Authoring with AI

AI assistant

Describe what you want the machine to do. The assistant turns it into wired nodes, a working HMI, a configured device — and if you don't like the result, one Ctrl+Z takes back the whole turn. A head start you can audit, not a black box.

In one line

Melanite's assistant lives in a slide-over dock on every page of the device UI and drives a closed allowlist of 53 tools: read and edit node graphs (including reading its own compile errors and fixing them), write branded HMI pages, create variables, add and configure devices and motion axes, author 2D scenes, set up alarms, and take backups. It has no shell, no filesystem and no arbitrary HTTP access by construction. Every turn is wrapped as one undo step. It runs on your own Claude API key — there is no hosted tier and no data leaves your device except the conversation you choose to send.

Capabilities

On every page, in context

One conversation that follows you across the app. Each page tells the assistant where you are — the open network and selection, the HMI file, the device, the axis — so "make this faster" resolves to what's in front of you.

A closed tool allowlist

53 tools, enumerated and audited: graph editing and self-repair, HMI files, variables, devices, axes, 2D scenes, alarms, backups, health. No shell, no file access, no eval, no arbitrary network calls — structurally, not by prompt.

One turn, one undo

Everything an assistant turn changed reverts together — across the node graph and the 2D scene — with a single Ctrl+Z.

Four safety gates

Enabled → admin → a time-boxed unlock → per-category rules: reads always, off-real-time edits while running, real-time topology changes only while stopped. Unlocking is a human-only action.

It can read drawings

Paste, drag or pick images into the chat. A photographed or scanned drawing, a schematic or a screenshot becomes part of the conversation, and the assistant works from what it reads.

Bring your own key

Your Claude API key, stored write-only on the device with a live validation check and a model picker. There is no hosted tier, no subscription, and no per-seat AI fee.

External agents, same surface

Any outside AI agent gets the identical tool surface over REST — same gates, same batching, same one-batch-one-undo — with the node catalog generated from the executor itself so it can never drift.

Worked examples

A €10k controller, rebuilt in about an hour

A lab reactor controller had been commissioned by a professional CODESYS integrator: €10k, months of lead time, and a UI nobody could change afterwards.

How

Working through Melanite's agent API, an AI agent rebuilt it: a ΔT-clamped cascade PID, a multi-segment setpoint program, real EtherCAT I/O and a purpose-built operator page — in roughly an hour, fully owned and editable afterwards. (This is our own lab project, not a third-party customer testimonial.)

Why Melanite

Most "AI in automation" is a chat window beside the editor that suggests text. Melanite's assistant holds the same audited tool surface an external agent gets, acts inside the running system under explicit safety gates, and is reversible in one keystroke. And because the key is yours, the AI costs you exactly what the model costs — nothing on top.

FAQ

Is the AI assistant free?

The assistant is part of the platform at no extra cost. You supply your own Claude API key and pay the model provider directly — there is no hosted tier, no subscription and no per-seat AI charge from us.

Can it break my running machine?

It is gated to make that hard. The assistant must be enabled, you must be an admin, and you must grant a time-boxed unlock. Within that, reads are always allowed, off-real-time edits are allowed while the system runs, and changes to real-time topology are refused unless the system is stopped. Anything it did undoes in one step.

What can it actually do?

Build and fix node graphs (it reads its own compile errors), write and edit branded HMI pages, create variables, add and configure devices and motion axes, author 2D scenes, set up alarms and announcements, inspect health and run history, and take backups. It cannot restore a backup — that stays an operator action.

Does my process data go to the cloud?

Only what the conversation itself contains, and only to the model provider you configured with your own key. Melanite runs no AI service, collects no telemetry and has no phone-home.

Free, full-featured

Every feature, free for personal use.

One binary runs every tier — the licence only toggles entitlements, never the feature set.

Download free All features