# devlin (the assistant) and getting around the app

> devlin is the built-in assistant that helps design, edit and manage simulations by conversation.

- Plans: Core, Team, Enterprise
- Canonical: https://docs.devlin.ai/ask-devlin/devlin-assistant-and-app-navigation

devlin is the built-in assistant that helps design, edit, and manage simulations by conversation. This doc covers where devlin lives, how to control what it's allowed to do on its own, and what it can help with.

## Where devlin lives
- The **Ask devlin** tab is a full-screen conversation with devlin, the place to start from scratch or ask broad questions. It is the first tab and the page the app opens on. The tab appears in workspaces on the Core, Team, Enterprise plans and in a workspace with an event offer claim; other workspaces open on Studio. With an active claim, a line at the top of the conversation shows the days and credits left in the trial. When the claim has ended, the tab stays so past conversations can still be read, the app opens on Studio, and the message box is replaced by the date the trial ended. See [Trying ask devlin with an event offer](https://docs.devlin.ai/ask-devlin/event-offers).
- On a wide screen the Ask devlin tab lists past conversations down the left side. The **conversations** button in the chat header hides and shows that list. On a narrower screen the same button opens the list over the page.
- On the other dashboard pages, devlin is available as a **docked panel** alongside the page content, so a designer can keep working in Studio, Results, or Publish while talking to devlin about what's on screen. The full-page creation flows (new simulation, new coach, new organization) do not show the panel.
- The tab and the panel are the same conversation. Moving from the Ask devlin tab to another page carries the conversation into the panel, including a reply that is still being written, and returning to the tab brings it back to full screen.
- Selecting a link in the conversation that opens another page in the app, such as a button on one of devlin's cards or a link in its reply, takes the conversation along. From the Ask devlin tab on a wide screen the panel opens beside that page, even if you closed the panel earlier. On a narrow screen the sheet closes to show the page.
- In each of devlin's replies, the text comes first and the reply's cards follow it. A card that loads or grows never moves the conversation while you are reading further up. When you are at the bottom of the conversation, it stays at the bottom.
- On a wide screen the panel is flexible: drag its edge to **resize** it, **swap sides** (left or right), or **close** it. For a full-screen conversation, open the Ask devlin tab. A closed panel leaves a slim **Ask devlin** tab on the side it was docked to; click it to reopen.
- On a narrow screen the panel is not docked. The **Ask devlin** button in the top bar opens it as a sheet over the page.
- Press **⌘J** (Ctrl+J on Windows) to toggle the panel open or closed. On the Ask devlin tab, where the conversation is already the page, the shortcut moves focus to the message box instead.

## Settings
- The **Assistant settings** button in the chat header opens assistant settings: this month's use of the monthly build cap, the autonomy preferences below, how much devlin challenges your approach, and the facts devlin has remembered about the workspace.
- The remembered facts are shared by everyone in the workspace. Each fact has a **Forget** button for the person who saved it and for the workspace's owners and admins. Other members see the fact without the button. The same rule applies to the facts listed on the **Memory** tab of **Brain**.
- The **account menu** in the top bar (the round chip with your initial) holds general app settings, including **Account settings** and **Workspace settings**.

## Monthly build cap
The monthly build cap is the most devlin can spend from the workspace's credits in a calendar month, across chat and background builds. It limits spending from the credits the workspace already has and never adds credits, so it works the same way on monthly, annual, and invoiced plans. Learner sessions do not count toward it.

- Each plan has a default: 15,000 credits a month on Core, 150,000 on Team, and 300,000 on Enterprise.
- On Free or Starter, a workspace with an active event offer claim has its default raised to the claim's credits when those are higher. On paid plans a claim adds credits only and the plan's default is unchanged. A cap an owner or admin set still applies. See [Trying ask devlin with an event offer](https://docs.devlin.ai/ask-devlin/event-offers).
- A workspace owner or admin can change it under **Settings → Credits & Billing**, in **Monthly Build Cap**. Any whole number of credits is allowed, with no upper limit. Leaving the field empty goes back to the plan default, and 0 turns building with devlin off.
- Every change is recorded in the organization's activity log. Members can see the cap and the month's use but cannot change it.
- The count covers credits already spent plus credits reserved for a reply or build that is still running. When a request does not fit under what is left, devlin says so and nothing is charged. The count starts over on the first day of each month (UTC).
- To see the month's use against the cap, open **Assistant settings** from the chat header.
- devlin cannot change the cap itself. It explains where the setting is.

## Finding content in Studio
**Studio** has a segmented switcher at the top for choosing a content type: **Simulations, Coaches, Journeys, Evaluators**. Studio opens on Simulations, and each type has its own list. There is no combined view of all types. Knowledge bases and the workspace's shared context (audiences, characters, brand and the facts devlin has remembered) are in **Brain**.

## Autonomy settings
devlin's assistant settings let a designer control how much it does without asking first. These preferences belong to the individual designer and are saved on the device in use, so they do not follow the designer to another browser or computer.

**Navigation**: when devlin suggests moving to another page (like opening a simulation's editor or jumping to Results):
- **Ask first** (default): devlin shows a card with a "Take me there" button; the designer clicks to navigate. The button shows only while the designer is somewhere else: on the page the card points to, the card says "You are here" instead.
- **Just go**: devlin navigates automatically as soon as it suggests the move. This takes effect while the conversation is on screen, in the open panel or on the Ask devlin tab. From the Ask devlin tab on a wide screen, the panel opens beside the destination so the conversation continues there.

**Edits**: when devlin proposes a change to a simulation, coach, or other artifact:
- **Standard** (default): edits to drafts apply right away; edits to live (published) content are proposed for review, except moving a simulation, coach or journey to another folder.
- **Review all**: every edit to existing content becomes a proposal to review before it's applied, drafts included. New drafts are still created right away.
- **Auto-apply**: edits to live simulations and coaches apply immediately instead of waiting for review, while edits to live evaluators and journeys, workspace settings, simulation languages and hosted project settings still go through review. Choosing this option asks for confirmation first. Version history is the safety net for simulations and coaches: those changes can be reviewed and rolled back afterward. Evaluators have no version history, which is why a change to a live evaluator always goes through review.

No matter which edit setting is chosen, **publishing, unpublishing, archiving, and deleting always require explicit approval**. devlin will never take those actions on its own.

**How much should devlin challenge your approach?**: how much devlin questions the format you ask for before it builds. Like the other settings here it is yours alone and saved on the device in use.
- **Build what I ask**: devlin builds the format you ask for.
- **Suggest better fits** (default): when another format would land better, devlin suggests it in a line or two, then builds what you pick.
- **Push back like a performance consultant**: devlin asks about the problem on the job and whether practice is the fix, then recommends a format with its reasons before building.

See "devlin suggests a format" in [Building and managing content with devlin](https://docs.devlin.ai/ask-devlin/build-and-manage-with-devlin).

devlin navigates to the exact place it is talking about when that place has its own address: a stage or a Design section of a simulation, coach, evaluator or journey editor, a Studio content type, a Brain tab, or the SCORM or Hosting tab of the Publish page (**Publish → Hosting**). It can also land on one field of a simulation's Design stage (such as the voice or the opening line) or on a journey's scene, and scroll to it, and it can open the dialog the next step happens in: an editor's version history, a journey's export for an LMS, or the dialog that creates or edits a custom character on the **Characters** tab of **Brain**. The dialog opens once: reloading the page does not open it again.

## Spending credits
Some of devlin's actions spend credits beyond the reply itself, such as generating a custom character's images or summarizing a very large source. Whether devlin asks first depends on the most that one action can use and the workspace's plan. For a custom character's images that is the amount set aside, 330 credits for each image, because an image that fails the automatic check is made once more (see [Custom characters](https://docs.devlin.ai/knowledge/custom-characters)).

The rules are:

- At or under the plan's approval limit, devlin does it and then says what it cost.
- Over the limit, or when the cost is not known yet, devlin names the amount and waits for a yes. Nothing starts and nothing is held until then.
- With **Review all** chosen under Edits, devlin asks before every one of these actions, whatever the cost.

The approval limit for one action is 200 credits on Free, 1,500 on Starter, 7,500 on Core, and 75,000 on Team and Enterprise. In ask devlin, a Free or Starter workspace with an active event offer claim uses the offer's approval limit when it is higher than the plan's. On paid plans the plan's limit applies. The limit only decides whether devlin asks: the workspace still needs the credits, and the monthly build cap still applies to devlin's own replies and builds. The plan's limits apply to an AI tool connected through the [MCP server](https://docs.devlin.ai/integrations/mcp-server-and-ai-tool-connectors), except in a workspace that requires approval for changes made by AI tools, where a person starts the action in the app.

## Updates from the app
When something devlin was waiting on happens in the app, the conversation is told by itself and devlin carries on: a custom character's images finishing, or the designer approving a reference portrait on its card. The update shows in the conversation as a small grey line, and devlin's reply to it is charged like any other reply. An update is never treated as agreement to a price. After a few updates in a row devlin waits for the designer to write again.

## What devlin can help with
Beyond building and editing simulations through conversation, devlin can:
- **Find simulations by topic**: ask devlin to find "the negotiation scenario for new sales reps" instead of hunting through Studio. devlin searches by keyword across simulation names, characters, learner roles, scenarios, and welcome messages.
- **Run a quality check on a simulation before publishing**: devlin can review a simulation's setup (end conditions, pass threshold, welcome message, scenario setup, character name, voice configuration, and retry limits) and flag issues worth fixing first.

## Related
- [Building and managing content with devlin](https://docs.devlin.ai/ask-devlin/build-and-manage-with-devlin)