# The flow assistant

> Building flows · https://spoletta.com/docs/assistant

Every flow has an assistant: a chat at the bottom right of its board. Describe what you want in plain words, and it sets the flow up for you, or changes what is there.

## Asking

Press the round button at the bottom right of the board, *Ask the assistant to set up this flow*. Type what you want and press `Enter` (`Shift` + `Enter` for a new line). It pulses while it replies, and **Stop** ends a reply early.

For example:

```text
Every release, draft the release notes from the merged PRs and let
me approve them before they're posted to #releases. If I ask for
changes, redo them.
```

The more of these you answer, the better the flow it draws:

-   How does a run start: by hand, or on a schedule?
-   What does a run work on, and where does it come from?
-   Who does each step: an agent, a script or a person?
-   Where does it branch, what can be sent back, and how many times?
-   What should happen when a step fails?
-   Which repositories, MCP servers and models does it use?

## What it changes

The assistant may change only this flow. When a reply changed the board, it says so: *Changed the flow. The board before is saved as a version; Cmd-Z undoes it.* So you can always look at what it did, keep it, or undo it with `⌘`/`Ctrl` + `Z`.

Read the result with **OPL** before running it. The assistant doesn't run the flow or connect anything for you: signing in to MCP servers and the first run are yours.

## The conversation

-   The conversation is kept per flow, so you can come back and ask for changes later.
-   A reply carries on in the server even if you close the page.
-   **Start over** clears the conversation; **×** closes the panel.
-   While you are looking at an older version of the board, the assistant is off: *Go back to the board as it is to ask*.

> **Tip:** The assistant is a fast first draft, not a replacement for understanding the flow. The pages on [what happens in a run](https://spoletta.com/docs/engine.md) and [rules and pitfalls](https://spoletta.com/docs/rules.md) help you check its work.