AI supporting Micro-Features

AI personas: auto-greeting + richer AI menu metadata


1. Persona auto-greeting / first message

Need per-persona fields in the admin UI:

  • Internal note / thoughts: system-level instructions that specify how bot is meant to behave respond and use tools.
  • Initial assistant message: first visible message, sent automatically when:
    • A user starts a DM with that persona, or
    • A user switches to that persona in the AI composer (configurable toggles).

Example:

Internal note:
“I run inside this forum and must use tools when relevant, grounding answers in forum content.”

Initial message:
“Hi, I’m the Forum Researcher. I search and summarize topics. Paste a link or describe what you’re investigating.”

This makes each persona self-explanatory without extra docs.


2. Configurable AI menu metadata (no theme/plugin)

Directly in Discourse AI admin settings:

  • Per model:
    • Display name (friendly label)
    • Short description (tooltip/subtext)
    • Optional Docs URL (info icon/link)
  • Per persona:
    • Tagline (one-line description in the menu)
    • Tooltip / description (multi-line, on hover/info icon)
    • Optional Docs URL (link to a topic explaining the persona)

This keeps the built-in AI menu but makes models and personas understandable for non-technical users, without themes or plugins.