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Overview

The AI Playground leverages artificial intelligence to streamline your procurement and sales workflows. Access and act on your Seminode network data, search comprehensive documentation, and gather market intelligence from the web—all through natural language commands. Visit the AI Playground to get started.

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Seminode (MCP)

The Seminode MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration provides direct access to your Seminode data and operations through natural language commands. The following tools are available:

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Search & Discovery

  • search_listings - Search for listings by term (MPN, material, or part number)
  • search_teams - Find teams by name

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Partner Management

  • create_partner - Add new network or email partners to your network
  • list_partners - View all current partners and their details
  • add_permission_to_partner - Grant specific node access permissions to partners

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Network Connections

  • add_posting_node - Add nodes for posting supply/demand data
  • add_query_node - Add nodes for querying available data
  • list_connections - View all active network connections and their status

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Node Management

  • create_node - Create new network nodes for data organization

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Quotes & RFQs

  • create_quote - Create a new quote request to send to a listing
  • view_quotes - Access all quotes in your inbox, grouped by status
  • view_thread - Open a specific quote thread, including every quote and response on it
  • quote_response - Accept or reject incoming quotes
  • counter_quote - Send counter offers for received quotes
These tools enable you to search your network for parts, manage suppliers and partners, handle quotes, and configure network connections all through conversational AI commands.
Tools that change data — creating partners, nodes, quotes, or responding to a quote — always ask you to confirm before they run. Nothing is written to your network without an explicit “yes”.

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Documentation (MCP)

The Documentation MCP provides instant access to comprehensive Seminode documentation through natural language queries. Ask questions about platform features, API usage, workflow processes, or technical specifications, and the AI will search through the complete Seminode documentation to provide accurate answers and guidance. This integration understands platform-specific terminology and context, making it easy to find information about features, troubleshooting steps, and best practices without manually browsing through documentation pages. The AI-powered web search capability scours the internet for comprehensive part information, including real-time pricing, inventory availability, technical specifications, and supplier details. This extends your search beyond the Seminode network to gather market intelligence from across the web. Web search capabilities include finding datasheets, current market pricing, stock levels at distributors, identifying alternative materials when facing shortages, and researching compatibility issues to support your procurement and design decisions.

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The Tools Menu

Both MCP servers come preconfigured — you don’t install or connect anything. Open the Tools menu below the message box to turn each capability on or off:
  • Seminode — the platform MCP described above. The first time you enable it you’ll be asked to authorize access to your account; after that it stays connected.
  • Documentation — the documentation MCP. Enabled by default, since it needs no authorization.
  • Web Search — off by default.
Turning a capability off removes those tools from the conversation, which is a good way to keep the assistant focused (for example, disabling web search when you only want answers grounded in your own network data).

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Agent Types

The same Tools menu has an AI Agent section where you choose how the assistant approaches your questions:
  • Default Assistant — general-purpose help across the platform
  • Buyer Assistant — tuned for procurement work: sourcing, cost reduction, and comparing supplier responses
  • Seller Assistant — tuned for sales work: moving excess inventory and positioning available supply
Your choice is saved with the conversation, so reopening an old thread restores the agent it was started with. Switching agents mid-conversation applies from your next message onward.

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Conversation History

Conversations are automatically saved and accessible from the sidebar, which titles each one for you after your first exchange. Search the list to find an older thread, then click it to continue where you left off. To start a new conversation, click the button beside the sidebar search box (on mobile this is a full-width New Chat button). Use the menu on any conversation to Rename or Delete it.

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File Attachments

Click the button to attach files to a message. Spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls), .csv files, and PDFs are supported, and you can attach several at once. Attachments are read as context for that conversation — ask the assistant to summarize a quote sheet, reconcile a supplier’s pricing against your own, or pull the part numbers out of a document so you can act on them.

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AI Sidebar in Inbox

The AI assistant is also available directly within the Inbox. Click Ask AI to open a sidebar that provides contextual assistance on the quotes you’re looking at — without leaving the inbox. You’ll find Ask AI in two places:
  • In the quote comparison view, as a button next to the quote count — it hands the assistant the quotes you’re comparing.
  • In the table view, on the row right-click menu and in the toolbar’s actions menu — select rows first to scope the question to those threads, or use it with nothing selected to ask about the whole page.
From the sidebar header, View in playground moves the conversation into the full AI Playground with its history intact.