Perfex AI Staff release notes

Updates

• FixedFix: Upgrade Database works from any earlier release (no gap in the migration sequence)
• ImprovedUpload the new files and run Perfex's Upgrade Database for the module: no manual step, every setting and record is kept

Assistant on every page

• ImprovedThe AI Staff button and slide-over chat on every admin page now draw without a single extra database query; what the chat needs (set up or not, waiting approvals, your AI limit) is fetched when you first open it
• ImprovedSettings › Assistant › Show on every page for: every role, or only the roles you tick (administrators always see it; the Use the Assistant permission still applies)
• ImprovedTool steps in the chat are small cards: the tool, its arguments in one line, and tags for External and Needs approval
• ImprovedWhen you are close to your AI limit the chat says so; when a blocking limit is used up it says until when
• ImprovedDesign Studio's Ctrl/Cmd+K "Ask AI Staff" fills the question into the chat; with the button hidden it opens the full assistant page with the question filled in

Providers

• NewNew: Mistral AI, DeepSeek and Ollama (your own server), next to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI and any OpenAI-compatible server. Test Connection checks an answer, a tool call and streaming
• ImprovedOllama may use this server or a private network address without switching on private networks for everyone; Mistral and DeepSeek accept only public https addresses; cloud metadata addresses (including the IPv6 and Alibaba forms and metadata host names) are refused for every provider
• ImprovedModel per Role and Agent (Settings): give a role or an agent its own connection and model for one feature or all; fallback, budgets, privacy rules and local-only mode still apply
• ImprovedPrices for the new models are added to the price table (Ollama costs nothing per token unless you add a price)

Tools page (new: AI Staff › Tools)

• NewEvery tool AI Staff can use in one list: built in, from other SellMyCode modules, from other modules and from MCP servers, with search and filters
• NewSwitch any tool off, or limit it to some roles (administrators always keep it; Perfex permissions still decide which records a person may see)
• NewTest Run for administrators: a read tool runs as you and shows exactly what the AI receives; a write tool shows its approval card without saving anything
• SecurityFor developers: other modules add tools with pas_register_tool() (permission, approval for writes, untrusted results, audit and the switches on this page all apply)

External MCP servers (AI Staff as an MCP client)

• SecurityAdd servers that speak Streamable HTTP, with a tool prefix, a token or custom header (stored encrypted, never shown again), a test that lists their tools, an allow-list of tools and the roles that may use them
• ImprovedPublic https addresses only, unless you mark a server as on your own network; metadata addresses are always refused, redirects are not followed, answers are size and time capped
• SecurityAnswers from outside services reach the AI fenced off as untrusted data; every tool a server does not mark as read-only asks for approval first and is never auto-approved
• ImprovedAn administrator can mark a tool the server did not annotate as read-only (on the tool page, or several at once on the server page): it then runs without an approval card, still only for the server's roles and within Perfex rights. The tool and the chat show "Marked read-only by <name>"; the mark is logged, and it is removed automatically when the server changes the tool's name, description or arguments, or when the server address changes. Tools the server marks as able to delete data can never be marked
• ImprovedLocal command (stdio) servers are not supported on web hosting: run them behind an HTTP bridge

Usage and budgets

• ImprovedUsage › Overview adds By Role, By Provider and By Agent, and the calls list filters by role, provider and agent

Approvals and activity

• ImprovedApprovals are bound to their owner, conversation, tool and values: a card approved from another conversation, or an action changed outside AI Staff, is refused and logged; rights and the Tools page are checked again when it runs
• ImprovedThe activity log records outside tool calls, tool tests, tool and server changes, model rules and refused approvals
• ImprovedNew texts in all 9 languages

Business questions

• NewNew built-in tool Business Summary: "how is revenue today / this month?" answered from Perfex's own invoices and payments, without Brain Pro: invoiced (with and without tax), payments received, new invoices, new customers and overdue receivables, per currency, compared with the previous period
• ImprovedPeriods today, yesterday, this or last week, month, quarter, year, or your own dates, in the company timezone
• ImprovedFollows Perfex rights: "view own" staff get only their own invoices and payments, and the answer says so; with Brain Pro active the answer points to its deeper metrics
• ImprovedSuggestions for the chat ("Revenue today?", "Top 5 products this month", "Profit this month by category", "Commission payable"), offered only to people who can use the tool behind them; other modules add theirs through the pas_suggestions filter

Smaller, cheaper requests (tool selection)

• ImprovedWith many modules active an administrator may use 100+ tools. A request now carries only the tools that fit the question, plus a small core set (Find Tools, Search Records, Get Record, Business Summary) and the tools already used in the conversation, within a budget: Settings › General › Tool definitions per request (default 8,000 tokens). With every SellMyCode module active a typical first request drops from about 57,000 to under 3,000 tokens of tool definitions
• NewNew tool Find Tools: when the assistant needs something else it looks it up and uses it in the next step of the same answer; a tool it calls by name is loaded the same way (at most 16 extra tools per answer)
• NewNew tools Search Records (one search over customers, contacts, leads, projects, tasks, tickets, invoices, estimates, proposals, contracts, expenses and the knowledge base) and Get Record (any record by type and id)
• ImprovedNothing changes for rights: every call still passes the Tools page switches and roles, Perfex permissions, approval cards, budgets and the activity log, exactly as before
• ImprovedWhen all of a person's tools fit the budget they are all sent, as before
• ImprovedAgents keep their own tool list; when it is above the budget the agent page says so and each run sends the most relevant tools and finds the others when needed
• ImprovedThe Tools page shows what a typical request carries ("Typical request: N tools, ~X tokens"); Usage shows the tool definitions per request on average, and every usage row keeps them
• ImprovedShorter tool descriptions and compact argument definitions (limits still checked on every call)
• ImprovedAgents and AI Staff MCP tokens saved with Perfex Connect's older per-resource tool names keep working, limited to that resource

Look and feel

• ImprovedSettings has a new header with tabs: General, Appearance, AI Providers and Budgets, with links to Tools and MCP Connections. Provider connections are cards; a new connection starts from a provider card with ready model presets and a link to where its key is made
• ImprovedSettings › Appearance: the assistant's name, accent colour (or Design Studio's Brand Kit colour), avatar and launcher icon from a built-in set or your own picture (PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF up to 1 MB, checked and re-saved as a small PNG; SVG is refused), left or right side, button label and up to six suggestion chips, with a live preview
• ImprovedChat: a greeting that lists what the person can ask and what is prepared for approval, suggestion chips, a budget meter when a budget applies, pinned conversations, Export as Markdown or PDF, and Clear (archives the chat and starts a new one)
• ImprovedApproval cards show field names and the chosen option names instead of ids, with Approve, Edit Before Approving and Reject; edited values are checked again before they run
• ImprovedTools page grouped by area, module and MCP server, with Disable All / Enable All per group
• ImprovedMCP Connections: a catalogue of popular services (GitHub, Stripe, Linear, Notion, Sentry, Atlassian, Asana, Zapier, Context7, Hugging Face, Cloudflare Docs, DeepWiki) — Configure creates a normal server with the same rules as above; services that need a local command or their own sign-in say so

License

• ImprovedEvery license call (activate, check, pause) now sends AI Staff's sellmycode.net item id, as sellmycode.net requires
• ImprovedA purchase code bought for another product, or an unknown one, only shows "This purchase code is not valid for Perfex AI Staff." It is never activated, and nothing about the other product is shown
• ImprovedAn activation made by an older version with another product's purchase code is paused automatically and removed from this install; enter your AI Staff purchase code to switch AI Staff back on

License

• ImprovedWhen the site moves to another domain (a new address, a staging or test copy), the license is never activated for the new domain on its own: not when the module is switched on again, not by the scheduled check, not when a page opens. AI Staff stays switched off until an administrator confirms: the License page and the admin banner say "This site now runs on <new domain>. Activate your license for this domain?" with an "Activate on <new domain>" button. When all activation slots are in use, the page shows sellmycode.net's hint and the Request a Transfer button
• ImprovedThe old domain is never paused from the new one (module deactivation and the Pause button only use a token of this domain); it keeps its slot until the author releases it
• ImprovedPaused, revoked or otherwise invalid licenses: besides Reactivate, "Use a different purchase code" opens a code field on the page. The stored code is replaced only when sellmycode.net confirms the new one; if it fails, the current code stays and the error is shown
• ImprovedSwitching the module on again on the same domain still reactivates the kept purchase code automatically
• ImprovedBlocked licenses: when the author blocks the purchase code (License Blocked) or this domain for it (This Site Is Blocked for This License), AI Staff switches off on the next check and the License page and admin banner show sellmycode.net's hint with an Appeal / Contact the Author button; Reactivate is hidden, a different purchase code can still be used
• ImprovedThe license is checked every 6 hours instead of once a day, and also when an administrator or staff member opens a AI Staff page and the last check is more than 6 hours old. That check runs after the page is sent (or in the background), so pages never wait for it, and several pages opened at once make one check at most
• ImprovedNew texts in all 9 languages

License

• FixedOpening the License page address of a deactivated module answers "page not found" instead of a server error
• NewNew License page (AI Staff › License and Setup › Module Licenses): activate with your sellmycode.net purchase code, see the license type, domain, activations used and limit, update period, last check and how long the install works without a check; Verify Now, Pause License on This Site and Reactivate, in an in-page dialog, light and dark, in all 9 languages. Only administrators can activate; other staff see "contact your administrator"
• SecurityAnswers from the license server are signed (Ed25519) and checked against the key built into the module; when the server cannot be reached the module keeps working until the grace deadline of the last confirmed answer
• FixedWithout a valid license (not activated, paused, revoked, a code for another product, or past the grace deadline) AI Staff switches off and Perfex works as without the module: the assistant, writing, summaries, agents, knowledge search, approvals and the customer portal assistant stop, the website chat widget and the MCP endpoint answer "License not valid" (HTTP 403), background jobs stop, Perfex's own AI features no longer use AI Staff, and the other SellMyCode modules fall back to their own AI settings (the shared AI client and AI tools are not offered). Nothing is deleted; activating the license brings everything back
• ImprovedInstalls on localhost, *.localhost, *.test, *.local and private network addresses need no license
• ImprovedDeactivating the module pauses this site (the slot stays reserved for the domain), activating it again resumes it; uninstalling pauses and removes the stored purchase code
• FixedFixed: uninstalling the module no longer stops on a missing constant

• ImprovedPerfex Sentinel can use the AI set up here: a "Perfex Sentinel" row in Settings › Routing, its own budget key and the same redaction, local-only mode and usage log
• FixedFixed: the customer portal assistant now knows the contact's name and company (they were left out of its instructions)

Assistant

• NewAI Staff button and slide-out chat on every admin page; knows the record you are looking at (customer, contact, lead, project, task, ticket, invoice, estimate, proposal, contract, expense, payment, knowledge base article)
• NewFull-page assistant with conversation history, search, rename; suggested questions per record type; Ctrl+/ shortcut
• NewStreaming answers with an automatic fallback for hosts that buffer, progress steps while tools run
• New51 Perfex tools: 37 that read (customers, contacts, leads, projects, tasks, tickets, invoices, estimates, proposals, contracts, expenses, payments, credit notes, subscriptions, knowledge base, calendar, reminders, notes, staff, departments, activity, pipeline, support and timesheet reports, knowledge search) and 14 that propose changes (tasks, task status and assignees, task comments, notes, leads, lead status, lead activity, reminders, calendar events, ticket reply drafts, ticket status, estimate and proposal drafts)
• NewEvery tool runs with the asking staff member's Perfex permissions, including "view own" rules

Approvals and audit

• NewChanges become approval cards: approve, edit then approve, or reject; checked again and made exactly once with the approver's permissions; approvals inbox with filters, bulk approve and reject, history of edits
• NewProposals expire after a set number of days; nothing is ever sent to customers by a tool
• NewAuto-Approve Rules (Settings, administrators): pick which low-risk tools may run without a card, for everyone or chosen roles, for agents only or also the assistant, with daily limits per agent and per person; never for runs started by customer text, the portal, the website chat or MCP; off by default
• NewActivity log of every read, proposal, decision, setting change and model call, with filters and CSV export

AI writing, summaries and triage

• New"Write With AI" menu in Perfex editors and writing fields: write from a brief, improve, shorten, lengthen, fix grammar, change tone, translate, reply to a ticket using the knowledge base; editable presets
• NewAI summary cards on customers, leads, projects, tickets and contracts
• NewTicket triage: department, priority, service, tags, sentiment, language, helpful articles and a draft reply

Agents

• NewBuilt-in agents: Morning Briefing, Stale Lead Nudges, Overdue Invoice Chaser
• NewCustom agents builder: instructions, tool allow-list, run-as staff member, schedule (hourly, daily, weekdays, monthly), events (lead added, ticket opened, customer reply, task completed, invoice overdue, contract ending) or by hand; approval policy; limits and a monthly budget; test runs that change nothing; run history with transcripts

Knowledge

• NewSearch by meaning and keywords over customers, leads, projects, tasks, tickets, invoices, estimates, proposals, contracts, knowledge base, predefined replies and attached files (PDF, DOCX, ODT, TXT, MD, CSV, HTML)
• NewResults checked against each person's permissions before any text leaves the server; answers cite their sources
• NewIncremental indexing on the Perfex cron, MariaDB vectors when available, a plain database store otherwise

Governance

• NewUsage and cost by person, feature, model and day; editable price table; CSV exports
• NewBudgets per installation, role, staff member, feature or agent; stop or warn; early warnings
• NewPersonal data hidden before sending (email, phone, IBAN, card, own patterns) and put back in answers
• NewFields that are never sent, local-only mode, private-network opt-in, retention settings

Channels

• NewCustomer portal assistant: the contact's own invoices, quotes, projects and tickets, help articles, ticket and callback forms the contact submits; limits per contact and customer
• NewWebsite chat widget: answers from public knowledge base articles, contact form to a lead, hand-off to a ticket or lead, allowed website addresses, rate limits, visitor blocking, conversation log
• NewMCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients: personal tokens, read-only or read-and-propose, tool picks, expiry, rate limits; changes still wait for approval

More

• NewAI fields: Perfex custom fields filled by AI on create, update or by hand, with review before saving
• New"Ask to filter" on Perfex lists: plain-language requests become the list's own filters
• NewProvider for Perfex's own AI features (ticket summary, reply suggestion, text enhance) on Perfex 3.3+
• NewTools for Perfex Brain Pro and Perfex Cash & Capacity when installed; shared AI setup for both modules
• NewProviders: OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini and any OpenAI-compatible server (LiteLLM, Ollama, vLLM, OpenRouter); routing per feature with a fallback; keyless local servers
• NewLight and dark theme, 9 languages, Perfex SaaS ready