Silas questions

What is Silas?

The AI assistant in Trellis, built on Anthropic's Claude model. He reads what a leader or director writes, or what's already in Trellis, and suggests what follows from it. See What Silas does.

What is Ask Silas?

The help chat. Press Ask Silas at the top of the page, or in the menu on a phone, and ask anything about Trellis. Silas answers from Trellis help and links the articles he used. It works for anyone signed in, whether or not your church has Silas turned on, because it reads none of your church's records. It never changes anything.

Does Silas do anything on his own?

No. Silas suggests and a person decides. Nothing he suggests is saved until someone checks it and saves it: Done on a write-up, Use on a song, Take them in for a volunteer, Place 6 people for everyone waiting, or saving a template. In a service plan, his draft parts and flow notes are saved marked as his, for someone to keep, discard or clear. He sends nothing to anyone.

Is Silas on for our church?

An admin can open Church settings, then Silas. The page says On., Off. Silas reads none of your church’s records. (with Lighthouse AI, that it's paused too), Not included, or, if he's on but can't read yet, On, waiting for this Trellis deployment to be given a key. When it says On., staff also see Silas is on in their menu, and leaders do on their group's pages.

Who can turn Silas on or off?

Only an admin, on the Silas page. It's one switch for the whole church. See Silas settings.

What does Silas cost?

Nothing extra. He comes with any paid part of Trellis, up to 500 reads a month. A church on free Groups alone doesn't have him. See the Pricing page.

What does Silas read?

Only what each task needs: a write-up and the names on its roster (for a serving day, its schedule too), what a volunteer wrote about wanting to serve (their interests, when they're free and their skills) and your serving areas, a service's order, its message and your songs, a template brief and your other templates, or the resources a leader picks for a group study. He doesn't browse the rest of Trellis.

Where does what he reads go?

To Anthropic, the company that makes the Claude model, for that one read. The switch decides whether Silas reads your church's records. With it off, none of them go to Anthropic through him, Lighthouse AI included: it pauses while he's off. Ask Silas answers from Trellis help either way. What Lighthouse reads is in What Lighthouse AI reads. The privacy policy has the details.

Is our church's information used to train the AI?

No. It goes to Anthropic under their API terms, which don't train on it. The privacy policy says Anthropic keeps it only briefly, for abuse monitoring.

Does Trellis keep what Silas read?

Trellis keeps what a person writes, such as the write-up paragraph, as part of the record, the same as with Silas off. For Silas's limits it also keeps a count of each read: which church, who asked, what kind, and how big. That count holds none of what was read.

What does Ask Silas send and keep?

Ask Silas sends Anthropic your question and the last few turns before it, Trellis help, and the page you're on, your role and your church's parts, never your church's records. Trellis keeps only this, never the answer, and never who asked unless you press Ask a person:

• The question, the page, the part of Trellis it's in, your church, the help articles used, whether help covered it, and your answer to "Did this help?", for 90 days.
• A usage record with no person in it.
• A count of your questions for the day's limit of 40, under a coded key, not your account itself, cleared within about two days.
• Once a week, the questions help didn't cover or that didn't help, emailed to Trellis support with no church or person.

The conversation itself stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it. Don't type private details about people. Silas doesn't need them.

What happens when I press Ask a person?

Your question goes to Trellis support and is kept with your name, email and church, like a problem report. If you leave Include this conversation ticked, the conversation is kept with it.

What if Silas gets something wrong?

Fix your paragraph and press Read it again before you press Done. He marks what he's unsure of with a dashed chip and lists anything he couldn't place. Once saved, entries are fixed the same way as any other, such as on the roll.

Does Silas read our group's resources?

Only the ones a leader picks for a study, and only the PDFs and a resource's notes. Links and Word, PowerPoint or image files with no notes are listed but can't be picked. He doesn't read the roster, attendance, write-ups or prayer requests for it. Each draft and each redraft counts as one read. See Prepare a study with Silas.

Can Silas place our new volunteers?

He suggests; the office places. On Volunteers, Place with Silas has him read what everyone waiting said, up to 40 at a time, and match each to an area short of people. He sees their words, not their names. You check each one, and nobody is placed until you press Place 6 people (the button says how many you ticked). See Take in a new volunteer.

Why did Silas stop reading?

He has limits: 60 reads a day for each person, 300 a day for each church, and 500 a month for each church. When one is reached, he says so and comes back the next day, or on the 1st for the month. Your paragraph is kept.

Can a leader use write-ups without Silas?

Yes. With Silas off, Write up the night still saves the paragraph as the meeting's note. The leader takes roll the usual way.

Can we turn Silas on for some groups and not others?

Not yet. The switch is for the whole church.

Why is he called Silas?

He's named for the companion who carried Paul's letters: he writes down what you say, and the letter stays yours.

Still stuck? Ask Silas