Install the assistant

The wizard does this for you. This page is what it does, for when you would rather do it yourself.

git clone https://github.com/kineuro/nils-assistant
cd nils-assistant && npm ci && npm run build

Node 22. It is configured by the environment:

NILS_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8437                     # the engine
KVASIR_URL=http://127.0.0.1:7100                   # Kvasir
KVASIR_KEY_FILE=/srv/nils/assistant/kvasir.key     # the key Kvasir minted for it
ASSISTANT_MODEL=qwen38-27b-fast                    # the model the stations name
DESK_ORIGIN=https://nils.example.org               # the desk it answers
ASSISTANT_STATIONS=/srv/nils/assistant/stations    # the stations' own directory
ASSISTANT_STORE=/srv/nils/assistant/assistant.sqlite
ASSISTANT_LEDGER=/srv/nils/assistant/ledger.sqlite
PORT=7300

node dist/app/server.mjs

Its models

The assistant reads the models Kvasir lists when it starts, and again every 30 seconds, so a model added or removed on the desk’s Language models page reaches the stations without a restart. The stations name ASSISTANT_MODEL while Kvasir lists it, and otherwise the first model Kvasir lists, a model in your systems before a provider’s. Where a purpose goes is still Kvasir’s policy to say.

Every call for a conversation carries the token of the person whose conversation it is, beside the assistant’s own key, so Kvasir uses that person’s own ChatGPT subscription where a station goes to ChatGPT.

Who may do what

The assistant asks the engine what each person holds, with that person’s token, and checks at its own doors:

Doors	Need
every door for a person: conversations, shares, memory, standing grants, plans, teaching	assistant:use
writing the install’s instructions; everyone’s standing grants and plans	assistant-settings:work
institutional notes, teaching sets	review:work
teaching’s fine-tunes and candidates	kvasir:work

A person without the assistant is refused with 403 and “no grant”. What a conversation reaches, and so what a share of it shows, is the lower of the person’s detail and the station’s ceiling: a person who does not see that much is refused the share, and told what it may have read. A standing grant is given only for a door whose grant the person holds. Groups and grants says what each grant and detail opens.

The stations

A station is one job the assistant does: turning words into a question, tuning a keyword, proposing an identity rule, planning several steps. Each is a directory with its brief, its tools and its evals, and they ship in the repository under stations/.

Copy that directory to ASSISTANT_STATIONS, or point the variable at your checkout. Changing a brief is a file, not a build.

As a service

# ~/.config/systemd/user/nils-assistant.service
[Unit]
Description=NILS assistant
After=nils-engine.service

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=%h/nils/assistant/assistant.env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node %h/nils/assistant/dist/app/server.mjs
WorkingDirectory=%h/nils/assistant
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

with the variables above in assistant.env, one per line.

Next: connect the desk.