AI Desktop

Axilon AI Desktop is an AI-powered development environment for Inductive Automation's Ignition platform. It combines a full Ignition Designer experience with an integrated AI chat assistant called Axil, enabling you to build, modify, and manage Ignition projects using natural language alongside traditional design tools.

The application is organized around these key concepts:

• Ignition Designer -- A remote Ignition Designer session running inside a Docker container, displayed directly in the application via noVNC.

• AI Chat (Axil) -- An AI companion that understands your Ignition project and can read, modify, and create project resources (tags, scripts, named queries, Perspective views, UDT definitions, and more) on your behalf.

• Workbench -- A local representation of your Ignition project that the AI operates on. Changes made by the AI are synced to the running Designer and vice versa.

• Container Management -- Tools for starting, stopping, reconnecting to, and deleting Ignition Docker containers.

• Settings -- Configuration for AI providers, workspace directories, user preferences, and user context files.

Application Layout

The application uses a three-panel IDE layout:

Area	What it contains
Left panel (Side Navigation)	Expandable sidebar with navigation groups: Editor, Project operations, Workbench operations, and Settings. Hover to expand and see labels.
Center panel	The main content area. Depending on the active view, this shows the Ignition Designer, Gateway Config, Perspective Preview, Container Management, or Settings.
Right panel (Chat)	The Axil AI chat panel. Can be toggled on and off from the top navigation bar.
Top navigation bar	Quick-access buttons for switching center panel views (Designer, Gateway, Perspective, Containers), triggering a bidirectional sync, disconnecting, and toggling the chat panel.

Side Navigation Groups

Group	Items
(ungrouped)	Editor -- Opens the main Ignition Designer view.
Project	Apply Project Change to Zip, Import Project Zip, Export Tags, Export to Gateway Backup
Workbench	Load Workbench, Save Workbench
Settings	Settings -- Opens the settings page. Logs -- Opens the application logs folder.

On the web platform, a Log Out option also appears at the bottom of the sidebar.

User Guide Index

Guide	What It Covers
Getting Started	Prerequisites, starting containers, reconnecting to existing containers.
Editor Views	Using the Ignition Designer, Gateway Config, and Perspective Preview.
AI Chat	Chatting with Axil, @mentions, file attachments, AI plans, permissions, chat management.
Syncing, Project & Workbench	Bidirectional sync, project operations, and workbench operations.
Container Management	Managing, starting, stopping, and deleting Docker containers.
Settings	AI provider configuration, user preferences, context files, logs, and disconnecting.