Ed AI Assistant

Ed includes an AI assistant that can help authors work with BPMN diagrams and supporting process files. Use it as an authoring assistant, not as a substitute for reviewing and running the model.

What the Assistant Can Help With

The assistant can help:

  • inspect the current BPMN diagram;

  • suggest or make BPMN changes;

  • create or update form schema files;

  • explain workflow behavior;

  • run a diagram during authoring;

  • debug common form, script, and routing issues;

  • draft documentation for process models.

  • read the project collaboration journal and artifact index when they exist;

  • create advisory project journal entries when team notes appear to drift from the project description.

Good Requests

Useful requests are concrete and include the intended outcome.

Examples:

  • “Add a User Task that collects requester name and email, then run the diagram to the form.”

  • “Review this diagram for disconnected paths and unclear gateway labels.”

  • “Create a Jinja-rendered dropdown from the fruits task data variable.”

  • “Explain why this gateway is taking the fallback branch.”

Review the Assistant’s Work

After the assistant changes a model:

  • inspect the BPMN diagram visually;

  • check generated JSON Schema and UI Schema files;

  • run the diagram with realistic data;

  • confirm task data contains only values that should persist;

  • confirm the final model still matches the business process.

Project Collaboration

When a workspace includes project-description.md, collaboration/artifact-index.md, and collaboration/journal/*.md, the assistant uses them as project context. Team notes remain project files so they can be reviewed, synced, and versioned with the BPMN source.

The assistant may add an ed_guidance journal entry when it sees possible drift from the project description, but it should not silently rewrite another team member’s note.

Documentation Check

When the assistant discovers or applies a reusable pattern, such as a form widget, Jinja schema pattern, BPMN modeling convention, or debugging approach, check whether the public documentation already explains it. If it is not documented, add a documentation note to your task or update the docs with the same change.

This keeps Ed, Spiff Arena, and process authoring documentation aligned with real work.