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Getting Started

From a fresh install to your first answer is three steps.

1. Open your GDAT database

  1. At the top of the window, click and pick your GDAT .db file (or paste its path into the “path to GDAT .db” box).
  2. Click Open. The status line shows something like “1,234 persons · read-only · map 5,678 tokens” — DGAI has indexed your data and minted a token for every person, surname, place, and group.

2. Choose an AI

  1. Pick a provider from the backend dropdown (e.g. Anthropic for cloud, or Ollama for a local AI on your own machine).
  2. For a cloud provider, open Privacy & Debug → Settings and paste your API key (or set the provider's environment variable). Then press Open again so the key takes effect.
  3. Optionally pick a specific model; click to refresh the list.

See Choosing an AI Backend for the full list and trade-offs.

3. Ask a question

  1. Type in the box at the bottom (“ask about your matches…”) and press Enter or click Send.
  2. Watch the privacy badge near the top: Pseudonymized (green) means every identity is tokenized before sending.
  3. Read the answer — names shown in green highlight were restored locally from tokens. Hover any reply to see exactly which tokens were sent.
📷 Screenshot: The DGAI chat window — database path, backend/model pickers, privacy badge, and a first answer.
A good first question: “Give me a summary of this database, then my top 5 matches and which ancestral line they cluster on.” DGAI will ground itself on your data and walk the matches.
If you typed a relative's name, DGAI shows a note like “sent as: ‘Mary Jones’ → [M1234]” — confirmation that the name was swapped for a token before the message left your machine.

DGAI is a DNAGedcom tool. © DNAGedcom LLC 2020–2026. DGAI is provided as is with no guarantee given as to its performance.

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