Patch is the Datum Cloud assistant. Ask it about your resources in plain language, such as “why is my workload not available?” or “is my load balancer serving?”, and it answers using the same permissions your account already has. There’s no API key to bring and nothing to configure.
datumctl assistant is a plugin, so it updates on its own schedule. To install it, run the following command:
Start a conversation
Opens the full-screen chat for your current project. Add -c to open your most recent conversation instead of a new one. Sends one message, streams the answer, and exits. This is the form to use in scripts and pipes. The conversation ID is printed on standard error. Opens a searchable list of your past conversations. Add --last to go straight to the most recent one. -c for the most recent one:
For terminals that can’t run the full-screen chat, use datumctl assistant chat --interactive for a line-based session.
Choose the project
Patch works in your current context. To ask about another project, select it first with datumctl ctx use, or pass --project your-project-id. See Contexts and scoping.
What Patch can do
Patch answers questions about your project and its resources, and uses diagnostic tools from the Datum services your project uses. For example, it can:
- Diagnose a Compute workload that isn’t available, explain a status reason, check quota, and list Instances and instance types.
- Diagnose a load balancer that isn’t serving, and summarize its traffic, certificates, hostnames, and traffic protection.
- Diagnose a network that isn’t ready, and its network services.
To see exactly which services and tools Patch can use in your project, run the following command:
Making changes
Patch never changes anything on its own. It proposes a change as a plan: the exact manifests it intends to apply, shown before anything happens. Applying a plan is a separate, explicit step, and the service refuses any manifest that differs from the one you were shown.
Manage conversations
Conversations are kept by the assistant service, not on your machine, so you can continue one from anywhere you’re logged in.
Use Patch from your own agent
Your own AI agent can hand questions to Patch, which brings Datum’s own diagnostic tools and guidance:
- From a script or another agent, run
datumctl assistant chat "QUESTION". It streams the answer to standard output and prints the conversation ID on standard error, so the agent can continue with --context-id.
- From Claude Code, the Datum MCP repository includes a skill that teaches Claude when an open-ended diagnostic question, or a risky change across several resources, is better handed to Patch than done with Datum MCP’s own tools.
- Over the A2A protocol, Patch publishes an agent card that describes its endpoint, its skills, and the Datum services it can use in your project. To see it, run
datumctl assistant card.
Moving from datumctl ai
datumctl ai was a local assistant that needed your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini key. It has been replaced by Patch. The datumctl ai command still works and now runs the assistant plugin, so existing scripts keep going.
Nothing reads your old provider key anymore, but it’s still on disk. Delete it:
The chat pane in the interactive console ran on the same local assistant and has also been removed. Use datumctl assistant for chat. Chats you held in the console were saved to ~/.datumctl/conversations, and nothing reads them now either.
Next steps
Last modified on November 3, 2026
