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Digital Lab Assistant

FlaskTrack's Digital Lab Assistant helps you work with laboratory information and prepare controlled actions without bypassing the platform's normal permissions, validation, review, or compliance controls.

The assistant supports two related modes:

  • Ask questions

    Ask about FlaskTrack, organization knowledge, and permitted laboratory records.

    The assistant can use available documentation, indexed organizational content, and supported live FlaskTrack context to help answer the question.

  • Prepare actions

    Describe what you want FlaskTrack to do in normal language.

    FlaskTrack can discover the relevant records, prepare a typed action plan, show the proposed operations, and wait for your approval before execution.

Ask questions

Use the assistant for questions such as:

Which workflow is used for banana multiplication?

What is the difference between a protocol and a workflow?

Which batches are currently pending for this workflow?

The exact information available to the assistant depends on your role, organization, enabled modules, provider configuration, and the records available to your account.

Prepare an action plan

Use action planning when you want FlaskTrack to perform one or more supported operations.

Example:

Create a workflow using the multiplication and rooting protocols, then create a batch for 24 Musa acuminata samples.

FlaskTrack can:

  1. identify the relevant record types;
  2. search permitted FlaskTrack data for matching records;
  3. ask for clarification when a real choice or missing human-entered value remains;
  4. prepare a concrete plan;
  5. show each proposed action before execution;
  6. wait for approval;
  7. execute the approved steps in order;
  8. report the result of each step.

Nothing in a proposed action plan is executed merely because the AI suggested it.

Learn how action plans work

FlaskTrack understands record types

Laboratory records are not interchangeable just because they use UUIDs.

For example:

Record Meaning
Protocol One reusable laboratory procedure.
Workflow An ordered collection of protocols.
Batch An execution of a workflow for grouped work.
Sample An individually tracked experimental or biological entity.
Species A biological catalog record.
Tool Equipment, apparatus, or operational resource.
Ingredient A material or reagent.
Plasmid A plasmid catalog record.

The assistant resolves typed FlaskTrack records before using them in an action. A Protocol ID is not accepted as a Workflow ID merely because both are syntactically valid UUIDs.

Clarification instead of guessing

When several records match your request, FlaskTrack may ask you to choose from the available records.

For example:

Use the rooting protocol.

If more than one relevant rooting protocol exists, the assistant can present the matching records rather than choosing one arbitrarily.

You should not normally need to type internal FlaskTrack UUIDs. Existing records should be resolved through FlaskTrack, and records created by an earlier step in the same plan are linked automatically.

Learn about clarification and record selection

Multi-step requests

A later action can depend on a record created by an earlier action.

For example:

Create a workflow, then create a batch using that new workflow.

Conceptually:

flowchart LR
    A[Create workflow] --> B[New workflow ID]
    B --> C[Create batch]

FlaskTrack carries the newly created record forward during execution. You do not need to know the future Workflow UUID.

Review remains your responsibility

AI can misunderstand intent, select an unintended record, or generate scientifically unsuitable content.

Before approving a plan, review:

  • the records being created or changed;
  • protocol and workflow selections;
  • quantities;
  • dates and scheduling;
  • species and catalog selections;
  • explanations for each action;
  • any compliance-sensitive operation.

AI output is assistive. Authorized users remain responsible for scientific, operational, and compliance decisions.

Permissions and compliance still apply

The assistant does not bypass:

  • organization boundaries;
  • role and permission checks;
  • tool input validation;
  • lifecycle and state-transition rules;
  • approval requirements;
  • compliance controls;
  • electronic-signature requirements.

A plan that cannot be executed safely should fail rather than silently substitute another record or guessed value.