to jump back in. First-time visitors see "No conversations yet."
Image / screenshot attachments
Three ways to attach:
- Click the + button inside the message input and pick an image.
- Drag and drop an image onto the chat window.
- Paste an image (from clipboard / screenshot) directly into the message input.
Images are compressed and encoded before sending. Use for:
- Sheet excerpts — "is this stair section code-compliant?"
- Field photos — "does this wall assembly meet Type V-B?"
- Screenshots of a city's code page — "explain this section."
Streaming responses
Answers stream in as the AI generates them — you can start reading before it's finished.
New chat
The + in the chat history sidebar starts a new conversation. You can keep multiple threads going.
What the chatbots are grounded in
- California Building Code, Residential Code, Mechanical, Plumbing, Electrical, Fire, and Energy Code.
- Each onboarded city's municipal code (scraped from the city's website).
- State ADU law (SB 13, SB 68, AB 2221, AB 1033, and the rest of the ADU bill corpus).
- CrossBeam's internal skill library for each city and permit type.
What they're not good at
- Running a pre-check on your plans. Use Run a pre-check for that.
- Drafting the final corrections letter. Use Finalize & Issue.
- Official interpretation of code. The AI cites code but isn't the AHJ — confirm critical items with the city.