Ask AI: Common Questions

Ask AI sits in the site header and in search. It answers from these docs, so it is strongest on questions about how Catio works and weakest on questions about your own workspace data, which lives in the product rather than here.

Below are questions it answers well, grouped by what you are trying to do. Each group links to the page carrying the full answer.

Getting oriented

• "What is Catio for?"
• "What is the difference between Stacks, Blueprints, and Plans?"
• "Where do I start as a new user?"

See Welcome to Catio and Who is Archie?.

Workspaces and scope

• "What is a workspace and what does it contain?"
• "What is the difference between Scope and Focus?"
• "Should this go in Global Context or Workspace Context?"

See What is a Workspace?, Scope, Focus, and Global Context.

Context

• "What are the four guidance types?"
• "What documents should I upload?"
• "How much Context do I need before the output is useful?"
• "What is architecture encoding?"

See What is Workspace Context?, Using Context Effectively, What Documents to Upload, and Architecture Encoding.

Blueprints and Plans

• "What is the difference between a Recommendation and a Design?"
• "What are the seven sections of a Blueprint?"
• "How do I get a Plan instead of a single Blueprint?"
• "What are the three ways to create a Plan?"
• "How is ROI calculated on a blueprint?"

See Blueprints, Designs, Plans, and ROI Filter.

Integrations

• "Which integrations are available?"
• "Which integration should I connect first?"
• "What permissions does Catio need on my AWS account?"
• "Why is my architecture model missing components?"

See What is an Integration?, Available Integrations, AWS Integration, and Integration Troubleshooting.

MCP and your coding IDE

• "What does the Catio MCP do?"
• "How do I connect Catio to Claude Code or Cursor?"
• "Which tools does the MCP expose?"
• "Can the MCP write code?"

See Why the Catio MCP, MCP Setup, Tools, and Prompting.

Workflows

• "How does an architectural requirement become a pull request?"
• "How do I investigate my architecture in Stacks?"
• "What do I do with a blueprint once it is generated?"

See Architecture-Led AI SDLC Workflow, Using Stacks to Investigate Your Architecture, and Interpreting and Acting on Blueprints.

Asking well

• Name the concept. "What does Focus narrow?" beats "how do filters work". The docs are organized by concept, so using the concept name finds the right page.
• Ask one thing at a time. Compound questions return the weaker half of the answer.
• Ask about the product, not your data. Ask AI reads the documentation. For questions about your own architecture, cost, or blueprints, use Archie inside the product, or the Catio MCP from your editor.

For problems rather than questions, see the FAQ and Support.