Assistant

The Assistant feature brings generative AI capabilities to your Venue.sh experience in a few key ways:

• It embeds validated AI models into the Venue.sh portal.
• The Assistant grants the AI permission to safely and securely retrieve user and your organization's catalog information from your Venue instance.
• It intelligently interprets your goals and uses the most relevant capabilities to assist you.
• The Assistant can be prompted with casual, natural language.

Key Capabilities

Use the Assistant to intelligently search and discover information and complete tasks within your Venue instance related to:

• Software catalog - Search and view entities such as APIs, Components, Groups, Locations, Rules, Templates, and Users
• Technical documentation - Search and read TechDocs
• Templates - Generate and validate YAML templates for scaffolding new entities
• Plugin integrations - Retrieve data from enabled integrations (see Supported Plugins below)

The Assistant will suggest follow-up questions after each response to help you refine your conversation. You can switch AI models at any time (but it is best not to switch part way through a conversation) and your conversation history is saved so you can return to it later.

Using the Assistant

Here are some ideas to consider as you get started with the Venue.sh Assistant.

• Start a Conversation - Open the Assistant from the sidebar and type your question or request. You can ask about catalog entities, documentation, templates, or any enabled plugin data. Be as specific as you like as the Assistant will use your intent to fetch the right information.

• Choose an AI Model - You can select which AI model to use from the model dropdown at the start of a conversation. The list of available models depends on how your Venue administrator has configured the Assistant. With multiple models available, you can start a new conversation with a different model anytime.

  Supported providers include OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (Gemini) and Anthropic models from AWS Bedrock. If you don't see the model you want, ask your administrator to add it in Assistant settings. The Venue.sh team is also working to add additional providers.

• Follow-up Suggestions - After the Assistant replies, you'll see a few suggested follow-up questions. Click any suggestion to send it as your next message. Use these to go deeper on a topic or explore related questions without typing.

• Conversation History - Past conversations are saved. Use the history panel to search, open, or delete conversations. You can delete a single conversation or clear all history when you no longer need it.

Useful Things to Ask About

• Software Catalog - The Assistant can search and retrieve details about entities in your software catalog, including APIs, Components, Groups, Locations, Rules, Templates, and Users.

  Example prompts:

  • "Find all APIs owned by Team Platform"
  • "Show me the details of the payments-service component"
  • "List all components with lifecycle production"
  • "What groups exist in my organization?"

• Technical Documentation (TechDocs) - Search and read technical documentation published in your Venue instance. Ask for specific topics or documents by name or subject.

  Example prompts:

  • "Search TechDocs for authentication setup"
  • "Show me the deployment guide for the checkout service"
  • "What documentation exists for our API standards?"

• Template Generation and Validation - You can ask the Assistant to generate the YAML file needed to scaffold new entities in your Venue instance or to validate existing YAML against the template schema.

  Example prompts:

  • "Generate a template YAML for a new Backstage component"
  • "Validate this template YAML for me"
  • "Create a component template for a microservice with GitHub and Jira"

• Plugin Data - When plugins are enabled by your administrator, the Assistant can retrieve data from them. For example, it can retrieve issues from Jira, pull requests from GitHub, incidents from PagerDuty, or vulnerabilities from Snyk. Ask for assistance using natural language, and the Assistant will use the right integration.

  Example prompts:

  • "What are the open Jira issues for the payments project?"
  • "Show me recent PagerDuty incidents for the API service"
  • "List open pull requests for the frontend repo"

Supported Plugins

In general, the information about the plugins is based on the entity it is associated with. For example, the Jira plugin will return information about the Jira issues associated with the entity, and so on.

The Assistant can retrieve data from the following plugin integrations when they are enabled in your Venue instance:

Plugin	Description
ArgoCD	Deployment status and application health
Artifactory	Artifact repository information
AWS Cost Insights	AWS spending analysis and cost allocation
Bitbucket	Repository information and pull requests
Confluence	Search Confluence content across your organization
Datadog	Monitoring and observability data
GitHub	Repository info, commits, pull requests, issues, branches, and releases
GitLab	Repository info, pipelines, merge requests, contributors, and releases
Jenkins	Build and pipeline information
Jira	Project details and open issues
Kubernetes	Cluster and workload information
LaunchDarkly	Feature flags, configurations, and evaluated flag values
Nexus	Artifact repository information
PagerDuty	Service info, incidents, on-call schedules, and standards
Snyk	Security vulnerabilities, projects, and issues
SonarQube	Code quality and analysis data
Terraform	Workspace runs and assessment results

note

Plugins must be enabled by your Venue administrator before the Assistant can access their data. If a plugin is not enabled or you see an error, contact your administrator.

Using Venue.sh Data in External AI Tools (MCP)

You can use the same Venue.sh data (catalog, TechDocs, templates, and plugin integrations) from external AI tools that support the Model Context Protocol (MCP), such as Cursor and Claude Desktop.

After you connect the Venue.sh MCP server and sign in with your Venue account, the AI can query your organization's data in that tool, so you get rich, context-aware conversations without leaving your IDE or desktop app.

For setup steps and what you can do, see Using Venue.sh with MCP.

Setting Up the Assistant (Admin)

Administrators configure the Assistant so users can chat and choose their models. All the setup is done in the Venue.sh dashboard.

1. Go to the Assistant settings in Venue.sh by clicking the Settings cog, then click the Assistant tab.

2. Create a new configuration via a template, or edit an existing one.

   Template	Description	Best for
   General OpenAI	Standard OpenAI setup with GPT models	Most organizations starting with AI
   General Anthropic	Standard Anthropic setup with Claude models	Teams preferring Claude
   DevOps Specialist	Optimized for infrastructure and deployment queries	DevOps-focused teams
   Multi-Provider	Multiple providers configured together	Organizations wanting model flexibility

3. Configure one or more AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, AWS Bedrock).

4. Add the required API keys, and select which models to allow your team to use.

   Users will be able to select and switch between these models when using the Assistant.

   tip

   Store API keys securely! Your Venue instance keeps them in a secure store and does not expose them in the UI once they're saved.

If you need help with the configuration, do not hesitate to contact the Venue.sh team.

Writing Effective Queries

Here are a few best practices for writing useful queries and prompts:

• Be specific - Include relevant details like team names, component types, and entity names.
• Speak clearly - Converse with the Assistant using natural language, just as you would to a colleague.
• Use context - Reference specific entities or projects when you know them.
• Iterate - Refine your question based on the first answer, and use follow-up suggestions when necessary.

tip

Switch it up! If you use different AI tools for different types of work, or if you're curious and want to try another model, you can switch AI models easily. Conversations are kept in history for recall and review, or you can delete them when no longer needed.

Limitations & Considerations

While the Assistant is an impressive helper, it's not perfect. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you use the feature.

• Data freshness - The Assistant works with data from your Venue instance, which is refreshed periodically. For real-time data, always verify against the source systems.

• Model-specific capabilities - Different AI models may have varying capabilities and limitations. If you're not getting the results you expect, try switching models.

Troubleshooting

Situation	What to do
No models appear / "Configuration not available"	Your administrator needs to create an Assistant configuration and add at least one provider and model. Ask them to go to Settings → Assistant to make the updates.
A plugin returns an error or no data	The integration may not be enabled or may need configuration. Contact your Venue administrator.
Results seem outdated	The Assistant uses data from your Venue instance, which is refreshed periodically. For real-time data, check the source system.
You're not getting satisfactory results	Use the dropdown to switch and try a different AI model. Some models are better at certain tasks than others.

Support & Feedback

If you encounter issues or have suggestions for improving the Assistant:

• Contact your Venue administrator, or
• Submit a support ticket through the Venue.sh Support Portal.