Set up the Ask AI assistant

On the dashboard, select the gear icon on your project card. In the settings sidebar, under AI & workflows, select Agent.

The top of the page summarizes the current state: Reader agent, Status, Engine, and IP limit.

In Availability & status, turn on Reader agent to show the assistant to visitors on your published documentation. Set Agent status to one of these values:

• Active: the assistant serves readers.
• Inactive: the assistant is turned off.
• Maintenance: the assistant is temporarily out of service.

Readers see the assistant only when Reader agent is on and Agent status is Active. The same group also contains Authoring assistant and Automation tasks, which control AI writing for authors and scheduled agent tasks. They do not affect readers. Projects that host an existing docs site do not show these two toggles.

In Identity & greeting, fill in these fields:

• Agent name: the name shown in the reader chat widget, for example PocketBase Assistant.
• Welcome message: the greeting shown before a reader asks the first question.
• Starter questions: suggested questions, one per line. For example:

How do I install PocketBase?
How do I back up PocketBase?
How do I create a superuser?

The reader panel shows up to four starter questions.

In Knowledge & indexing, turn on Image understanding to let the assistant answer from diagrams and screenshots in your docs and show them in answers. Indexing images uses extra tokens.

In Answers & behavior, enter optional Agent instructions to steer tone, persona, and what to emphasize or avoid. The instructions are added to every answer. For example:

Answer in a friendly, concise tone. Prefer command-line examples.
Do not speculate about unreleased features.

Then open Agent engine and choose an engine:

• Spark: faster, for direct answers.
• Atlas: deeper reasoning, for complex questions.

In the same group, choose these options:

• Response length: Brief, Balanced, or Detailed.
• Fallback mode: how the assistant behaves when the docs do not contain enough information. Choose Answer with fallback, Deflect only, or Custom message.
• Fallback message: optional text for low-confidence or uncovered questions.
• Show citations: include source references in answers when available.

In Help button, decide how readers reach a person:

• Support email: the fallback email used when the assistant hands off an unresolved question, for example support@example.com.
• Show help button: shows the help button in the assistant.
• Help button label: the button text, for example Contact support.
• Help button action: Email opens an email to the support address; URL opens a support page.
• Help button URL: the support page, used when Help button action is URL.

To create tickets in a helpdesk instead, use Support & Ticketing. See Offer reader support and connect a helpdesk.

In Safety & limits, set these fields:

• Monthly budget: an optional project AI budget in USD, for example 50. Leave it blank for no project cap.
• Rate limit per IP: the maximum number of reader assistant requests from one IP address each hour, from 1 to 5000. The default is 60.

Approval mode in this group controls how AI changes to your docs are applied by authoring and automation tasks. It does not affect reader answers.

Select Save changes. The summary cards at the top of the page update to show the new state.

On the dashboard, select Docs site on the project card. The assistant button appears next to the search box in the top bar.

Select the assistant button. The panel opens beside the docs with the greeting, your starter questions, and an empty question box.

Type a question such as How do I back up PocketBase? and send it, or select a starter question.