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Where the assistant lives

The AI assistant is part of the WYSIWYG editor. It appears in every WYSIWYG field: page and collection fields, component fields and the blog post body. Other field types, such as short text, long text and the SEO meta fields, do not have it. By default it adds one button to the editor toolbar, AI Assistant, which opens a dialog where you describe what you want written. A second button, AI shortcuts, appears once an account admin has saved a shortcut list under Settings > Integrations (see Customizing the shortcuts). It applies a saved prompt to the text you have selected. Your team stays in the editor it already knows instead of pasting text in from a separate AI tool.

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Who can use it

The assistant is on for free trials and for every current plan, including Free. There is nothing to enable and no API key to add. ButterCMS hosts the model (OpenAI GPT-4o through the ButterCMS AI proxy) and covers the usage.
Usage is capped per account. When the cap is reached, the editor shows a message that the assistant is temporarily unavailable. Try again later or contact support@buttercms.com.

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AI Assistant: generate new content

Click the AI Assistant button, describe what you need and the text streams into the dialog. You can refine it with follow-up requests, then insert it into the field or replace the current selection. AI Assistant toolbar button AI Assistant generating content example If text is selected when you open the dialog, the selection is sent along as context. The assistant only sees that selection and your request. It does not read other pages, analytics or anything outside the editor.

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AI shortcuts: transform existing content

The AI shortcuts button is only in the toolbar after an admin has saved a shortcut list. Select some text, click the button and pick a prompt. The answer opens in the AI dialog, where you can replace the selection with it or insert it below. AI Shortcuts toolbar button AI Shortcuts refining content example The predefined list that Use default loads in the shortcuts manager:
Work on smaller selections. Each answer is capped at roughly 600 words. If a response stops early, the editor tells you so. Send one section at a time instead of a whole article.

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Customizing the shortcuts

Go to Settings > Integrations and open the AI Assistant card. AI Assistant settings card in ButterCMS From Customize AI Prompts Shortcuts you can:
  • Add Prompt to create a shortcut. Give it a title and the prompt text. Leave Selection checked so it only shows when text is selected.
  • Add Group to nest prompts under a submenu, like the built-in Change tone group.
  • Drag items to reorder them.
  • Use default to load the predefined shortcuts above. This is the quickest way to turn the AI shortcuts button on.
  • Save changes to apply the list to every WYSIWYG editor in the account.
The brand voice and target audience defaults describe ButterCMS and its readers. Edit them to describe your own brand and audience before your team relies on them.

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Prompts worth adding

The result always lands in the WYSIWYG field. For a meta title or description, copy it into the SEO fields of the page or blog post.

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Tips for good results

  1. Be specific. Name the audience, the length and the tone.
  2. Review every answer before publishing. The assistant can invent details.
  3. Treat the output as a draft and edit it into your own voice.
  4. If a prompt keeps missing, change the prompt text in the shortcuts manager rather than retrying.

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Beyond the editor

For worked examples, see AI content suggestions, AI-generated product descriptions and AI-powered SEO optimization. The assistant works on one field at a time. For bulk work, such as generating descriptions for a whole catalog or optimizing an existing library, call an AI provider from your own code and write the results back with the Write API. See Integration with AI tools. For machine translation, see Translation integrations.