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Nextedy AI is a separately installed package that adds the AI Assistant to Risksheet and Powersheet. This guide takes a Polarion server from downloading the package to a working assistant.

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What You Will Achieve

By the end of this guide you will have:
  • The Nextedy AI package deployed on your Polarion server, with the Nextedy AI section available in Polarion administration
  • The Admin AI Assistant answering questions in the Risksheet or Powersheet configuration editor — this needs the package only
  • Optionally, a Nextedy AI license installed and a language model connected, so that the Risksheet AI Assistant and the Powersheet AI Assistant can run in the sheet

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Three Ways to Get Nextedy AI

All three start on the Nextedy AI download page, and Nextedy e-mails you the access details or the links: The hosted evaluation is the quickest way to see the in-sheet assistants at work. It runs on Nextedy’s server, so the rest of this guide, which installs Nextedy AI on your own Polarion server, does not apply to it. If you start with the package alone, you can add a license later without reinstalling anything. For what each assistant needs and what a license covers, see Nextedy AI.

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Prerequisites

  • A running Polarion server on a version still supported by Nextedy
  • Risksheet 26.7.0 or newer, Powersheet 26.7.1 or newer, or both, installed on that server — Nextedy AI adds its assistants to them
  • Access to the Polarion server filesystem, and the ability to stop and start the Polarion service
  • Global administrator rights in the Polarion web interface
  • The package nextedy_ai.zip, from the Nextedy AI download page
  • For the in-sheet assistants only: a Nextedy AI license, and a model endpoint that implements the OpenAI Chat Completions API, with an API key, that your Polarion server can reach
Throughout this guide, POLARION_HOME stands for your Polarion installation directory — for example /opt/polarion on Linux or C:\Polarion on Windows. The READ_ME_FIRST.txt file in the package uses the same name.

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Deploy the Package

1

Stop the Polarion service

Stop Polarion before touching the extensions directory.
2

Unpack the package

Unzip nextedy_ai.zip. Next to READ_ME_FIRST.txt it holds two folders, one per range of Polarion versions, and each of them contains a com.nextedy.ai.polarion folder:
3

Copy one folder into the extensions directory

Copy only the com.nextedy.ai.polarion folder that matches your Polarion version — the folder itself, not the polarion-… folder around it — into:
Never copy both variants. Only one com.nextedy.ai.polarion folder may be in the extensions directory, and it must match the Polarion version the server runs. Polarion 2606 and newer refuses to start while the folder for Polarion 2512 and older is in the extensions directory.
4

Delete the configuration cache

Delete the whole .config directory — the directory itself, not just its contents:
Polarion recreates it on the next start, which is what makes it discover the new extension.
5

Start the Polarion service

Start Polarion again and wait until it has come up completely.

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Check the Installation

Log in as a global administrator and open Administration. A Nextedy AI section now lists two pages:
  • AI Assistant Actions — where the action files of the in-sheet assistants are kept
  • License — headed Nextedy AI License, where the Nextedy AI license is installed
Until a license is installed, the License page reports “No production license found.”
The License page also mentions a 30-day evaluation version. For Nextedy AI that does not apply: without a license file, use of the in-sheet assistants is refused. To evaluate them, request the 30-day on-premises trial on the Nextedy AI download page, which comes with a trial license file.

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Try the Admin AI Assistant

The Admin AI Assistant works as soon as the package is installed — no license and no API key. Open the configuration editor of a Risksheet or Powersheet document. The sparkle AI Assistant button in the editor toolbar is enabled and opens a chat window titled ✦ Risksheet AI or ✦ Powersheet AI. For the steps, see Use the Admin AI Assistant in Risksheet or Use the Admin AI Assistant in Powersheet. What it sends, and where:
  • Your question goes from your browser to the Nextedy AI service, together with a signed token that carries your Polarion user ID. A configuration file goes along only when you attach it.
  • The Nextedy AI service is operated by Nextedy and answers with a language model that Nextedy uses under its own account, so you need no AI provider account of your own.
  • Your Polarion server makes no outbound connection for the Admin AI Assistant, but your browser must be able to reach the Nextedy AI service.

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Install the Nextedy AI License

The Risksheet AI Assistant and the Powersheet AI Assistant need a valid Nextedy AI license. The Admin AI Assistant does not, so skip this section if you only want that one.
1

Get the license file

The 30-day on-premises trial from the Nextedy AI download page e-mails you a link to a trial license file, nextedy-ai_lic.json, which covers every user on the server. To buy a license, contact info@nextedy.com.
2

Install it on the server

Install the file in one of two ways:
As a global administrator, open Administration → Nextedy AI → License and drag the license file onto the area marked “Drag and drop your license file here”, or click it to select the file. The page then shows the license details.The upload needs no renaming: it stores the file in the server’s license folder under the name Nextedy AI looks for, and keeps any previous license file as a backup. The drop area appears only to global administrators.
3

Assign users, if the license names them

A license for a set number of users makes the License page show Configure Named Users or Configure Concurrent Users. Create the user group it names — nextedy_ai_users for named users, nextedy_ai_users_concurrent for concurrent users — add the users, and open the License page again to apply the assignment. Installing a License describes the procedure. The trial license covers every user, so it needs no group.
One Nextedy AI license covers the in-sheet assistants of both Risksheet and Powersheet; there is no separate license per product. When a trial license expires, the Risksheet AI Assistant and the Powersheet AI Assistant stay visible, but their use is refused. The Admin AI Assistant keeps working.

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Connect a Language Model

The Risksheet AI Assistant and the Powersheet AI Assistant send their requests from your Polarion server to a language model that you provide. The Admin AI Assistant does not use this connection. Nextedy AI talks to the model through the OpenAI Chat Completions API, and the chat in the assistant panel receives its answers as a stream. OpenAI and Azure OpenAI, through its /openai/v1 endpoint, offer that API. Any other endpoint — one inside your own infrastructure, for example — must implement the same API, streamed responses included.
1

Point Nextedy AI at your endpoint and model

Open Administration → Configuration Properties at the repository (global) level — Polarion stores these in .polarion/context.properties — and set:
Set nextedy.ai.baseUrl before you store the key: from the moment a key is set, requests go to the public OpenAI API for as long as the property is unset.Both properties are read from the global configuration only; they cannot differ per project. The other nextedy.ai.* properties, for logging and prompt overrides, are in AI Action Configuration.
2

Store the API key

In the global administration, open Administration → User Management → User Account Vault and add an entry with the key nextedy-openai-apikey. Enter the API key in the password field; only the password is read, so the user name can be anything. The vault keeps the key encrypted and access-controlled, which makes it the place to prefer.If you cannot use the vault, the key is also read from the JVM system property nextedy-openai-apikey, passed to the Polarion process, and then from the environment variable OPENAI_API_KEY in the Polarion process environment. The first of the three that holds a value is used.
No restart needed. The key, the endpoint and the model are read again for every request, so a change applies to the next request. A sheet that is already open checks what is in place when it loads, so reload it to see the change in its toolbar. Until a key resolves, the in-sheet assistants report themselves unavailable.
What leaves your server, and when:
  • With no API key set, the in-sheet assistants send nothing.
  • With a key set, each request goes from your Polarion server to the endpoint in nextedy.ai.baseUrl. It carries the context the action is configured to send — row fields, for example — any message you type and the recent conversation, and the ID, type and title of the candidate work items found in your project.
  • With a key set and no nextedy.ai.baseUrl, requests go to the public OpenAI API.
  • Usage is billed by your provider to the account behind the key, at its prices for the model you set. How long the provider keeps the requests, and what it may do with them, is governed by its terms for that account.

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Switch the Assistant On and Give It Actions

The in-sheet assistants are switched on by default in every project, but they offer nothing until an administrator defines at least one action and points the sheet at it. Each product documents that setup on its own:

Configure the AI Assistant in Risksheet

Switch the assistant on for a project, write an action, and point a Risksheet document at it.

Configure the AI Assistant in Powersheet

Enable the assistant for a project, point a sheet at an action configuration, and edit its actions.

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Verify

Open a Risksheet or Powersheet document, or reload it if it is already open, and hover the sparkle AI Assistant button in the sheet toolbar. Its tooltip tells you what is still missing: The complete tables are in Toolbar and Risksheet Menu and the AI Assistant reference for Powersheet.

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Update Nextedy AI

To install a newer version, download the package again and repeat Deploy the Package: stop Polarion, replace the com.nextedy.ai.polarion folder in POLARION_HOME/polarion/extensions/ with the one from the new package, delete POLARION_HOME/data/workspace/.config, and start Polarion. The license and the model connection stay as they are. When you upgrade Polarion itself from 2512 or older to 2606 or newer, replace the folder in the same way with the one from polarion-2606-and-newer, or Polarion does not start.

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Troubleshooting

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Next Steps

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Need Help?

For any assistance, submit a ticket and the Nextedy support team will help you out.