Pioneer AI

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Pioneer AI is the assistant built into the Outpost console. A technician asks a question in plain language, and Pioneer AI looks up the answer in your Outpost: which endpoints are offline, why a patch failed, what an alert means, which tickets are waiting. It can also take action, such as running a command or deploying software, after a technician approves it. This page explains what Pioneer AI can do, how it stays inside each person’s permissions, and where its answers come from.

What it can do

Pioneer AI works through tools, the same set that AI apps connected with MCP use, plus a few that act on the console itself.

Task	Examples
Diagnose	Look up an endpoint’s inventory, software, alerts, and patch state. Read command and script results. Search your documentation and knowledge base.
Act on endpoints, device groups, and sites	Run a command or a script, open a shell, apply patches, deploy software, wake an endpoint, move endpoints to a site, change the members of a static device group.
Work the service desk	Find, create, and update tickets, add messages, log time, and acknowledge alerts.
Report	Build a table or a chart in the conversation from what it found, and reach any other console operation you have permission for, such as a report.
Map the network	Read a client’s network map, trace a path between devices, list what changed, compare a diagram with the network, and draw a new diagram. See Network maps with Pioneer AI and MCP.
Drive the console	Open a console page for you, such as the endpoint it is talking about.
Hand you the controls	Show a Connect card for remote desktop or an Open shell card for a shell on an endpoint. The session starts only when you select the card.
Work on an endpoint’s screen	See and operate the screen of a remote session you have open, for one task you approve. See Let Pioneer AI control a session.
Research	Search the web for current versions, patches, and advisories, and cite its sources. See Pioneer AI web search. Answer questions about Outpost from this documentation. See Pioneer AI and the Outpost documentation.
Work on large tasks	Show a plan checklist, hand parts of a task to sub-agents, keep watching a long job after the reply ends, and undo changes that can be reversed exactly. See Use Pioneer AI.
Remember	Keep notes between conversations, for you, for one client, or for everyone. See Manage Pioneer AI memories.

Pioneer AI also knows which console page you are on, so “why is this one offline?” on an endpoint’s page needs no further detail. See Use Pioneer AI.

How it stays inside your permissions

It acts as you. Every tool call runs with the permissions of the person chatting, under the same plan, access rules, and client scope as their own console session. Pioneer AI cannot reach anything that person could not reach.
It asks before it changes anything. Looking things up runs without asking. Every change waits for an approval card in the conversation. See Approve Pioneer AI actions.
Some things are never allowed. Pioneer AI cannot reveal secrets, play session recordings, export data, change billing, sign-in, or security settings, or change its own AI settings. See Actions that are never allowed.
Everything is logged. Every tool call appears under Recent activity on Settings > AI, with Pioneer AI in the Via column, and every change it makes appears in the audit log.

An owner can also turn on automatic approval, so that a separate AI safety review may approve some actions in place of the technician.

Where the answers come from

An owner chooses the source on Settings > AI:

	Outpost Cloud AI	Your own endpoint
Who runs the model	An AI service provider Outpost contracts with	You, or a provider you choose
Billed by Outpost	Yes, by use. Home Lab has a free monthly allowance instead.	No
Budget in the console	A monthly budget	Organization and per-person budgets, from prices you enter
Available on Remote Outpost	No	Yes

See Set up Pioneer AI to choose, and Pioneer AI data and privacy for what each source receives.

Conversations are kept

Each conversation is saved, encrypted, in your Outpost, so you can come back to it from the history list or open it in its own window. Conversations are deleted after the retention period an owner sets, 30 days after the last message by default. People who hold ai:review, which the owner holds by default, can read every technician’s conversations. Conversations are never used to train models. See Pioneer AI data and privacy.

Permissions

Permission	Lets a person	Held by default
`ai:use`	Chat with Pioneer AI, save personal prompts, and view Settings > AI	Every role
`ai:manage`	Change Settings > AI, shared prompts, AI budgets, and a client’s AI override, and view Usage	The owner. On an MSP’s practice console, every role that holds `billing:manage`.
`ai:review`	Read every technician’s Pioneer AI conversations	The owner. On an MSP’s practice console, every role that holds `ai:manage`.
`remote:ai_control`	Let Pioneer AI control a remote session they have open, with `ai:use`	Every role that holds `remote:initiate`

See Roles and permissions.

How MSPs control it per client

On the MSP plan, the Pioneer AI settings belong to your practice and apply to every client. A client policy turns Pioneer AI off for every client, off unless turned on per client, or on unless turned off per client, and each client’s page can override it. A conversation started while a client is selected belongs to that client. If any client a conversation has worked with is turned off, the conversation stops with A client this conversation used has AI access turned off by your organization’s policy. See Choose which clients get Pioneer AI.

Content is licensed CC BY 4.0. Code samples are MIT. Outpost and the Outpost mark are trademarks of Outpost Business Solutions, PBC and are not covered by either license.