Most of the time you don’t want a conversation; you want this sentence to be shorter. Inline actions are the one-click version of AI: select some text in the visual editor, pick an action, and the selection is replaced with the result. No chat, no confirmation, and Ctrl+Z if you don’t like it.
They only exist in the visual editor. In Markdown mode you’ll want the chat panel instead.
Opening the menu#
Select some text. The small floating toolbar that appears above it has an AI button on the right, as long as a provider is configured and ready. Click it, or press Ctrl+J (Cmd+J on a Mac), and the actions menu opens below the selection. The shortcut is ai.shortcuts.inlineAction in cms.yaml if you want a different one.
The menu takes keyboard input: arrows move, Enter runs the highlighted action, Esc closes it.
The actions#
| Action | What it asks the model for |
|---|---|
| Improve | Fix grammar and clarity, same meaning, roughly the same length |
| Expand | More detail and examples, about twice the length |
| Summarize | The key points, about 30% of the length |
| Simplify | Shorter sentences and simpler words |
| Rewrite | Same meaning, different wording |
| More Formal | A professional tone |
| More Casual | A conversational tone |
| Fix Grammar | Spelling, grammar and punctuation only, minimal changes |
| Translate | The text in another language; see below |
Expand and Rewrite also ask the model to work in your focus keyword if you’ve set one in the SEO panel. Fix Grammar runs at a lower temperature than the rest, so it’s the least likely to get creative. All of them get your ai.brandVoice if you’ve set one.
While an action runs, the menu shows a spinner, and when it finishes the selection is replaced. The model is asked to return only the processed text, but models don’t always listen, so glance at the result before you move on.
Translate#
On sites with more than one language in site.yaml, Translate sits at the bottom of the menu under its own heading. Pick it and the menu swaps to a list of your languages; pick one and the selected text is replaced with a translation. This is translation of a selection in place; it doesn’t create or touch any other file. For translating a whole entry into another language, see Translation.
The toolbar AI menu#
The AI button in the main toolbar (sparkles icon) is a different menu, and it covers more than inline actions. It only appears once a provider is ready.
- Improve Text runs the Improve action immediately, with no submenu. The caption underneath tells you what it’ll hit: Improve selected text if you have a selection, otherwise Improve all text, which sends the whole body and replaces it with the result. Worth knowing before you click it on a 3000-word post.
- Any custom actions you’ve defined in
ai.actionscome next, each captioned Apply to selected text, Apply to all text or Apply to full text depending on the selection and the action’sscope. - Generate Image opens the image generator.
- Translate opens the full-entry translation modal. Only shown with more than one language configured.
- SEO Title, SEO Description and SEO Keywords ask for suggestions and show them in a small modal, with an Apply button next to each title or description.
- Page Builder opens the page builder.
Configuration#
ai:
enabled: true
features:
inline: true # the selection AI button and the toolbar AI menu
translation: true # Translate in both menus
shortcuts:
inlineAction: Mod-JNote that inline: false hides the whole toolbar AI menu, not just the text actions, so image generation, translation, SEO suggestions and the page builder go with it. The chat panel stays.