Your First AI Assistant
In this chapter, you'll create a working AI chatbot from scratch. By the end, you'll have an assistant you can chat with — and it only takes about 20 minutes!
What is an Assistant?
An Assistant is the simplest way to create an AI agent in CiniterFlow. Think of it like filling out a form — you tell the AI who it should be, what it should know, and what tools it can use. No dragging, no connecting wires, just straightforward setup.
Step 1: Create a New Assistant
- Open CiniterFlow in your browser (https://flow.ciniter.com)
- In the left sidebar, click "Assistants"
- Click the "+ Add New" button in the top right corner
- You'll see the Assistant configuration screen
Step 2: Choose an AI Model
At the top of the screen, you'll see a dropdown to select your AI model. This is the "brain" of your assistant.
- Click the "Chat Model" dropdown
- Select "ChatOpenAI" (or whichever provider you set up credentials for)
- In the "Credential" dropdown, select the API key you added earlier (e.g., "My OpenAI Key")
- For the "Model Name", select "gpt-4o-mini" — this is a great balance of smart and affordable for learning
- gpt-4o-mini: Best for learning — fast, cheap, and smart enough for most tasks
- gpt-4o: More powerful but costs more — use this for production
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet: Great alternative from Anthropic — excellent at following instructions
- Gemini: Google's model — good and often has generous free tiers
Step 3: Give Your Assistant Instructions
The "System Message" (also called "System Prompt") is where you tell the AI who it is and how it should behave. This is the most important part!
Click on the "System Message" text area and type your instructions. Here's a great starter example:
You are a friendly and helpful assistant named Alex. You work for a small bakery called "Sweet Dreams Bakery."
Your job is to:
- Answer questions about the bakery's products and services
- Help customers place orders
- Provide information about business hours and location
About Sweet Dreams Bakery:
- Located at 123 Main Street, Anytown
- Open Monday to Saturday, 7 AM to 6 PM
- Closed on Sundays
- Specialties: sourdough bread, chocolate croissants, custom birthday cakes
- Phone: 555-0123
Guidelines:
- Always be warm, friendly, and professional
- If someone asks about something you don't know, politely say you'll check with the team
- Never make up information about prices or availability
- Suggest popular items when customers seem undecided
See the "Generate" button next to the System Message? Click it and describe what you want your assistant to do. CiniterFlow will use AI to write a professional system prompt for you! It's a great shortcut.
Step 4: Test Your Assistant
- Click the "Save" button at the top right
- You'll see a chat window appear at the bottom right of the screen (look for a chat bubble icon)
- Click it to open the chat
- Type a message like: "Hi! What are your business hours?"
- Press Enter and watch your assistant respond!
Try a few more questions:
- "What kind of bread do you have?"
- "Can I order a birthday cake?"
- "Where are you located?"
🎉 Congratulations! You just built your first AI assistant!
Step 5: Add Knowledge (Optional but Powerful)
Want your assistant to answer questions about specific documents? You can upload files!
- In the Assistant configuration, scroll down to "Knowledge"
- Click "Upload Files"
- Upload a PDF, Word document, or text file (for example, your bakery's full menu)
- The assistant will now be able to answer questions based on that document
This is called RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) — the AI searches through your uploaded documents to find relevant information before answering.
Step 6: Add Tools (Optional)
Tools give your assistant superpowers. For example:
- Scroll down to the "Tools" section
- Click "+ Add Tool"
- You'll see a list of available tools. Some popular ones:
- Calculator: Lets the AI do math
- Web Search: Lets the AI search the internet
- Current DateTime: Lets the AI know what time it is
For our bakery assistant, let's add the "Current DateTime" tool so it can tell customers if the bakery is currently open:
- Select "Current DateTime" from the tool list
- Save your assistant
Now try asking: "Are you open right now?" — the assistant will check the current time and compare it to the business hours you specified!
Understanding What Just Happened
Let's break down what you built:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Your Assistant │
│ │
│ 🧠 AI Model (GPT-4o-mini) │
│ ↕ Understands and generates text │
│ │
│ 📋 System Prompt │
│ ↕ Tells the AI who it is │
│ │
│ 📚 Knowledge (optional) │
│ ↕ Documents the AI can reference │
│ │
│ 🔧 Tools (optional) │
│ ↕ Actions the AI can take │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
When someone sends a message:
- The AI reads the system prompt to understand its role
- If you uploaded documents, it searches them for relevant info
- If tools are available, it decides whether to use them
- It generates a helpful response based on all of this
Tips for Better Assistants
- Be specific in your system prompt: Instead of "be helpful," say exactly what the assistant should do
- Provide examples: Show the AI how you want it to respond (this is called "few-shot prompting")
- Set boundaries: Tell the AI what it should NOT do (e.g., "Never discuss competitor products")
- Test thoroughly: Try different types of questions to see how your assistant handles them
- Iterate: If the assistant gives a bad answer, update the system prompt to address it
What's Next?
You've built your first assistant — great job! But the Assistant builder is just the beginning. In the next chapters, we'll explore the more powerful builders:
- Chatflow: More flexible, lets you customize exactly how data flows
- Agentflow: The most powerful — build multi-agent systems with complex logic