Meet the Assistant: agentic chat that gets work done

The Assistant is an agentic chat that gets work done with the tools your team has already connected. You describe a task in plain language, and the Assistant decides which tools to call, runs them one step at a time, and pauses to ask you whenever it needs a decision or an approval. There is no workflow to build first — you just start a conversation.

What the Assistant is

Think of the Assistant as a colleague who already knows how to use every service you have connected to ModuleX. You ask in plain language; it works through the task and reports back.

It uses your tools

The Assistant searches your connected integrations and calls their actions directly — for example, listing your repositories or sending a message — using your organization’s stored credentials.

It works step by step

Each request becomes a turn. The Assistant streams its thinking, calls one tool at a time, reads the result, and keeps going until the task is done.

It asks before acting

For sensitive actions it stops and shows an approval card. Nothing risky runs until you say yes.

The Assistant runs on the same agent engine as the AI Composer, but with one important difference: it has no access to your workflows at all. It cannot list, open, build, edit, or run a workflow. Its job is to act directly with your connected tools and your knowledge bases — not to assemble a workflow graph. To learn what happens under the hood, see how the Assistant works.

What it can do

Call integration tools

Run a single action on a connected service, like “list my GitHub repos” or “create a Linear issue.” The Assistant discovers which tools exist and runs them for you.

Connect what's missing

If a task needs a service you have not connected yet, the Assistant asks you to add the credential — including starting an OAuth connection — right inside the chat.

Search your knowledge

Answer questions from your connected knowledge bases with retrieval, so replies are grounded in your own documents.

Pause for your input

Ask you a question, offer choices, or request approval mid-task, then continue once you answer.

The Assistant is text-only today: each turn is a single text message. It does not build or run workflows, and it does not accept file uploads or messages[] history in a single turn.

Assistant vs Composer vs Builder

ModuleX gives you three ways to get things done. They are easy to tell apart once you know what each one produces.

Assistant

Acts for you, now. A chat that calls your tools step by step to complete a task. Produces results and answers — not a saved workflow.

AI Composer

Builds a workflow for you. A chat copilot inside the builder that turns a plain-English description into an editable workflow graph you can save and reuse.

Workflow builder

You build it by hand. The visual canvas where you drag, connect, and configure nodes yourself for full control.

	Assistant	AI Composer	Workflow builder
What you get	Work done in the chat — answers and completed actions	An editable, reusable workflow graph	An editable, reusable workflow graph
How you drive it	Plain-language chat	Plain-language chat	Drag, connect, and configure nodes by hand
Touches your workflows?	No — it has no workflow tools	Yes — it creates and edits the graph	Yes — you are editing the graph
Calls your tools live?	Yes, directly during the chat	While building, not as a saved run	When you run the workflow
Reusable later?	The chat is saved; the result is one-off	Yes — the workflow can be run again	Yes — the workflow can be run again
Best for	One-off tasks and quick questions	Going from idea to a workflow fast	Precise, complex automations

The Assistant and the AI Composer share the same chat engine and the same approval and pause-for-input behavior, but they are separate surfaces. The Composer edits a workflow graph; the Assistant has no workflow tools whatsoever. The workflow builder is the canvas both of them — and you — can edit.

When to use the Assistant

Use the Assistant when

You want something done once, right now — a lookup, a summary, a quick post.
The task spans a few connected services and you would rather describe it than wire it.
You want an answer grounded in your own knowledge.
You are exploring what your connected tools can do.

Use Composer or the builder when

You will repeat the task and want to save it as a workflow.
You need to schedule it, trigger it from an API, or run it from chat.
You need branching, loops, retries, or precise control over each step.
You want to share a reusable automation with your team.

Many people start with the Assistant to prove a task is possible, then rebuild the repeatable version with the AI Composer or the workflow builder.

How to start a session

The Assistant lives at the chat surface of the ModuleX app. Starting a session takes one message.

Open the chat surface

Sign in to the ModuleX app and open the chat. The Assistant greets you with a few starter prompts you can use as a launching point.

Describe your task in plain language

Type what you want done — for example, “Summarize my newest support tickets” — and send. A starter chip fills the box for you but does not send on its own, so you can edit it first.

Watch it work

The Assistant streams its reply live: you see its thinking, each tool it calls, and the result of each call as it goes. You can stop a turn at any time. Learn more in streaming responses.

Answer when it asks

If the Assistant needs a choice, a piece of information, or approval for a sensitive action, it pauses and shows you a question or an approval card. Answer it and the Assistant continues. See human-in-the-loop.

Connect a tool if prompted

If the task needs a service you have not connected, the Assistant asks you to add the credential — including starting an OAuth connection — without leaving the chat. See authentication and credentials.

Your conversations are saved, so you can reopen a chat later, pick up where you left off, and browse your history.

Who can use the Assistant?

The Assistant is scoped to one of your organizations. As built today, you must have the owner or admin role in that organization to start or continue an Assistant chat; other members receive a permission error. The retired member role is not a current role. See roles and permissions and permissions and limits for the full picture.

One question at a time per chat

A chat can hold only one open question at a time. While the Assistant is waiting for your answer, or while a turn is still running, it will not start another turn on the same chat — you finish the current step first. This keeps each conversation predictable.

Does the Assistant use credits?

Yes. Each turn is metered like any other managed run, and language-model token usage is recorded separately. If your plan’s allowance is exhausted, the turn is declined before anything runs, and you will see a clear billing message. See credits and the billing model and usage gating and limits.

Start the Assistant from your own code

You can also drive the Assistant programmatically. A turn starts with one authenticated request that creates or continues a chat and returns a stream URL; you then open that stream to watch the turn unfold. Every request uses Authorization: Bearer mx_live_… plus your X-Organization-ID header — see authentication.

curl -X POST https://api.modulex.dev/assistant/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mx_live_your_api_key" \
  -H "X-Organization-ID: org_your_organization_id" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "message": "List my GitHub repositories",
    "llm": {
      "integration_name": "openai",
      "provider_id": "openai",
      "model_id": "gpt-4o"
    }
  }'

import httpx

resp = httpx.post(
    "https://api.modulex.dev/assistant/chat",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer mx_live_your_api_key",
        "X-Organization-ID": "org_your_organization_id",
    },
    json={
        "message": "List my GitHub repositories",
        "llm": {
            "integration_name": "openai",
            "provider_id": "openai",
            "model_id": "gpt-4o",
        },
    },
)
data = resp.json()
print(data["stream_url"])  # open this to stream the turn

const resp = await fetch("https://api.modulex.dev/assistant/chat", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: "Bearer mx_live_your_api_key",
    "X-Organization-ID": "org_your_organization_id",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    message: "List my GitHub repositories",
    llm: {
      integration_name: "openai",
      provider_id: "openai",
      model_id: "gpt-4o",
    },
  }),
});
const data = await resp.json();
console.log(data.stream_url); // open this to stream the turn

A successful response returns the chat and run identifiers plus a stream_url, which you open over Server-Sent Events to receive the Assistant’s actions and output as they happen:

Response

{
  "status": "running",
  "chat_id": "f2b1c0de-1111-2222-3333-444455556666",
  "run_id": "a1b2c3d4-aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddddddddddd",
  "thread_id": "f2b1c0de-1111-2222-3333-444455556666",
  "stream_url": "/assistant/chat/f2b1c0de-1111-2222-3333-444455556666/listen/a1b2c3d4-aaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddddddddddd"
}

To talk to the Assistant programmatically, always use the /assistant/chat request shown above — that is the supported path. For the full set of Assistant operations, see how the Assistant works and streaming responses.

Where to go next

How the Assistant works

The agentic loop: how the Assistant reasons, picks a tool, acts, observes the result, and decides when it is done.

The Assistant concept

Where the Assistant fits in the ModuleX mental model, and how it relates to the Composer and the engine.

Using tools

How the Assistant discovers and calls integration tools, and how it requests credentials.

Chat overview

A tour of the chat surface where the Assistant lives, and how it sits alongside knowledge and workflow runs.

Human-in-the-loop

How the Assistant pauses for a question or an approval, and how you respond.

Examples

Worked examples of common Assistant tasks, end to end.

App overview

Chat

Knowledge

Collaboration

Builder

Nodes

Execution

Co-editing

Assistant Chat

Meet the Assistant: agentic chat that gets work done

What the Assistant is

It uses your tools

It works step by step

It asks before acting

What it can do

Call integration tools

Connect what's missing

Search your knowledge

Pause for your input

Assistant vs Composer vs Builder

Assistant

AI Composer

Workflow builder

When to use the Assistant

Use the Assistant when

Use Composer or the builder when

How to start a session

Start the Assistant from your own code

Where to go next

How the Assistant works

The Assistant concept

Using tools

Chat overview

Human-in-the-loop

Examples

​What the Assistant is

It uses your tools

It works step by step

It asks before acting

​What it can do

Call integration tools

Connect what's missing

Search your knowledge

Pause for your input

​Assistant vs Composer vs Builder

Assistant

AI Composer

Workflow builder

​When to use the Assistant

Use the Assistant when

Use Composer or the builder when

​How to start a session

​Start the Assistant from your own code

​Where to go next

How the Assistant works

The Assistant concept

Using tools

Chat overview

Human-in-the-loop

Examples

What the Assistant is

What it can do

Assistant vs Composer vs Builder

When to use the Assistant

How to start a session

Start the Assistant from your own code

Where to go next