What you can do with the AI assistant

After you configure AI assistant, you can launch the agent and ask questions.

Chat with the AI assistant

In the chat interface, you can:

• Send messages: Type and press Enter. Use Shift + Enter for a new line.

• Scroll: Use the scroll bar or select Scroll to Bottom for long responses.

• Cancel requests: Select Cancel if a response takes too long.

After you send a message, AI assistant builds the response in real time.

• A thinking indicator is displayed while your request is being processed.

• You can read the streaming text as the AI forms the response.

• You can follow a blinking cursor at the end of the message while streaming is active.

This lets you follow the AI's progress as it works.

Follow and revisit your conversations

You can follow your conversation as a chronological thread:

• Your messages appear on the right.

• AI assistant responses appear on the left.

• System messages provide additional context or status updates.

Each conversation is limited to 10 prompts and is retained in the cloud for 30 days. When you start a new conversation, or reach the current limit, you can still find your previous messages in the History tab.

Use the Chat and History tabs at the top of the panel to switch between your active conversation and past conversations.

• Conversation history is user-specific and is not visible to other user accounts.

Repeat, copy, and rate a response

• Repeat last prompt: Select the repeat action below the most recent response to re-run or edit your last question without retyping it. This action is only available for the latest response and isn't shown once the conversation's prompt limit is reached.

• Copy messages: Select the Copy button below a message to add its text to your clipboard.

• Rate answers: Select the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon to indicate whether you were satisfied with the answer.

Use prompt suggestions

To get started or keep a conversation going, you can use suggested prompts:

• Select a starter prompt: Every new conversation shows a set of suggested prompts to help you get going.

• Select a follow-up prompt: Many responses include AI‑generated follow-up suggestions that help you narrow down the direction of the conversation. Follow-up suggestions aren't guaranteed on every response and are hidden once the conversation's prompt limit is reached.

Keep an eye on the prompt length limit: As you type or paste a prompt, you can watch a live character counter showing the maximum length. If you exceed the limit, shorten your prompt before sending it.

Tips and best practices

• Write clear messages: Include details like entity names, groupings, and time ranges. Example prompts:

  • Tell me the benefits of using high availability in the product and outline any prerequisite work required to configure it. Be brief in your reply.

  • From the available node data, identify the three nodes with the highest CPU usage.

  • For the nodes with a critical status, what patterns can you find, and how should I attempt to tackle them? Group the reasons for this status based on the trends you identify.

  • Summarize active alerts and group them by likely root cause. Rank these groupings by the most common reasons first.

  • Show me the top 3 VMware VMs with the highest CPU utilization and their hosts, clusters, datacenters, and vCenters.

  • Show me all applications that are down and their down components.

• Manage conversations: Use New Chat for unrelated topics, and use the History tab to return to earlier conversations instead of starting over.

• Performance: Cancel unnecessary requests and start fresh when needed.

Troubleshooting

• AI assistant icon isn't visible: Confirm that Platform Connect is configured and connected through an AWS data center; the icon can also be hidden for all users by an administrator. See Connect SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted to SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

• AI assistant not responding: Check your network, refresh, or start a new chat.

• Messages not appearing: Clear your browser cache and refresh.

• Cannot send messages: Make sure text is entered and wait for the current request to finish.

• Prompt limit reached: Select New Chat. Your previous conversation remains available in the History tab.

• Streaming stops mid-response: Check your connection or retry.

• History tab or a past conversation isn't loading: Confirm you're on the latest release, then refresh the page. If the problem continues, contact SolarWinds Support.