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The Assistant is a chat agent built into the Surface Area dashboard. Describe the system you want mirrored and it writes the connector, validates it against the real compiler, publishes it, builds a world from it, puts data in, and opens a session you can call. The Assistant drives the same surfaces the gateway command-line tool drives. A template that does not compile is refused in chat exactly as it is refused in a terminal.

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The path the Assistant follows

1

It reads the connector-authoring skill first

Before writing anything, the Assistant loads the connector-schema-authoring skill. The skill holds the instructions for the gateway-world/1 contract: what belongs in world.json (entities, fields, keys, relationships), what belongs in connector.toml (the vendor connection, authentication by environment-variable name, the operations the world serves), how handlers work, how to record provenance, and what “done” means.The files it writes therefore match the conventions the compiler enforces.
2

It validates until the contract holds

The Assistant compiles its draft with the trusted schema runtime — the same code that runs on a publish — and gets back every error with the path it occurred at. Nothing is written while it does. It loops on validation until the template compiles, then reports the summary: vendor, entities, operations, tools.A template that fails validation never reaches your project.
3

It publishes the connector

A valid template is published to the hub as a commit. A new slug creates the connector; an existing slug commits a revision against the head you based the edit on, so a head that moved is refused rather than overwritten.Publishing is gated: the Assistant needs hub write access and the matching autonomy setting, or it asks you to confirm before it writes.
4

It builds a world from the connector

init_world_from_connector makes a world in your project from the connector’s head commit, pinned by repository, commit, and digest. The platform initializes and builds it and returns a request id plus the world’s container id; the world serves the vendor’s routes as soon as its first version is READY.Pass worldSlug for an exact slug. Left out, the platform derives one from the display name and appends a random tail, so two worlds named the same thing never collide.
Building a world needs the world-provisioning permission and the provisionWorlds autonomy setting, or your confirmation on the spot. Give the Assistant your own request id for a build and a retry resumes it instead of creating a second world.
5

It imports the data

Rows go in through the world’s own gate, either inline or from a file. Every row is checked against the contract, and a row that breaks it is refused with the field named — nothing is written when that happens.Ask for a dry run first. dryRun reports every refusal without writing anything, so a vendor export that disagrees with the contract shows up before you commit a version. A successful import lands as a new READY version with per-entity counts.
6

It opens a session

The Assistant opens a live session against the world’s head version and returns the URLs: the tool surface, and the api, ui, and browser surfaces where the world declares them. Point your agent at the API URL.A session holds a running container while open, so close it when you are done.

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What to ask it

  • “Mirror our billing vendor’s REST API as a connector, then build a world from it.”
  • “Validate this connector template and tell me what does not compile.”
  • “Build a world from the acme-crm connector and call it acme-crm-staging.”
  • “Import these rows into acme-crm-staging, but dry-run them first.”
  • “Open a session on acme-crm-staging with the API surface.”

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How the Assistant behaves

It plans before it commits. The Assistant shows you the files it wrote and the validation verdict before anything is published, and every provisioning or destructive step asks for confirmation unless you have granted it the matching autonomy. It works inside one project. Everything it can see and everything it writes belongs to the project you opened it from. Your conversations are saved. A Past Conversations list holds recent sessions. Reopen one to pick up where you left off with its full history intact.
A coding agent in your own editor can do the same work over the platform’s MCP server, with the same tools: get_connector_authoring_skill, validate_connector_template, publish_connector, init_world_from_connector, import_world_data, and open_world_session. See MCP Server.