---
title: "AI answers"
description: "Let your AI agent add Edge Assist to the sites it deploys: grounded AI answers for visitors, created, indexed and embedded in two Agent API calls."
url: "https://edge.network/docs/agent/assist"
section: "Agent tooling"
---

# AI answers

"Add an AI assistant to my docs site" is two API calls. Your agent creates an Edge Assist site, generates a content index from the pages it's deploying, triggers an ingest, and drops the one-line embed snippet into the site, all without leaving the Agent API.

## Why use Assist through the Agent API

- **Grounded answers:** Assist only answers from the site's own indexed content, with citations. It won't invent features or pricing.
- **One-line embed:** The create response includes the exact script tag and a hosted fallback URL, so the agent doesn't need to look anything up in the docs.
- **Agent-friendly ingestion:** Content goes in as a simple JSON index the agent can generate at build time from the pages it's already deploying.
- **Feedback loop:** The question log surfaces what visitors actually asked. Unanswered questions are content gaps the agent can fix.

## API endpoints

```text
GET    /agent/assist/sites                 # List sites
POST   /agent/assist/sites                 # Create a site (returns sitekey + embed snippet)
PATCH  /agent/assist/sites/{id}            # Update name, hostname, index_url, site_prompt
DELETE /agent/assist/sites/{id}            # Delete a site
POST   /agent/assist/sites/{id}/reingest   # Index the site's content now
GET    /agent/assist/sites/{id}/overview   # Usage + health (questions, answer rate, cap)
GET    /agent/assist/sites/{id}/questions  # Question log (?answered=false for gaps)
```

Requires an agent access code with the `assist` product. Creating, updating, deleting and reingesting require the `manage` permission. All write endpoints support `X-Dry-Run: true`.

## Creating a site

```http
POST /agent/assist/sites
Authorization: Bearer ea_live_...

{
  "name": "Docs site",
  "hostname": "docs.example.com",
  "index_url": "https://docs.example.com/assist-index.json"
}

# Response:
{
  "site": {
    "id": "ast-abc123",
    "name": "Docs site",
    "hostname": "docs.example.com",
    "sitekey": "ea_7f31d9c2b48e5a06...",
    "monthlyCap": 250,
    "embed": {
      "script": "<script src=\"https://assist.edge.network/widget.js\"
        data-sitekey=\"ea_7f31...\" defer></script>",
      "hostedUrl": "https://assist.edge.network/w/ea_7f31..."
    }
  },
  "next_steps": [
    "Trigger the first ingest: POST /agent/assist/sites/ast-abc123/reingest",
    "Add the embed to the site's pages: <script src=...></script>"
  ],
  "tell_user": "Assist site \"Docs site\" created for docs.example.com.
    Trigger a reingest to index the content, then add the one-line embed
    snippet. Answers only work on docs.example.com (origin-enforced)."
}
```

> [!WARNING]
> **Sitekeys are origin-enforced.** The widget only answers on the hostname the site was created for. Get the hostname right. A stolen sitekey is useless off-domain, but so is a mistyped one on-domain.

## The content index

Assist ingests a JSON file hosted at a public URL. Agents deploying a static site can generate it at build time from the same pages:

```json
{
  "pages": [
    {
      "url": "https://docs.example.com/getting-started",
      "title": "Getting Started",
      "text": "Plain text of the page content..."
    }
  ]
}
```

Set it on creation (`index_url`) or later via `PATCH`, then trigger a reingest. Assist also refreshes the index automatically on a regular cycle and skips re-processing unchanged content.

## Indexing content

```http
POST /agent/assist/sites/ast-abc123/reingest
Authorization: Bearer ea_live_...

# Response:
{
  "index": { "pages": 42, "chunks": 318, "updatedAt": "2026-08-08T14:02:11Z" },
  "tell_user": "Content indexed: 42 pages, 318 chunks. The assistant is
    answering from this content now."
}
```

## Typical agent workflow

1. **Create the site:** scoped to the deployment's hostname, with the content index URL if it already exists.
2. **Generate the index:** a JSON file of the site's pages, deployed alongside the site itself.
3. **Trigger a reingest:** and confirm the page/chunk counts look right.
4. **Inject the embed snippet:** one script tag, ideally in the shared layout so it's on every page.
5. **Report back:** including the free-tier cap (250 questions/month) and how to go past it (pay-as-you-go, active automatically with a card on file in Billing).

## Pricing

The free tier includes one site and 250 answered questions per site per month. Cached answers are free and don't count against the cap.

Pay-as-you-go is active automatically once the account has a card on file. It allows more sites and pays for overage at $0.01 per question from the prepaid balance (a monthly cap is optional). When the headroom runs out, the widget stops answering (search keeps working) until the next month or a top-up.

## See also

- [Edge Assist docs](/docs/assist): Ingestion, widget options and the index format in full
- [Discovery endpoint](/docs/agent/discovery): The agent's entry point