AI Assistant

Your AI-powered DevOps engineer. Deploy, manage, and troubleshoot through natural language.

Overview

The Hostwares AI Assistant is a context-aware DevOps agent that understands your entire infrastructure. It can deploy sites, configure domains, analyze logs, and troubleshoot issues — all through natural conversation.

Access it from Dashboard → AI Assistant or the chat sidebar on any dashboard page.

Key features

  • Context-aware — Knows your sites, databases, domains, and their current status
  • Action-capable — Can restart, deploy, configure, and diagnose in real-time
  • Safe by default — Requires confirmation for destructive actions
  • Streaming — Responses stream in real-time for fast interaction
  • Available 24/7 — No waiting for support tickets

How Credits Work

Each AI interaction costs credits based on complexity:

Action TypeCreditsExamples
Simple question1"What's my site status?", "How many sites do I have?"
Action execution2"Restart my container", "Deploy my-site"
Log analysis3"Why did my deploy fail?", "Check for errors"
Complex multi-step5"Deploy, add domain, set up SSL"

Credit tips

  • Credits are deducted after the response is sent
  • Failed requests (network errors) don't cost credits
  • Multi-step tasks cost 5 credits total, not per step
  • Asking follow-up questions in the same conversation costs only 1 credit each

Purchase credits from Dashboard → Credits.

Available Commands

The AI has access to these tools and can call them on your behalf:

Site Management

ToolDescriptionExample
list_sitesList all your deployed sites"Show my sites"
get_site_statusCheck health, uptime, resources"What's the status of my-app?"
restart_siteRestart a container"Restart my-site"
redeploy_siteFresh deployment from source"Redeploy my-app"
start_siteStart a stopped container"Start my-site"
stop_siteStop a running container"Stop my-app"

Domains & SSL

ToolDescriptionExample
configure_domainAdd/update domain"Add example.com to my-site"
check_dnsVerify DNS records"Check DNS for my-site"
activate_sslRequest SSL certificate"Set up SSL for my-site"
check_ssl_statusCertificate status"Is my SSL active?"

Debugging & Config

ToolDescriptionExample
get_deployment_logsBuild/deploy logs"Show deploy logs for my-app"
get_runtime_logsApplication logs"Show runtime logs for my-site"
get_site_configCurrent configuration"Show config for my-app"
update_env_varsSet env variables"Set API_KEY=abc on my-site"

What It Can Do

  • Deploy sites from GitHub repos or Docker images
  • Configure custom domains and DNS
  • Set up and manage SSL certificates
  • Start, stop, restart, redeploy containers
  • Set and manage environment variables
  • Read and analyze deployment and runtime logs
  • Diagnose build failures and suggest fixes
  • Check DNS propagation and SSL status
  • Explain error messages and provide solutions
  • Guide you through complex multi-step operations

What It Cannot Do

The AI assistant is scoped to hosting and DevOps tasks. It will politely decline:

  • Writing application code
  • General programming help
  • Non-hosting questions
  • Accessing other users' resources
  • Modifying billing/subscription settings
  • Bypassing security restrictions

Safety Rules

The AI follows strict safety protocols to protect your infrastructure:

  • Confirmation required — Destructive actions (delete, stop, overwrite env vars) always ask for confirmation
  • Scoped access — Can only access YOUR sites and databases
  • No credential exposure — Never reveals secrets, passwords, or server IPs
  • Rate limited — 10 messages per minute to prevent abuse
  • Abuse detection — Refuses crypto mining, phishing, malware, or ToS-violating deployments
  • Audit trail — Every AI action is logged with timestamp and user ID

Best Practices

Be specific

✓ "Restart my-app"
✗ "Restart it"

✓ "Show runtime logs for production-api"
✗ "Show logs"

✓ "Add domain api.example.com to my-backend"
✗ "Add a domain"

Provide context

✓ "My Next.js site fails to build with a TypeScript error"
✓ "I added a new domain but it's not resolving after 1 hour"
✓ "My site shows 502 errors since the last deploy"

Use follow-up questions

Stay in the same conversation for context-aware follow-ups (1 credit each):

You: "Why did my last deploy fail?"
AI: [analyzes logs, explains the error]
You: "Fix it and redeploy"
AI: [takes corrective action]

Conversation History

All conversations are saved for 30 days. Access them from the chat sidebar.

  • Each conversation has a unique ID visible in the URL
  • Conversations maintain context across messages
  • Previous conversations can be continued
  • Delete conversations from the sidebar menu
  • Maximum 20 messages maintained in context window

Example Conversations

Deploy a new site

You: "Deploy my app from github.com/user/my-nextjs-app"
AI: "I'll deploy that for you. Detected: Next.js app
     Branch: main | Build: npm run build | Port: 3000
     
     ✓ Deployment started. I'll let you know when it's live.
     [2 minutes later]
     ✓ Your site is live! Accessible at: https://app-id.hostwares.dev"

Troubleshoot a failure

You: "Why did my last deployment fail?"
AI: "Let me check the deployment logs...
     
     Found the issue: Your build failed at 'npm run build' with:
     Error: Cannot find module '@prisma/client'
     
     Fix: Add 'prisma generate' to your build command:
     "build": "prisma generate && next build"
     
     Want me to update the build command and redeploy?"
You: "Yes please"
AI: "✓ Build command updated. ✓ Redeployment triggered."

Set up a custom domain

You: "Add domain myapp.com to my production site and set up SSL"
AI: "I'll configure that. Here's what you need to do:
     
     1. Add this DNS record at your registrar:
        Type: A | Name: @ | Value: 116.203.147.185
     
     2. For www redirect, add:
        Type: CNAME | Name: www | Value: myapp.com
     
     Once DNS propagates (5-30 min), I'll automatically:
     ✓ Verify the domain
     ✓ Issue an SSL certificate via Let's Encrypt
     ✓ Enable HTTPS with HTTP redirect
     
     Say 'check DNS for myapp.com' when you've added the records."