Kinaia Support

Last Updated: May 18, 2026

Welcome to the Kinaia support page. Below you’ll find everything you need to get started, configure, and troubleshoot Kinaia for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Getting Started

What is Kinaia?

Kinaia is an AI-powered assistant that runs inside Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It lets you chat with an AI to read, edit, analyze, and create content directly in your documents using natural language.

You bring your own AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and many others) — Kinaia never hosts or controls your data.

Installation

1. Install the add-in from Microsoft AppSource for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
2. Open your Office application (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint).
3. Go to the Home tab and click Open Kinaia in the Kinaia group.
4. The task pane will open on the right side of your document.

First-Time Setup

When you first open Kinaia, you’ll walk through a brief onboarding:

1. Welcome — Introduction to Kinaia.
2. Referral — Tell us how you found us (optional).
3. Role — Select your role so we can tailor the experience.
4. Beta notice — Acknowledge that Kinaia is in public beta.

After onboarding, you’ll need to configure an AI provider before you can start chatting. See Configuring Your AI Provider below.

Configuring Your AI Provider

Kinaia uses a bring-your-own-key (BYOK) model. You need an API key or OAuth connection from an AI provider.

Opening Settings

Click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the Kinaia panel to open Settings.

Supported Providers

Setup Steps

1. Open Settings and go to the AI Provider section.
2. Select your provider from the dropdown.
3. Enter your API key (or click the OAuth button if available).
4. Select your model.
5. Optionally adjust the thinking level (None, Low, Medium, High).

You’re ready to chat.

Custom Endpoints

To use a self-hosted or alternative provider (Ollama, vLLM, LM Studio, etc.):

1. Select Custom as the provider.
2. Enter your custom base URL (e.g., http://localhost:11434/v1 for Ollama).
3. Select the API type (OpenAI Completions is the most compatible).
4. Enter your API key (or any placeholder if not required).

Features

Chat with Your Documents

Type natural language messages in the chat input. Kinaia can read your document, make edits, answer questions, and perform complex operations — all through conversation.

Example Prompts

Word:

• “Proofread and fix grammar in my document”
• “Rewrite this paragraph in a professional tone”
• “Summarize the document in 3 bullet points”

Excel:

• “Summarize this spreadsheet”
• “Create a pivot table from the selected data”
• “Add conditional formatting to highlight outliers”

PowerPoint:

• “Add a summary slide based on the content”
• “Rewrite the selected text to be more concise”
• “Generate speaker notes for each slide”

Key Capabilities by Application

Kinaia for Excel

• Read and write cell values, formulas, and formatting
• Create and modify charts, pivot tables, and tables
• Sort, filter, and search data across sheets
• Apply conditional formatting, data validation, and protection
• Manage comments, slicers, named ranges, and shapes
• Insert, delete, hide, freeze, merge rows and columns
• Create, rename, duplicate, and delete worksheets
• Take visual screenshots of ranges

Kinaia for Word

• Read document text with full formatting context
• Search and replace with format preservation
• Apply fonts, styles, alignment, and paragraph formatting
• Insert tables, images, and equations
• Manage comments (add, reply, resolve, delete)
• Configure page setup (margins, orientation, size)
• Inspect and edit raw OOXML structure
• Take document screenshots

Kinaia for PowerPoint

• Read and edit slide text and formatting
• Create and edit charts using native OOXML
• Duplicate slides
• Edit slide masters and layouts
• List and inspect slide shapes
• Take slide screenshots
• Verify slides for layout issues (overlapping shapes, out-of-bounds elements)

File Uploads

Attach files to your conversation by clicking the attachment button (paperclip icon) next to the chat input. Uploaded files are stored in a virtual filesystem and can be referenced by the AI during your session.

Web Search and Fetch

Kinaia can search the web and fetch web pages to supplement your document work.

To enable:

1. Open Settings and go to Search Providers.
2. Choose a search provider and enter your API key (DuckDuckGo works without a key).
3. Choose a fetch provider for reading web pages.

Supported search providers: DuckDuckGo (free), Brave, Serper, Exa.

Skills

Skills are customizable instruction packs that extend what the AI can do. They are Markdown files installed into Kinaia’s virtual filesystem.

Installing a skill:

1. Open Settings and go to Agent Skills.
2. Click Add Folder or Add File.
3. Select a folder or file containing a SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter.

Uninstalling a skill:

1. In Settings > Agent Skills, click the remove button next to the skill.

Environment Variables

Set custom environment variables in Settings > Environment Variables. These are accessible to skills and included in the AI’s system prompt.

Session Management

Kinaia maintains separate chat sessions per document. Use the session dropdown at the top of the chat to:

• Create a new session
• Switch between sessions
• Delete the current session

Context Window Indicator

A colored ring around the context indicator shows how much of the AI’s context window is in use:

• Green — under 70% used
• Yellow — 70–89% used
• Red — 90%+ used

When the context fills up, Kinaia automatically compacts older messages into a summary to free space.

Settings Reference

Frequently Asked Questions

Which AI providers are supported?

Kinaia supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, OpenRouter, Ollama, vLLM, LM Studio, Cloudflare Workers AI, and any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Over 800 models are supported across these providers.

Does Kinaia store my documents or conversations on its servers?

No. Your document content, chat history, and API keys are stored locally in your browser. Data is only sent to the AI provider you configure. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Do I need to pay for Kinaia?

Kinaia is free to use. You only pay for the AI provider API usage that you configure. Kinaia does not add any markup.

Is my API key safe?

API keys are stored locally in your browser’s localStorage, protected by the browser’s same-origin policy. They are only sent to the respective AI provider for authentication. We recommend using API keys with spending limits and minimal permissions.

Can I use Kinaia without an internet connection?

You can use Kinaia with a local AI model running on your machine (via Ollama, vLLM, or LM Studio). Configure a custom endpoint pointing to http://localhost:PORT in Settings.

Why is the add-in showing “no messages” with example prompts?

After completing onboarding, Kinaia shows example prompts to help you get started. Click any prompt to send it as your first message, or type your own message in the input.

How do I reset everything?

1. Open Settings.
2. Clear your AI provider configuration.
3. Clear your browser’s site data for the Kinaia domain to remove all sessions, settings, and cached data.

Can I use Kinaia on Word/Excel/PowerPoint for the Web?

Yes, Kinaia works in both the desktop and web versions of Microsoft Office, with some limitations:

• Word’s screenshot feature requires the desktop version.
• Some advanced features depend on the Office host’s API support.

Troubleshooting

The add-in won’t load

• Ensure you have a stable internet connection.
• Close and reopen the Office application.
• Check that the add-in is enabled: go to Insert > Add-ins > My Add-ins and verify Kinaia is listed and enabled.
• Try removing and re-adding the add-in from AppSource.

”No provider configured” error

You need to configure an AI provider before you can chat. Open Settings and enter your API key for a supported provider. See Configuring Your AI Provider.

Chat is not responding

• Check that your API key is valid and has sufficient credits/quota.
• Verify the selected model is available for your provider.
• If using a custom endpoint, ensure the base URL is correct and accessible.
• If using a CORS proxy, verify the proxy URL is correct and running.

Results are inaccurate or unexpected

• Try increasing the thinking level in Settings (Medium or High for complex tasks).
• Be specific in your instructions — mention exact ranges, sheet names, or paragraph locations.
• Use the Expand Tool Calls option in Settings to see exactly what the AI is doing step by step.

”Context window exceeded” or responses become inconsistent

This means the conversation has grown too long. Kinaia auto-compacts older messages, but you can also:

• Start a new session from the session dropdown.
• Simplify your request to reduce the amount of document context needed.

File uploads aren’t working

• Ensure the file is a supported format.
• Try a smaller file — very large files may exceed browser memory limits.
• Check that you’re using a supported browser (Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Firefox).

Formatting is lost after edits

• Kinaia’s AI tries to preserve formatting, but complex documents may have edge cases.
• For Word: use “search and replace” which auto-preserves run-level formatting.
• For Excel: use specific range references to avoid overwriting adjacent formatted cells.

Privacy and Licensing

• Privacy Policy: kinaia.app/privacy
• License Agreement: kinaia.app/eula

Contact and Feedback

• Website: kinaia.app
• Report an issue: Use the feedback option in the Settings panel’s About section, or contact us through our website.

We’d love to hear from you — your feedback helps us improve Kinaia.