Access, safety and troubleshooting

An assistant connected to GalleryCamp works with your real records. That's what makes it useful, and it's why the connection deserves the same thought as giving a colleague a login. This page sets out exactly what a connection can and can't do, which actions reach beyond the gallery, and how to fix the problems people most often run into.

Who can connect an assistant

Only a gallery's owners and admins can connect an assistant, and only while they're active on the team. Members can't, whatever tools they've been given. Demo galleries can't be connected at all, because they hold sample data.

A connection lasts only as long as the person who approved it stays an owner or admin. Remove them from the team, suspend them or make them a member, and every assistant they connected to the gallery is disconnected straight away. Reinstating them doesn't bring the connections back; they connect again.

Each connection is for one gallery, chosen when it's approved. An assistant connected to one of your galleries can't see the others.

Read only and Read & write

You choose one or the other when you approve the connection.

Read only sees everything a gallery admin would see in the tools — inventory, artists, collectors, inquiries, deals, orders, viewing rooms, consignments, events, the journal and reports — and changes nothing. The tools that make changes aren't offered to it, so there's nothing for it to try. It's the right choice for research, reporting and getting used to working with an assistant.

Read & write can also create and change those records. Use it when you want the assistant to do the data entry, not just find things.

To change a connection's access level, connect the same app again and choose the other level. The new connection replaces the old one.

What no connection can do

Whatever its access level, an assistant can't:

Manage your team, billing, subscription or gallery settings.
Create or change locations or tax rates.
Permanently delete an artwork. Works are archived, and archived works can be restored.
Change a website's domain, design or which works it shows.
Read anyone's personal account, or sign in as them.
Take a card payment. It can hand you a payment link for the collector to use.

Actions that reach outside the gallery

Most of what an assistant does stays inside GalleryCamp until someone on your team acts on it. A few tools reach people outside the gallery, and assistants are told to confirm with you before using them that way.

What it does	When it reaches outside
Make or update an offer	When asked to send or revise it, the collector is emailed. A draft emails no one.
Issue an order	Emails the collector the invoice and payment link, unless it's asked to issue it without emailing.
Give a collector access to a viewing room	When asked to send, the collector is emailed an invitation. Otherwise it only creates the link.
Update a website	Every change is live straight away. Unpublishing takes the site offline.

Offers and viewing-room invitations an assistant sends go out from GalleryCamp's address in your gallery's name, not from anyone's connected mailbox. An invoice goes from the order's sales rep's mailbox if they've connected one, and otherwise from GalleryCamp's address.

If you want to be certain nothing goes out, say so: Draft it — don't send anything. Or connect with Read only.

Actions that are hard to take back

These don't contact anyone, but think before approving them:

Accepting an offer marks the deal Won, creates a draft order and marks the works Sold.
Marking a deal Lost releases every hold on its works.
Making a work an edition creates the rest of the run as new works. The assistant can't undo it.
Archiving an artist can only be reversed in the dashboard.
Cancelling or refunding an order puts its works back on sale.
Voiding an artist payout takes its sales off the statement so they can be settled again.
Bulk changes — re-pricing, moving or recategorising many works — are as quick to make as one. Ask the assistant to list what it will change before it starts.

What's recorded

Everything an assistant changes is credited to the person who approved the connection. In a record's change history it shows with the app's name too, such as Ana Ruiz via Claude, so you can tell it apart from their own edits. Notes and journal posts it writes are credited to them as though they had written them.

Ask the assistant to tell you what it changed, or check the history afterwards.

Every connected assistant is listed under Settings → AI Assistants, named after the app and the person who approved it.

Good habits

Start with Read only, and switch to Read & write once you know what you want it to do.
Connect only the galleries you need. A connection is per gallery, so connect another only when you need it there.
Say "draft" when you mean draft. Anything that emails a collector should be your decision.
Review before bulk changes. Ask for the list, then say go.
Disconnect what you don't use. Under Settings → AI Assistants, disconnecting an assistant stops it immediately.
Treat access keys like passwords. Keys made under Settings → Access Keys for scripts work without anyone signing in. Keep them in a password manager, never in an email or a document.
Delete keys when someone leaves. Removing a person disconnects the assistants they approved, but a key made by hand isn't tied to anyone and keeps working. Delete any keys they used.

Troubleshooting

The gallery doesn't appear when I approve the connection

You need to be an owner or admin of that gallery, and active on its team. Demo galleries are never offered. Ask an owner to change your role, or to connect the assistant themselves.

The assistant says it can't make changes

The connection is Read only. Connect the same app again and choose Read & write — it replaces the earlier connection.

It's working in the wrong gallery

Ask it Which gallery are you connected to? A connection is for one gallery. To work in another, connect again and choose that gallery.

It can't add a note or write a journal post

Notes and posts need a person to credit, so they only work on a connection made by signing in. A key made under Settings → Access Keys has no person behind it. Connect the assistant through sign-in instead.

Adding artworks is refused

Your plan's artwork limit has been reached. New works, and the extra impressions an edition creates, count against it. Archive works you no longer handle, which frees their places, or upgrade under Settings → Billing.

It can't get a payment link

The gallery's Stripe account isn't set up to take card payments yet. Connect it under Settings → Organization → Collector payments, or record payments by wire or check instead.

It says a record wasn't found

The assistant can only see records in the connected gallery, and it needs the record to exist. Ask it to search by name first. If an artwork is archived, ask it to include archived works.

It can't attach a photo I gave it

Images are copied from web addresses. A file you drop into the chat isn't at one, so upload it to the artwork in the dashboard instead.

It stopped partway through a big job

Each connection can make 1,000 requests an hour. A very large job, such as editing every work in a big inventory, can reach that. Wait for the hour to pass and ask it to carry on from where it stopped, or split the job up.

It stopped working after a change to the team

The person who connected it was removed from the team, suspended or made a member, which disconnects every assistant they approved. An owner or admin needs to connect it again.

The assistant has disappeared from my chat app

Check Settings → AI Assistants. If it's not listed, it was disconnected, so connect it again. If it is listed, reconnect it from the assistant's own settings; the new connection replaces the old one.