# Home AI Assistant Source: https://help.zira.us/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant Summary: Use Home AI Assistant to ask product questions, find work, build dashboards, create forms and data sources, and continue from one chat. Updated: 2026-09-23 Use **Home AI Assistant** when you want one place to ask, find, and create without jumping through several pages first. It is designed to help with product questions, site-level discovery, dashboard work, and guided creation from a plain-language request. ## Open Home AI Assistant There are two ways in, depending on your [Work mode](/docs/getting-started/profile-preferences/home-page): - **If your Work mode is AI Assistant**, the assistant is ready as soon as **Home** opens. - **If you start in the feed or on a dashboard**, click the **AI Assistant** icon — the sparkles — in the left menu, just above **Chats**. On a phone, open the menu first. You get the same assistant, and your Work mode stays as it is. Your saved chats are the same either way, so a conversation started from the icon is waiting under **Saved chats** wherever you open the assistant. To get back to your home page, open the menu and click the Zira logo. If you plan to create something for a specific site, choose that site first. ![The / command menu open in the Home AI Assistant composer, showing Create & build actions and recent dashboards to jump to](/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant/slash-command-menu.png) ## Start with the / menu or a question You can begin in whichever way feels faster: - ask a question in plain language - press **/** in the composer (or tap the **/** button) to open the command menu - continue a saved chat when you want to pick up where you left off This makes the page useful both for quick answers and for longer build-and-refine work. ## Use the / command menu Type **/** at the start of the composer, or tap the **/** button, to open a menu of common actions. Keep typing to filter, then use the arrow keys and **Enter**, or click, to run one. The menu is grouped so you can get anywhere quickly: - **Create & build** — build a dashboard, or create a task, data source, or form, and set up a vision device - **Jump to a dashboard** or **data source** — open one of your recent items directly - **Browse & find** — list your dashboards, data sources, tasks, forms, sites, or companies, or select a site - **Ask & learn** — see what the assistant can do or ask a product question - **AI provider** — switch between **OpenAI** and **Claude** Keep typing after the **/** to filter. For example, typing **/band** narrows the menu to matching dashboards and data sources, so you can open a specific item in a couple of keystrokes. ![Typing /band filters the command menu down to matching dashboards and data sources](/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant/slash-command-menu-filter.png) ## Work before you pick a site You do not need a selected site to get started. Even with no site chosen, the assistant knows your **companies** and your **open tasks across every site**, so you can ask things like "how many tasks do I have?" or "list my companies" right away. When a request needs a specific site — building a dashboard, creating a task, or asking about a site's data — the assistant offers a one-tap **Select a site**. Once you choose, it automatically continues the request you started. You can also just say **"switch to \"** to change your working site without leaving the conversation. ## Ask what the assistant can do Ask **what can you do?** when you want a quick tour of the assistant. You can also reach these from the **/** menu under **Ask & learn**. ![The Ask & learn group in the / menu, with "What can you do?" and "What is Zira?"](/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant/slash-command-menu-ask-learn.png) The answer includes examples for: - finding and opening work - dashboards and dashboard questions - tasks - forms and data sources - custom data source API help - Vision setup and model improvement - product and support questions Use those examples as starter prompts, then continue with follow-up questions in the same chat. ## Ask product questions Use the assistant when you want help understanding Zira before opening a full guide yourself. You can ask things like: - how to create a dashboard - where to manage routing - how custom data sources work - what changed in a feature recently When the answer comes from docs, the assistant can also point you to the most relevant guide for the next step. ## Find and open work Home AI Assistant can help you find work that already exists in Zira. Use it to: - list dashboards, data sources, forms, sites, channels, companies, or tasks - find a specific dashboard, data source, or form by name - open a matching result directly from the chat You can also start these from the **/** menu under **Browse & find** — for example, jump straight to **My open tasks** or **My sites**. ![The Browse & find group in the / menu, with "My open tasks" and "My sites"](/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant/slash-command-menu-browse.png) This is helpful when you know the outcome you want but not the exact place to click first. ## Discover the right dashboard for a question If you ask about site performance in plain language, the assistant can suggest the best matching existing dashboard and open it in preview. This works well for requests like: - show me the best dashboard for this site - ask about this site performance - open a dashboard for production today Once the dashboard preview is open, you can keep working from the same chat instead of starting over somewhere else. ## Ask about the current dashboard When a dashboard preview is open, ask follow-up questions about the dashboard data in the same conversation. For example, you can ask: - summarize this dashboard - what changed today - compare today vs yesterday - what stands out here This is a good way to move from discovery into explanation without leaving the Home page. ## Build or edit dashboards Use Home AI Assistant when you want AI to draft a dashboard or revise the current one from a plain-language request. You can ask it to: - build a new dashboard - add a widget - reorganize the layout - create a KPI overview - refine the current draft with another prompt Review the result in preview before you keep or apply the change. ## Create an AI-Vision data source Use Home AI Assistant when you want to start from a guided AI data-source template instead of building everything from scratch. This path works well for production and inspection setups where the template already matches the job you want to do. A typical conversation looks like this: 1. Choose a site. 2. Ask the assistant to create a data source. 3. Choose **Vision** or **Pallet QA**. 4. Pick the template the assistant shows. 5. Send the name you want to use. The available templates depend on the selected path and your workspace setup. Common examples can include workflows such as: - trimsaw - bandsaw - pallet QA After the data source is created, the assistant opens it in preview so you can continue from the same chat. ## Set up an existing Vision data source Use **Set up vision device** when the Vision or Pallet Vision data source already exists and you want the assistant to guide the setup and improvement workflow. This is different from creating a new data source. Here, the assistant reads the current workflow status and suggests the next practical step. ![Home AI Assistant guiding the setup of a Vision data source, with a suggested next action and manual steps](/docs/ai-assistance/home-ai-assistant/vision-workflow-guidance.png) It can check things like: - whether the device is marked as paired - whether the device is marked as mounted - videos or pallet snapshots - datasets and dataset images - annotations - dataset versions - trained models - validation sessions For a brand-new Vision data source, the assistant starts with setup: 1. Choose the Vision data source to guide. 2. Pair the device with **QR pairing** or **OTC pairing**, or mark pairing as done. 3. Use **Live View** to verify the camera view. 4. Mark the device as mounted, or skip mounting if you want to continue without marking it. 5. Open **Remote Control** to record or schedule the first video. For Pallet Vision, the assistant expects snapshots to be uploaded automatically by the device instead of asking you to record videos first. Helpful prompts include: - set up vision device - what is next for this Vision data source? - guide me through Bandsaw 1 from scratch - open Remote Control so I can record the first video - help me improve this pallet vision model ## Improve a Vision model over time The assistant can guide the improvement loop after the first setup work is done. The usual loop is: 1. Collect videos or pallet snapshots. 2. Move useful images into a dataset. 3. Annotate images and prepare train/validation splits. 4. Create a dataset version. 5. Train a model. 6. Push the model to the device. 7. Collect fresh validation sessions. 8. Review outputs, overlays, and inspection results. 9. Move useful validation examples back into the dataset. Ask **what next?** or **review validation for this device** when you want the assistant to reopen the right tab and continue from the current workflow state. ## Create a custom data source Choose **Custom** when you want Home AI Assistant to open the shared builder and help you draft the structure from chat. This path is the best fit when you want to: - describe the data source in plain language - build fields from scratch - review the draft before saving - keep refining the same draft with follow-up prompts Useful follow-up prompts include: - build a power meter data source - remove equipment field - rename machine to asset - show draft - apply draft ## Use AI and API help for a custom data source When a custom data source is open, Home AI Assistant can keep helping in two ways. First, it can continue shaping the structure in the builder. Second, it can switch into API setup help for that exact data source. This is useful when you want to: - generate an API key - see an authentication example - get a cURL example - get a JavaScript snippet - get a Python snippet - ask for a ready-to-use Add Readings example If you ask for API help after opening the custom data source, the assistant keeps the answer tied to that exact data source instead of giving a generic example. When you generate an API key, the assistant returns the new key in the chat so you can copy it right away and store it safely. ## Create a form Use Home AI Assistant when you want to open a form builder, describe the form in plain language, and keep refining it from the same chat. This works well when you want to: - start from a blank form builder - draft the form structure with AI - remove, rename, or add fields through follow-up prompts - review the current draft before saving Helpful prompts include: - create form - build downtime form - remove machine field - rename machine to equipment - show current draft - apply draft ## Keep the conversation going Home AI Assistant is designed for follow-up work, not just one-off prompts. You can continue in the same chat to: - refine a dashboard request - remove or rename fields in a form or custom data source draft - switch from discovery to questions about the open preview - continue the Vision setup or model-improvement loop from the current device status - reopen a saved chat later ## Tips - You can ask about your companies and open tasks before choosing a site — and select or switch a site right from the chat. - Creating forms, data sources, or tasks still needs a site; if you start without one, the assistant offers **Select a site** and then continues automatically. - Choose a site before asking to set up a Vision device, unless the Vision data source is already open in preview. - Press **/** for a quick way to jump to a recent dashboard or data source, or to start a common action. - Ask one clear question or request at a time for the best results. - Use follow-up prompts to refine a draft instead of starting over. - Open the matched dashboard first if you want answers about real dashboard data. - For Vision setup, use **Live View** before marking a device as mounted so you can verify the camera view. ## Read next - [Dashboard AI Assistant](/docs/ai-assistance/dashboard-ai-assistant) - Ask questions about one dashboard and build dashboard changes from the dashboard page. - [AI Help Assistant](/docs/ai-assistance/help-assistant) - Ask docs and support-style product questions from the Help page. - [AI Dashboard Builder](/docs/dashboards/ai-dashboard-builder) - Review the dashboard-specific build workflow in more detail. - [AI Form and Data Source Builder](/docs/ai-assistance/form-and-data-source-builder) - Use the shared AI builder for custom data sources and forms. - [Build Forms with AI](/docs/forms/build-forms-with-ai) - Learn more about AI-assisted form creation. - [AI-Vision Data Source](/docs/data-sources/ai-vision-data-source) - Continue with AI-Vision setup and pairing. - [AI-Pallet QA and Routing](/docs/data-sources/ai-pallet-qa-and-routing) - Start from the pallet-focused template path. - [Create a Data Source](/docs/data-sources/create-a-data-source) - Review the available data source creation paths and setup choices.