The AI assistant
The assistant is the AI built into AlgoStudio for admins and course maintainers. Open it with the AI button in the header. You describe what you want; the assistant uses its tools to actually do it — and everything it does is written to the audit log with your name on it.
"Make a 'Sorting' course with three Python problems of increasing difficulty. Dynamic tests, friendly readmes, and an intro page explaining big-O."
Setup
The assistant runs on your own Anthropic API key: paste it into Preferences → AI API key (sk-ant-...). The key is stored on your account and used only for your requests. No key, no assistant.
What the assistant can do
| Area | Tools |
|---|---|
| Courses | list, create (admin-only), rename/re-describe, delete (admin-only) |
| Problems | read (with all file contents), create, update settings (name, function name, language, tags, order), delete |
| Problem files | write or delete any file: readme.md, _placeholder.<ext>, tests, custom resolver |
| Content pages | read, write, delete — including the index course overview |
The assistant only ever sees and touches courses you can edit. Maintainers are scoped to their courses; creating or deleting whole courses needs an admin. Deletions are real deletions — the assistant asks before doing one, but there is no undo.
Why it writes good problems
The assistant knows the problem file contract — scaffold naming, the dynamic-test conventions, and the per-language class-naming rules — so the problems it creates actually run. If you ask it to read a problem first, it can fix or extend what's there instead of overwriting it.
The student-side tutor
Students get their own, much more limited AI: a tutor on each problem page that gives hints and explains errors but won't write the solution. It also runs on the student's own API key from Preferences. See Solving problems.
Conversations
The conversation lives in your browser (the server is stateless). When the assistant changes something, the page reloads so you see the result immediately. Switch between the assistant and a problem's tutor with the dropdown in the AI panel.