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AI conversations (Neural Chat)

Neural Chat lets your server members interact with AI directly in Discord. Members can mention the bot, reply to it, or use channels you configure for AI responses. The dashboard stores conversation history for review.

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What it does

  • AI chat — Members talk to the bot through mentions, replies, and configured channel modes
  • Per-channel modes — Set channels to Off, Mention, or Vibe
  • Conversation history — Replay, search, and review AI conversations
  • Flagging — Flag inappropriate AI responses for review
  • Search — Search across all conversations by keyword or member
  • Response control — Use quiet mode, blocked channels, cooldowns, and daily budgets to keep replies under control

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Settings location

Feature areaDashboard location
AI chat behavior, system prompt, blocked channels, and per-channel modesSettings -> AI & Automation -> AI Chat
Classifier, response model, role filters, budgets, cooldowns, and performance knobsSettings -> AI & Automation -> Triage
Memory retrieval depth and automatic memory extractionSettings -> AI & Automation -> Memory

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How to use

  1. Enable AI chat in Settings -> AI & Automation -> AI Chat.
  2. Set the global channel mode: Off, Mention, or Vibe.
  3. Add per-channel overrides where you want different behavior.
  4. Block any channels where AI should never respond.
  5. Review conversation history under Dashboard -> Conversations.
  6. Flag and filter conversations as needed.
AI conversations may occasionally produce unexpected responses. Use flagging to catch and review issues.

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Conversations dashboard

The Conversations page at /dashboard/conversations is the review surface for Neural Chat history. It lists AI conversations, participants, channels, status, flags, and recent activity. Opening a conversation detail page shows the replay for that thread. Use it to search conversation history, review flagged replies, inspect context around an AI response, and decide whether a prompt or moderation setting needs tuning.

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AI chat settings

The AI Chat settings tab at /dashboard/settings/ai-automation?tab=ai-chat controls core Neural Chat behavior: enablement, model routing, system prompt, channel response mode, blocked channels, mass-ping handling, and per-channel overrides.

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Quiet mode

Quiet mode temporarily stops Neural Chat from replying in one channel. It also pauses vibe-mode triage accumulation for that channel, so the bot stays out of the conversation until quiet mode expires or a moderator turns it off.
CommandWhat it does
/quiet onQuiet the current channel for the default duration
/quiet on duration:1hQuiet the current channel for a custom duration
/quiet on channel:#support duration:30mQuiet another channel
/quiet offResume AI replies in the current channel
/quiet statusCheck whether quiet mode is active
Quiet mode is per-channel, not server-wide. The default duration is 30 minutes, and durations are clamped between 1 minute and the configured maximum. By default, moderators can change quiet mode; servers can configure quietMode.allowedRoles for any, admin, moderator, or specific role IDs. Members can also mention the bot with commands like @Volvox quiet for 30 minutes or @Volvox unquiet.

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Channel modes

Set channel behavior under Settings -> AI & Automation -> AI Chat -> Per-Channel AI Mode.
ModeBehavior
OffThe bot does not respond in the channel
MentionThe bot responds to direct mentions and replies
VibeThe bot watches the channel context and decides when to chime in
The Global Fallback Mode applies to channels without an override. Use per-channel overrides for support, announcements, off-topic channels, or any place that needs different AI behavior.

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Configuration

SettingDescription
AI enabledToggle AI conversations
System promptCustom instructions for the AI
Per-channel AI modeConfigure Off, Mention, or Vibe behavior globally and per channel
Response boundariesSelect channels where AI should never respond
Ignore mass pingsWhen on (default), only direct @Bot mentions trigger a reply — @everyone, @here, and role pings are ignored. Turn off to let the bot respond to mass pings too.
TriageConfigure classifier and response models, role filters, budgets, cooldowns, and status/debug behavior
Output Safety GuardrailRun a classifier on every bot triage response and block unsafe output before it reaches Discord
MemorySet retrieval depth and automatic memory extraction
Quiet modeTemporarily suppress AI replies in a channel

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Memory settings

The Memory settings tab at /dashboard/settings/ai-automation?tab=memory controls how much user and channel context Neural Chat can retrieve and whether the bot extracts memories from conversations automatically. Keep memory conservative for privacy-sensitive communities. Increase retrieval only when long-running personalized context is worth the extra latency and provider cost.

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Output safety guardrail

The Output Safety Guardrail runs a lightweight AI classifier on every triage response the bot is about to post. If the classifier flags the response as unsafe, the bot silently drops it instead of sending it to Discord. Unsafe verdicts are logged to Sentry so you can review them later. Turn it on when you want a second pass on bot output — for example, in larger servers, communities with younger members, or anywhere a single off-tone reply is worse than no reply at all.

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When to use it

  • You run a moderated community and want belt-and-suspenders coverage on AI replies.
  • You’ve tightened your system prompt but still see occasional edge-case responses you’d rather not ship.
  • You’re rolling out Neural Chat to a new audience and want extra caution while you tune thresholds.
The classifier only inspects bot output. Member messages and moderation actions are unaffected.

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Enable it

  1. Open Settings -> AI & Automation -> Triage.
  2. In the Behavior section, toggle Output Safety Guardrail on.
  3. Save. The bot starts classifying triage responses immediately — no restart required.
The toggle is off by default. Safety check usage is recorded in the AI usage ledger under the safety type so you can track its cost alongside classify, respond, and Content Safety automod calls.

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Operational tuning (self-hosters)

The per-server toggle controls whether the guardrail runs. Model selection and runtime behavior are set per deployment through environment variables:
.env
# Classifier model (default: z-ai:glm-5.2)
SAFETY_GUARDRAIL_MODEL=z-ai:glm-5.2

# Request timeout in milliseconds (default: 5000)
SAFETY_GUARDRAIL_TIMEOUT_MS=5000

# Maximum tokens for the classifier verdict (default: 128)
SAFETY_GUARDRAIL_MAX_TOKENS=128

# Block responses when the classifier errors or times out (default: true)
# Set to "false" to let responses through on classifier failure.
SAFETY_GUARDRAIL_FAIL_CLOSED=true
The default classifier model — z-ai:glm-5.2 — requires ZHIPU_API_KEY. Select any chat-completion model from a provider you have credentials for. With SAFETY_GUARDRAIL_FAIL_CLOSED=true, the bot treats classifier timeouts and errors as unsafe and drops the response. Set it to false if you’d rather let responses through when the classifier is unavailable. Managed users on volvox.bot get safe defaults — just flip the toggle. Self-hosters tune the env vars above and restart the bot.

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Available models

Every AI model dropdown in the dashboard lists only models you can actually use right now. The same filtering applies across AI Chat, Content Safety, Triage, and TL;DR settings. Two gates run before a model shows up:
  • Credential gate — The model’s provider must have an API key configured on the bot. If OPENAI_API_KEY, FIREWORKS_API_KEY, or another provider key is missing, every model from that provider is hidden.
  • Tier gate — The model’s tier must match your server’s entitlement. z-ai:glm-5.2 is the free default for every server, and the Z.AI GLM family is available on the free tier. Models marked premium show only for paid-tier servers.
The config API, dashboard webhook, and Discord /config set command enforce the same tier gate when saving model settings, so direct writes cannot assign paid-tier models to a free server. Global config writes are treated as free-tier defaults; use per-server config for paid-tier overrides. Self-hosters grant premium model access by setting PREMIUM_GUILD_IDS on the bot/API process to a comma-separated list of Discord server IDs, then restarting:
.env
PREMIUM_GUILD_IDS=123456789012345678,987654321098765432
If your saved model is no longer available — for example, the provider key was rotated out or the model moved to premium — the dropdown still surfaces it as Current saved model: provider:model. The value stays stored so you don’t lose it. When the provider has no configured key, the entry is prefixed with ⚠ and labeled provider not configured. At runtime, free-tier servers fall back to z-ai:glm-5.2 instead of sending traffic to paid-tier saved models. Select any visible option to replace the saved value. If the dropdown is empty and shows No configured models available, no provider has credentials configured on this deployment. Self-hosters can fix this by adding a provider key to .env and restarting:
.env
# Enable any one of these to populate the model dropdowns
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
FIREWORKS_API_KEY=fw_...
ZHIPU_API_KEY=...
Z.AI models (z-ai:glm-5.2, z-ai:glm-5.1, and z-ai:glm-5-turbo) authenticate with ZHIPU_API_KEY and route through the Z.AI Coding Plan endpoint at https://api.z.ai/api/coding/paas/v4. GLM 5.2 is the free-tier default, and GLM 5.1 plus GLM 5 Turbo are also free-tier options. These models support thinking mode, which lets the provider spend extra reasoning effort before producing the final answer. For triage, set triage.thinkingTokens above 0 to enable thinking, or 0 to disable it; Z.AI treats that value as an enable/disable switch. Managed users on volvox.bot don’t need to do anything — the hosted deployment keeps provider keys in place, and the dropdown reflects whichever providers are live.

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Providers API

Dashboards and integrations can read the same availability data from the bot API: 
GET /api/v1/providers/configured?guildId=123456789012345678
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Response
{
  "configuredProviders": ["z-ai"],
  "guildTier": "free"
}
configuredProviders lists every provider that has an API key set and at least one visible model matching the server’s tier. guildTier is free or premium. Pair this with the static model catalog to apply the same filtering anywhere you render a model picker. guildId is required and must be a Discord snowflake. The caller must be an admin of that server — requests without the parameter are rejected with a 400, and non-admin callers receive a 403. The dashboard hook caches each server’s response for 30 seconds and keeps the previous data visible during revalidation, so model pickers don’t flicker when you switch config pages.
Last modified on June 15, 2026