WFDASH-WEBAPP/docs/quote-assistant.md

AI quote assistant runbook

Design: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-10-16-ai-quote-assistant-design.md.

What it does

On a schedule, the assistant looks at quote lines nobody has priced yet, shortlists matching items from the POS catalogue (stock_items), asks the AI (the provider set in Settings, AI) to pick the right one, and writes a draft cost, selling price and supplier onto the line. A rep checks the draft and saves as usual.

• Filled lines show purple with an agent logo on the quote and Process pages. Clicking the logo shows the POS item, price source, reason and doubts.
• Lines it could not match stay unpriced and get a muted "AI: no match" badge listing the closest POS items.
• The Quotes board shows "AI x/y" (unreviewed AI fills / total lines).
• The quote page has a "Let AI fill this quote" button for one quote now. MCP tool: quotes.assistant_fill.

It never sets is_processed, never changes quote status, never sends email, and never overwrites a line that already has a price, was edited by a person, or is processed. Prices come only from the POS item.

Going live (manual steps, in this order)

1. Migrate PocketBase. Run against the live PB: npm run pb:migrate:quote-assistant (adds quote_items.ai_fill and the quote_assistant_* fields on ai_settings). Deploying before this makes saves of the AI settings fail.
2. Deploy the app. Pushing to main does not auto-deploy; it is a manual deploy that takes 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Activate the n8n clock (below).
4. Turn it on in Settings, AI: the global "AI enabled" switch must be on, then switch on "Quote assistant enabled" in the Quote assistant section and click Save. Defaults: every 10 minutes, minimum confidence Medium, prompt empty (= built-in default).

The tick does nothing until both switches are on, so steps 3 and 4 are safe in either order.

n8n workflow: "WFDASH Quote assistant tick"

n8n only acts as a clock. The app decides whether a run is due (AI and the assistant on, and at least "Run every" minutes since the last run), so the setting in the app controls the real frequency.

Spec:

Node	Setting
Name	WFDASH Quote assistant tick
Trigger	Schedule Trigger, every 5 minutes
Action	HTTP Request
Method / URL	POST https://wfdash.apphub.co.za/api/v1/quotes/assistant/tick
Authentication	Generic Credential Type, Header Auth, the same credential the existing quotes process-pending workflow uses (an Authorization: Bearer <AGENT_API_KEY> header). Do not create a new secret.
Body	none
Settings tab	Retry On Fail: off; Timeout: 120000 ms (120 s)
Status	inactive until the app is deployed and migrated

Click-by-click:

1. n8n, Workflows, Create workflow. Name it WFDASH Quote assistant tick.
2. Add node, Schedule Trigger. Trigger Interval: Minutes, Minutes Between Triggers: 5.
3. Add node, HTTP Request, connect it after the trigger.
   • Method: POST.
   • URL: https://wfdash.apphub.co.za/api/v1/quotes/assistant/tick.
   • Authentication: Generic Credential Type, Generic Auth Type: Header Auth. Pick the credential used by the quotes process-pending workflow (open that workflow and read its HTTP Request node to see which one).
   • Options, Add option, Timeout: 120000.
   • Settings tab on the node: turn Retry On Fail off.
4. Save. Leave the workflow inactive until steps 1 and 2 above are done.
5. After deploy, click Execute workflow once. Expected response while the assistant is off: {"ran":false,"reason":"disabled"}. When on and not yet due: {"ran":false,"reason":"not_due"}. While an earlier run is still going: {"ran":false,"reason":"running"}. When it ran: {"ran":true,"summary":{...}}.
6. Toggle the workflow Active.

A 401 means the credential is wrong (it must send the app's AGENT_API_KEY as a Bearer token). A tick that takes long is normal when there is work. Each run is bounded: at most 20 quotes and 60 lines, newest first, 15 lines per quote (one AI call per quote). It also stops starting new quotes once 90 seconds have passed, so a run normally answers inside the 120 s timeout; leftovers carry to the next run.

Runs never overlap. A run stamps its start time before it does any work and writes its summary when it ends. While a start is newer than the last summary and less than 10 minutes old, other ticks answer {"ran":false,"reason":"running"}. If a run dies without writing its summary, the next tick after those 10 minutes takes over.

Reading ai_fill

quote_items.ai_fill (JSON) is the record of what the AI did to a line. Read it in the PB admin, or through the MCP quote_items.get.

Field	Meaning
status	filled, no_match, no_candidates (nothing in the POS shortlist, no AI call made) or error (the AI call failed; retried after 1 hour or by the manual button)
stock_item_id, stock_item_name, stock_item_sku	The POS item picked. The POS SKU lives here only; it is never copied onto the line's own sku.
cost_price, selling_price, markup, supplier_id	What was written to the line, taken from the POS item
price_from_default_markup	Selling price came from the default markup because the POS item had a cost but no selling price
confidence	high, medium or low
reason, doubts	The AI's plain-language reasoning and any mismatches to check (grade, size, pack size, etc.)
candidates	Closest POS items looked at (for unmatched lines)
description_snapshot	The line description when tried. An unmatched line is only retried if the description changes.
model, attempted_at	Which model, when
reviewed_at, reviewed_by	Set when a rep saves the line
accepted_unchanged	On review: cost and selling price still equal what the AI wrote
supplier_changed	On review: the rep changed the supplier

A line is pending review (purple) while ai_fill.status = "filled", no reviewed_at, and pricing_source = "ai_pos". The rep's save sets reviewed_at; the line keeps pricing_source = "ai_pos" and a grey logo. Every AI write is in the audit log under the actor "AI quote assistant".

The last run is shown in Settings, AI, Quote assistant, and stored in ai_settings.quote_assistant_last_run_summary (quotes seen, lines filled, no match, skipped, errors).

Judging accuracy

Among reviewed AI fills (ai_fill.status = "filled" and reviewed_at set), the share with accepted_unchanged = true is the headline number: how often a rep saved the AI's price as it was. Also watch supplier_changed (supplier was wrong even when the price was right).

To tally: fetch quote_items where pricing_source = "ai_pos" (for example with quote_items.list or a short script), keep the ones whose ai_fill.reviewed_at is set, and compare accepted_unchanged true versus false.

Rough guide: if most reviewed fills are unchanged and the unchanged rate stays steady for the high-confidence group, consider lowering the minimum confidence to Medium or widening scope. If reps keep changing prices, raise the minimum confidence to High or edit the prompt (Settings, AI, Quote assistant prompt; "Reset to default" restores the built-in one).

Stopping it

Switch off "Quote assistant enabled" in Settings, AI and Save, or deactivate the n8n workflow. Existing purple lines stay until reviewed.