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Version: 14.x

Try out Teleport Assist

Preview

Teleport Assist is currently in Preview.

This guide will help you understand how to set up and use Teleport Assist, an AI-powered assistant that helps you run commands, debug issues and navigate your infrastructure.

Architecture diagram​

Teleport Assist Architecture

The main screen​

Teleport Assist Example

Prerequisites​

Before you get started with Teleport Assist, make sure you have the following:

  • A running Teleport Community Edition cluster, v12.4 or higher. For details on how to set this up, see our Getting Started guide.
  • OpenAI Account: You will need an active OpenAI account with GPT-4 API access as Teleport Assist relies on OpenAI services.

Teleport Assist currently doesn't support Teleport clusters using the etcd backend. If your installation is using etcd, you can create a new cluster with any other backend.

Step 1/3. Generate an OpenAI API key​

Teleport Assist uses the GPT-4 model. Your account must have access to it if you want to use Teleport Assist.

Follow these steps to generate your OpenAI API key:

  1. Sign in to your OpenAI account or sign up if you don't have one.
  2. Navigate to the API section in your OpenAI dashboard.
  3. Click on "Create new secret key".
  4. Give your key a descriptive name.
  5. Click "Create secret key".
  6. Your new API key will be displayed. Make sure to copy it and save it in a file on the system where the Teleport Proxy Service is running, e.g., /etc/teleport/openai_key. If you have multiple instances of Teleport Proxy, you must copy the file to all of them.
  7. Set read-only permissions and change the file owner to the user that the Teleport Proxy Service uses by running the following commands:
chmod 400 /etc/teleport/openai_key
chown teleport:teleport /etc/teleport/openai_key
warning

Remember, your API keys carry many privileges, so be sure to keep them secure! Do not share your secret API keys in publicly accessible areas.

Step 2/3. Enable Assist​

To enable Teleport Assist, you need to provide your OpenAI API key. On each Proxy and Auth Service host, perform the following actions:

  1. Open your Teleport configuration file. This is typically located at /etc/teleport.yaml.

  2. Add your OpenAI API key to the assist section:

    If the host is running the Auth Service, add the following section:

    auth_service:
      assist:
        openai:
          api_token_path: /etc/teleport/openai_key

    If the host is running the Proxy Service, add the following section:

    proxy_service:
      assist:
        openai:
          api_token_path: /etc/teleport/openai_key

  3. Save the changes and close the file.

  4. Restart Teleport for the changes to take effect.

Make sure that your Teleport user has the assistant permission. By default, users with built-in access and editor roles have this permission. You can also add it to a custom role. Here is an example:

kind: role
version: v7
metadata:
  name: assist
spec:
  allow:
    rules:
    - resources:
      - assistant
      verbs:
      - list
      - create
      - read
      - update
      - delete

Step 3/3. Example use​

Now that you have Teleport Assist enabled, you can start using it.

  1. Open Teleport's Web UI in your browser (e.g., https://teleport.example.com).
  2. Log in to the Web UI using your Teleport credentials.
  3. Click on the "Assist" button in the top left dropdown menu. Teleport Assist Menu
  4. Click "New Conversation" to start a new conversation with Teleport Assist. Teleport Assist New Chat

Remember, Teleport Assist is powered by OpenAI, so the more specific your query, the better the response will be.

And that's it! You have now learned how to set up and use Teleport Assist. For more details and advanced configuration options, check out the other pages in our documentation.

Next steps​