Ask assistant

This page explains how the /ask command works: the bounded tool loop it runs, the read-only tools it can call, the built-in Palworld 1.0 data, the optional cited web search, what it refuses to do, and the requirement on the AI provider. /ask is optional and stays disabled until you configure it. See Configuration for the settings.

What /ask is

/ask <question> [private] is a read-only Palworld assistant. It answers questions about the game and about your live server using a small set of read-only tools. Set private to keep the reply visible only to you.

The command is disabled until OPENROUTER_API_KEY is set. When it is not configured, /ask reports that it is unavailable rather than guessing.

The bounded tool loop

Each question runs a short, capped loop. The model may make up to four calls and up to three rounds of tool use before it must answer. Every model round trip has a deadline set by AI_TIMEOUT_MS. Usage is capped by AI_DAILY_REQUEST_LIMIT per day and by a per-user cooldown from AI_COOLDOWN_SEC.

While the loop runs, the reply shows live status such as “Searching the web…” so you can see what it is doing.

The read-only tools

The assistant can call roughly 19 tools. All of them are read-only. There are three sources behind them:

Live server snapshot. Deterministic queries over the same shared five-minute snapshot the rest of the bot reads from. See Notifications and history.
Pinned Palworld 1.0 knowledge. A disk-cached, version-pinned mechanical dataset. It covers pal search and details, work suitability, stats, active-skill power and cooldowns, guaranteed passive traits, wild level ranges, movement, food and stamina, exact breeding pairs, reverse breeding lookup, and owned-worker recommendations.
Optional web search. A Palworld-scoped read-only search, described below.

Guarding against invented pals

The assistant validates pal names against the Paldeck before using them, so it does not invent species that do not exist. This is a hard guard, not a hint.

Optional web search with citations

Some topics are not in the pinned dataset: partner skills, item drops, spawn coordinates, recipes, and technology unlocks. When web search is available, the assistant searches for these, cites a relevant result, and treats the returned snippets as untrusted and possibly version-sensitive.

Web search is enabled only when SEARXNG_URL points at a self-hosted SearXNG instance. The documentation uses https://searxng.example.com as the placeholder. When search is unavailable or returns nothing, the assistant reports the gap instead of guessing.

Successful searches use a bounded, restart-safe cache written with owner-only file permissions. When search is briefly offline, the assistant may reuse an explicitly labeled last-good result.

For a handful of common material and technology questions, such as Meteorite Fragments, Dog Coins, and Ancient Civilization materials, the assistant first consults a small attributed, versioned CC BY-SA corpus and avoids a live search. See the bot’s third-party notices for the attribution.

Refusal scope

The assistant is strictly Palworld only. It refuses off-topic questions. It refuses to guess when it lacks grounded data, and it will tell you when a topic is outside its pinned dataset and search is unavailable.

Provider requirement

/ask sends requests through OpenRouter. Use a provider that denies data collection and requires zero data retention. This is a requirement, not a preference: the assistant is meant to run without your questions being retained by the model provider.

Example

/ask question: what does meteorite ore do?

Assistant: Meteorite Fragments are a late-game material used to craft
high-tier ammunition and gear. You gather them from meteor-strike sites
and certain ore deposits.

Source: https://searxng.example.com/ (Palworld wiki result)