How do you build a Dust assistant in 2026?
Quick Answer: As of April 2026, building a Dust assistant takes four steps: connect data sources (Notion, Slack, Drive, GitHub, Salesforce), define the assistant's instructions and model, attach the relevant data sources or knowledge bases, and publish to a workspace channel. Assistants run inside Dust's chat interface or via Slack.
Building a Dust Assistant
Dust connects AI assistants to internal company data for ops, support, and engineering teams. As of April 2026, the build flow is intentionally short.
Step 1: Connect Data Sources
In the Dust admin, add connections for the SaaS apps the assistant should read:
- Notion: Workspace pages and databases
- Slack: Public channels (the assistant respects channel privacy)
- Google Drive: Folders and shared drives
- GitHub: Repositories, issues, and discussions
- Salesforce: Accounts, opportunities, contacts
- Confluence, Intercom, Jira, Zendesk: Additional connectors as of April 2026
Connections sync periodically and Dust enforces permissions on retrieval.
Step 2: Create the Assistant
Navigate to Assistants → New Assistant. Configure:
- Name and avatar (e.g., "Sales Coach")
- Description shown in the assistant picker
- Model (GPT-4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini Pro, Mistral Large, or others available in April 2026)
- Instructions: System prompt describing role, tone, and constraints
Step 3: Attach Data Sources
In the Tools tab, add Search actions over specific data sources (e.g., search the "Sales Playbook" Notion database). Dust uses retrieval-augmented generation: the assistant searches the data source per query and grounds the answer in the retrieved text with citations.
Step 4: Publish
Set visibility to Workspace, Restricted, or Private. Workspace assistants are accessible to all members; Restricted requires explicit sharing; Private is owner-only. Members invoke the assistant via the Dust chat or via the Slack integration with @dust <assistant-name>.
Pricing Note
Dust Pro starts at $29/user/month as of April 2026 with full connector access. Enterprise plans add SSO, audit logs, and custom model providers.