AI Assistant (Pro)
The AI assistant lives in the right sidebar of the simulator. Click the “AI” tab in the sidebar header, or the AI button in the toolbar, to open it.
What it does
- Review project. Walks through the current circuit and calls out problems: floating IC supply pins, missing decoupling, LEDs without series resistors, supply-direct-to-component shortcuts, etc.
- Fix bug. Proposes a structured edit plan that brings the circuit into line with the breadboarding conventions Devolt validates.
- Generate. Given a description (“RGB LED on Arduino pins 9–11”), the AI emits a complete breadboard layout using rails and tie-points.
- Explain selected. Select a component, then ask for an explanation that references the live net voltages and currents.
How it edits your circuit
The AI never mutates the simulator state directly. Every proposed change is a JSON edit plan that:
- Goes through schema validation.
- Goes through Devolt’s semantic validators (no LED without a series resistor, ICs straddle the centre gap, no rail-to-rail shorts, no floating IC supply pins, etc.).
- Renders on the canvas as a green/red diff overlay — added items in green, removed items in red.
- Only applies when you press Accept. The whole plan applies as a single undo step, so pressing Undo reverts the entire change.
If the validators reject the plan, the Accept button is disabled and the specific findings are shown above it. Reject discards the plan.
Plan and quota
The assistant is included in Pro. Trial subscriptions count as Pro. Hobby and signed-out users see the panel with an upgrade nudge but cannot trigger AI calls — the Hobby plan includes 0 AI requests.
Pro accounts get 1000 AI requests per month, with a 100 requests / day safety ceiling. The footer of the panel shows your current daily and monthly usage. When you hit either cap the API returns a 429 with a clear message — no requests are charged once the cap is reached, and the quota resets at the start of the next day or month.
The Learn tutor is separate
The simulator’s AI assistant is not the same as the AI tutor inside de:volt Learn. The Learn tutor is a Socratic hint helper that nudges you toward the next step of a lesson without writing the answer; it is ephemeral (no per-prompt storage) and available to Pro learners aged 13 or older. The simulator assistant described here edits circuits; the Learn tutor coaches lessons. See de:volt Learn for the tutor.
Privacy
The AI assistant sends a compact snapshot of your current project plus the question you typed. Snapshots include component kinds, IDs, pin nets, params, and the latest net voltages and currents from the live simulator. They do not include any account information.
Your OPENROUTER_API_KEY is server-only and never leaves the Devolt
backend; it is read from environment variables at request time. The
assistant currently uses DeepSeek V4 Flash through OpenRouter. If your
project contains sensitive component labels or notes, treat the
assistant the same way you would treat any other paid LLM provider. See the
Privacy Policy for the full AI data notice.
Safety and reliability
AI output can be incomplete, incorrect, or unsafe. Treat every generated circuit, fix, explanation, and edit plan as a draft. Review it against datasheets, safe bench practice, and real measurements before building hardware or buying parts. The assistant is not professional engineering advice and must not be used as the sole basis for mains, medical, vehicle, aviation, life-safety, regulated, or other high-risk systems.