> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.frontic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# AI Buddy
Buddy is the **app-wide assistant** you meet everywhere in the admin app. It knows your business, reads your current project configuration, and can change that configuration on your behalf when you ask it to.
**essentials/buddy/input**
Buddy's empty composer card - a textarea reading 'Ask your Buddy anything…' with attach, command, and send icons
Talk to Buddy like a teammate - describe what you want, and it goes to work
## What Buddy can do
Buddy handles the backend side of your project. You talk to it the way you'd talk to a teammate who already knows your setup.
> [card] Set up integrations
>
> Connect Shopify, commercetools, a PIM, a CMS, or any REST source. Buddy
> walks the setup, fetches a sample, and gets data flowing.
> [card] Shape your data
>
> Define Data Storages and the schemas that make your data semantically
> meaningful - products, articles, categories, whatever your experience
> needs.
> [card] Wire Data Syncs
>
> Map incoming feed records into your Data Storages using the Value
> Composer. Buddy explains why a transformation looks the way it does and
> suggests alternatives.
> [card] Build the API
>
> Create Detail Blocks, Search Listings, and Page URLs that expose exactly the
> data your experience needs.
> [card] Edit Context Base
>
> Read and update Skills, Rules, and Commands in the
> [Context Base](https://docs.frontic.com/context-base/overview.md) - shaping how Studio and editor
> agents work on your project.
> [card] Answer questions
>
> "Why is this record missing a title?", "What does this composer
> expression return?", "Which listings depend on this storage?" - Buddy
> can inspect your project to answer.
> [!NOTE]
>
> Buddy works on your backend configuration - not on code. For writing and editing code, open a [Studio workspace](https://docs.frontic.com/studio/frontic-studio.md) or use [your editor](https://docs.frontic.com/ide/overview.md) where the right tools for building are available.
## Open Buddy from anywhere
Press ⌘+B (or Ctrl+B on Windows and Linux) from anywhere in the admin app to toggle Buddy. The same shortcut closes it again. You can also click the Buddy icon in the top bar.
See [Keyboard Shortcuts](https://docs.frontic.com/essentials/keyboard-shortcuts.md) for Buddy's input keys and the rest of the admin app.
Buddy opens in two modes:
* **Sidebar** (default) - Buddy docks to the right of your current page, so you can keep working while you chat. Useful when you want Buddy to look at the screen you're already on.
**essentials/buddy/sidebar**
Frontic Product Card block configuration page with Buddy docked as a sidebar on the right, showing an active thread asking why the Product Card is missing the 'clearout' flag on some records
* **Focus mode** - Buddy takes the full window for a distraction-free conversation. Switch with the expand icon in Buddy's header, or back with the dock icon. Best for longer setup conversations or when you want the chat to be the whole experience.
**essentials/buddy/focus-mode**
Buddy in focus mode - full-screen lavender gradient with an active thread asking why the Product Card is missing the 'clearout' flag on some records
## You stay in control
Buddy aligns with you on every change before acting. Your project role and permissions are delegated to Buddy, so it can work on your behalf - but with guardrails:
* **Creating new resources** (blocks, listings, storages) and **read-only operations** (inspecting, querying, previewing) are auto-allowed
* **Changing existing configuration** requires your approval before Buddy proceeds
* **Publishing a release** is always your call - Buddy can help prepare a release, but has no access to Release Control
To let Buddy make those changes without asking, switch the shield toggle in its chat input from **Always ask** to **Skip approvals** - it then changes your live project data, such as storages, syncs and pages, without a pause. The toggle starts on Always ask, is separate from Studio's and the Designer's, and applies only to you, in this project and this browser.
## How Buddy knows your business
Buddy doesn't run a setup interview of its own. [Context Setup](https://docs.frontic.com/context-base/setup.md) reads your storefront, runs a short [interview](https://docs.frontic.com/context-base/setup.md#the-interview) on what the storefront can't tell it, and from both writes Buddy's two documents:
* a **Prompt** that shapes its general behavior - who it's working for and on what
* **Rules** that cover the basics Buddy needs on every session without having to rediscover them
This means Buddy understands your project not only from the shape and content of your data, but from your perspective - what matters to your business, how you think about your products, and what you're trying to achieve.
You can read both under [Settings → Agents](https://docs.frontic.com/project-settings/agents.md) → **Buddy**. They're read-only there; to change one, ask Buddy, and it asks you to approve the new text before it saves it.
> [!NOTE]
>
> Buddy follows your [Context Rules](https://docs.frontic.com/context-base/rules.md) like every other agent, unless a rule's **Profile** leaves Buddy out, and it has its own Project Rules alongside them. It can also read and edit any [Context Base](https://docs.frontic.com/context-base/overview.md) document.
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