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An Interactive is a small, self-contained web page that Mesa’s agent builds for you inside a conversation: a fee calculator, a map, a chart, a dashboard, a data explorer. Instead of handing you a static answer, the agent writes a working tool you can click, drag, and type into, and saves it alongside your other work. Interactives are a sibling of reports and datasets, another kind of artifact Mesa produces and keeps in My Files.
An interactive fee estimator open in Mesa

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What you can build

Interactives are useful whenever a static answer isn’t enough and you’d rather explore the material yourself. Common uses:
  • Maps: plot parcels, districts, or zoning from a connected ArcGIS server or a dataset, then click a feature to see its details.
  • Dashboards: filter and sort a set of records (permits, cases, budget lines) to spot patterns.
  • Calculators: turn a fee schedule, tax formula, or eligibility rule into inputs you can adjust and see results instantly.
  • Charts: visualize trends in data you’ve gathered or uploaded.
  • Explorers: walk through a decision tree, a checklist, or a set of scenarios one step at a time.

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Ask for one

You don’t build Interactives yourself; you ask the agent for one in an Ask AI conversation. Describe the tool you want in plain language, for example:
  • “Build me a calculator that estimates development impact fees from a unit’s size and type.”
  • “Make an interactive map of the parcels in this dataset.”
  • “Turn these permit numbers into a dashboard I can filter by department.”
The agent writes the page and renders it live in the conversation. If it isn’t quite right, ask for changes the same way you would with a report; each change is saved as a new revision.

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Example: a clickable district map

Interactives pair especially well with an organization connection. Suppose your organization has connected an ArcGIS server that publishes district boundaries. You can ask the agent to build a map from it:
“Build a map of the city’s districts from our ArcGIS connection. Fill each district with a color, and let me click one to see its zoning code.”
The agent pulls the district polygons from the connected server, renders them as a colored map, and wires up the click behavior: clicking a district reveals its zoning code right on the map. The result is a live tool you can explore and share, not a one-time answer.
A district map interactive with clickable, colored polygons

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Open and use an Interactive

You can reach an Interactive three ways:
  • In the conversation where the agent made it, as a card in the chat. Click View Interactive to open it in the side panel.
  • From My Files, where Interactives appear as rows with an Interactive badge. Double-click one to open it.
  • From a direct link, if someone shared it with you.
Everything the agent built is live: sliders, dropdowns, inputs, and maps all respond as you use them. Because each Interactive runs in a sandbox, it can’t reach the rest of your workspace; it only shows what the agent put in it.

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Manage an Interactive

The header of an open Interactive has the common item actions: copy link, bookmark, add a shortcut, share, rename, and archive. Interactives also have:

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Publish an Interactive

Sharing grants access person by person. Publishing creates a single link to the Interactive on your organization’s portal, so you can circulate a finished tool widely, including to people outside Mesa. Only the Interactive’s owner can publish. Click Publish in the header and choose who can open it: Signed-in readers or Anyone with the link. Then click Publish again. Mesa creates the link and copies it to your clipboard.
The Publish popover on an Interactive with the Anyone with the link option highlighted
Publishing an Interactive works the same way as publishing a report: you can copy the link again, change who can read it, or unpublish it from the Published popover. See Publish a report for each step. The published page always shows the latest revision.
An Interactive keeps every revision. Use the revision history next to the title to see when it changed, and roll back if a later version isn’t what you wanted.

Files

Find, organize, and share the Interactives Mesa saves for you.

Models

Start an Ask AI conversation to have the agent build one.

Shortcuts

File a pointer to an Interactive wherever you want it.
Last modified on October 27, 2026