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Asking Umbraculum — using the AI consultant

Tier: Public Audience: workspace members and admins using the AI consultant in the running app.

[!NOTE] For how the AI consultant is built, see ../AI-CONSULTANT.md. This page is for people using the chat panel at /ai.

1. What you can ask​

The AI consultant answers questions grounded in your workspace's data. Below are categories that work well today. The model picks tools based on phrasing — being specific helps.

Recipes (brewery)

  • "Show me the IPA recipes in my workspace."
  • "What's the OG, FG, ABV, and IBU for my Pale Ale recipe?"

Water chemistry

  • "What's the water profile and predicted mash pH for recipe <id>?"

Brew sessions and inventory

  • "What's the current step of my most recent brew session?"
  • "How much Pilsner malt do I have on hand?"

Equipment

  • "What's the kettle volume on my main equipment profile?"

Vessels (automation)

  • "List my vessels and their current temperatures."
  • "What's the state of vessel FV-1 right now?"

Products (PIM)

  • "Find products with SKU containing IPA."
  • "Show product detail for <productId>."
  • "List categories in this workspace."

Production planning (MRP)

  • "List production orders in this workspace."
  • "Explain material requirements for production order <orderId>."

Capacity and schedule (CRP)

  • "Explain capacity load for the next week."
  • "List scheduling conflicts."
  • "What resources are projected from automation vessels?"

Document export

  • "Generate a PDF work order for production order <orderId>" — uses the render_document tool or you can use the page's Export button on MRP/CRP screens.

The AI may chain tools for compound questions — e.g. "do I have enough Pilsner malt for the next brew?" The chat panel shows each tool call and result.

Analytics (reporting)

  • "How many production orders per status this month?" — uses the reporting tool on curated views (not raw SQL).

Product help (documentation search)

  • "How does MRP material requirements work?" — searches ingested public help articles.

Suggested changes (proposals)

  • "Can we push order PO-1042 by two days?" — the AI may draft a proposal card with Apply or Dismiss. Nothing changes until you confirm Apply. If domain write routes are not yet live, Apply records your confirmation as preview-only.

Context from the page you're on: Open /ai?fromRoute=productionOrders (or use Ask AI links on some pages) so the assistant prefers tools for that area.

2. What the AI can see in your workspace​

At workspace scope, inside your active workspace:

  • Recipes, water settings, brew sessions, inventory, equipment (brewery)
  • Vessels and telemetry (automation)
  • Products, categories, attribute sets (PIM)
  • Production orders and material requirements — including read-time projections from brewery (MRP)
  • Resources, capacity, schedule, conflicts — including projections from automation/brewery (CRP)
  • Registered document templates via render_document (outputs only; does not change domain records)

It cannot see:

  • Other workspaces (switch workspace first)
  • Billing, admin settings, raw PLC/Modbus internals
  • The public internet or external APIs

3. What the AI cannot do (yet)​

  • No autonomous edits to recipes, products, vessels, inventory, or planning records
  • No PLC setpoint or mode changes
  • No billing or membership changes
  • No creating or rescheduling production orders (read-only MRP/CRP advisor)
  • No ad-hoc SQL or analytics dashboards (reporting DSL not shipped)

render_document submits a rendering job — it produces a file, it does not mutate operational data.

4. How to get the best answers​

  • Be specific: recipe names, vessel codes (FV-1), SKUs, production order ids
  • One focused question at a time when possible
  • Ask "Which tool did you use?" if an answer looks wrong
  • Say "Re-query without memory" to force a fresh tool call

5. Privacy + BYOK​

Your workspace supplies an Anthropic API key (BYOK). Keys are encrypted at rest; Anthropic bills you directly. AI access requires a paid tier (premium, pro, or pro_plus). See ../AI-CONSULTANT.md §6.

6. Per-workspace memory​

The AI keeps durable notes (facts, recurring issues) composed into every prompt for your workspace. Admins can inspect or clear memory in the AI settings dashboard.

7. When the AI is wrong​

  • Ask it to re-run the relevant tool
  • Fix underlying data in the app if tools return wrong numbers
  • Security/tenancy issues: follow ../../SECURITY.md

More modules and help pages may be added over time. Prompt and tool contracts: ../design/canonical-ai-prompt-composition-surface.md.