The assistant is off until an organization admin switches it on. Everything an admin controls lives under Configure Settings → AI Assistants, which appears only to people who may manage the assistant.
Open Configure Settings → AI Assistants → Settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable the AI Assistant for this organization | On shows the assistant button to every member whose role allows it. Off hides it for everyone, and nothing is sent to any model provider. |
| What the assistant may use | Choose the sources the assistant may draw on: Documentation (docs.devstride.com), DevStride data (your items, boards and people: the assistant can read them and propose changes, each one approved by the member) and GitHub (linked repositories). GitHub support arrives in a later release; the choice applies from then. |
| Models members may choose | Limit which AI models members can pick. Leave it empty to allow every free model. Members see a model picker only when more than one model is allowed. |
Changes apply as soon as you switch them. A member with the assistant open sees the button disappear the next time the page loads.
The same AI Assistants section holds Connect AI: the MCP Server URL and ready-to-paste setup snippets for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, Copilot and Gemini CLI, so an agent you run elsewhere can work in DevStride as you. The page is shown to AI Assistant admins; any member can still connect by following Setting Up Your Connection, which gives the same URL and steps.
Three permissions in the AI Assistant group of Roles & Permissions govern the assistant:
| Permission | What it grants | Member | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use Ai Assistant | Open the AI Assistant and chat with it. | yes | yes |
| Manage Ai Assistant | Switch the assistant on or off, choose which sources and models it may use, and open Connect AI. Requires the Settings module. | no | yes |
| View Ai Usage | See AI Assistant usage and cost for the organization. Requires the Settings module. There is no usage page yet, so today it shows nothing. | no | yes |
Every role that existed when the assistant launched received Use Ai Assistant. Remove it from a role to hide the assistant from that role's members while leaving it on for everyone else.
Beyond these three, the assistant has no permissions of its own. It reads and changes records as the member who is chatting, so your existing roles and sharing decide what it can reach.
Conversations are processed by OpenAI, L.L.C. and Anthropic, PBC as DevStride sub-processors. The text of a message, and the context your organization allows, go to the chosen model's provider only while a member is chatting. Nothing is sent while the assistant is switched off.
Conversations are private to the member who had them. Changes the assistant makes appear in each item's Activity as that member's, marked via AI Assistant.
Conversations
Your earlier chats with the AI Assistant are kept, named after their first question, and private to you.
My Work
My Work is your personal, cross-project list of the items assigned to you or that you watch — switch what it shows, act on items in place, shape and save the view, and export it.