Plugins
Plugins are tools the assistant builds for your business. Each one runs in a sandbox and reads only the tables you approve.
On this page
Describe an app and we build it
Click Plugins in the Tools rail, then Build an app at the top. Only admins see it.
Type what you want in the box, such as a calculator for your callout prices with GST, and press Enter. Or click one of the ideas under Start from an idea to fill the box, change it, then press Enter.
Each step shows under your message while we build: Reading your workspace, Writing your app and Checking it works. A first app usually takes one to three minutes.
On the right, Ready to add lists everything it will add or change, such as a new table for the app's records. Nothing changes until you click Add to my workspace. To change something first, say so in the box on the left.
Once added, the app asks for what it needs, such as reading or adding to a table. Tick what you agree to and click Allow and open. It runs on the right, and is in Plugins from then on. Undo takes back everything that change added.
A new business gets its first two builds free, within its first 14 days. Each message you send counts as one build, a change included. The top of the studio shows how many free builds are left and the day they end. After that, building uses your AI credit: click Top up AI credit, or Connect your own Claude to build from claude.ai instead.
Build a plugin
Click Scout in the sidebar and describe the tool you want, such as a till that sells from your Products table. Scout builds it in the chat, where you can try it straight away. It looks like the rest of Diract unless you describe a look of your own, such as a green terminal or your brand's yellow and black, and then it follows yours.
The card lists the tables it reads, then one box for each other thing it does: Add records to, Change records in, Attach photos to, Know where this device is, Read the files of and Have Diract read documents for it. Tick the ones you agree to. Nothing is ticked to start with.
Click Save to your plugins. It appears in the Tools rail under Plugins, as version 1.0.0. When Scout saved it for you, the card reads Saved in Tools, Plugins instead: tick the boxes and click Allow what is ticked.
A plugin we made while setting up your workspace starts with no permissions at all, not even reading. The last message in your setup conversation names each one and links to Plugins. Under its row, Waiting for your approval lists Read, then each table and anything else it asks for. Tick what you agree to and click Allow what is ticked. Until you do, it opens but shows none of your data.
Ask Scout to change a plugin and save it again under the same name, and it becomes the next version, such as 1.0.1, rather than a second plugin. A new version keeps only what it still uses. Anything new it asks for waits for you to tick it.
A plugin reads your records only while your company allows Scout and plugins to read your business data. If a plugin says it needs permission to read your business data, an admin opens Admin, then Scout, then Data access, and clicks Allow for 30 days. Turn off stops it at once.
Take a photo or use your location in a plugin
A plugin with Attach photos to ticked can put a photo on a record, such as proof of delivery at a customer's door. On a phone, its photo button opens the camera. The table needs a photo field.
A plugin with Know where this device is ticked can show where you are, such as the van on a delivery map. The browser, or on the phone the phone itself, asks the person using it the first time, and they can say no.
Have a plugin read a record's documents
Ask Scout for a plugin that reads documents, such as one that finds each matter's Costs Disclosure and fills in its Estimated Fees. Scout adds the Estimated Fees field first if your matters do not have one.
Tick Read the files of to let it list and open the files kept with each record: its documents in Diract and every folder of its OneDrive folder. It opens only the records the person using it can open.
Tick Have Diract read documents for it to let Diract read a file and hand back the details the plugin asks for, each with the words it read them from. Each file read uses your company's AI tokens.
Before it changes anything, the plugin lists each record with the value it found and where, ticked where the field is empty. Untick any you disagree with, then press the button that names how many to save.
Find, open and switch off a plugin
Click Plugins in the Tools rail. Search by name, description or table, choose All, On or Off, and sort by Newest first, Oldest first or Name, A to Z.
Click a plugin's name to open it in a panel over the list. Click the window button on its row to open it in a window of its own.
Click a plugin's logo to change it: pick an icon and a colour. The logo shows on its row, on its own page and on its dock tile. When Scout or Claude makes a plugin, it gives it an icon none of your other plugins has.
To keep a plugin in the dock, open it in its window and click Add to dock, or click + at the end of the dock and pick it under Plugins.
Use the switch on its row to turn it off. It stops at once everywhere it was used: a till set to open it shows the check-in list instead, and a website page that showed it stops showing it.
A plugin that asked for something you have not ticked yet shows Waiting for your approval under its row. Tick what you agree to and click Allow what is ticked.
Click the bin to delete a plugin and every version of it. This cannot be undone.