Document the AI configuration assistant

[btshrewsbury-viam]

Closes #5204.

Adds a new how-to page documenting the AI assistant for machine configuration, verified against a live app.viam.com session on 2026-07-15.

New page

docs/hardware/ai-assistant.md — "Configure a machine with the AI assistant" (how-to, with a short explanation of what the assistant does and the review-before-save model). Sections map to the issue's learning objectives:

• Configure a resource by describing it (Apply)
• Review each staged edit, then save or discard (Evaluate)
• Use the assistant on a fragment (Apply)
• When to use the assistant instead of editing config directly (Analyze)

Placement and discoverability

Placed in the machine-configuration how-to area (docs/hardware/, weight 11, between machine-configuration and fragments). Linked from the section front door configure-hardware.md and from machine-configuration.md so it is discoverable. Additive only; no pages moved, renamed, or deleted.

Fidelity notes

• Uses the exact verified UI labels: AI assistant, Builder / JSON, Describe a task or ask a question…, Send, New conversation, Conversation history, Collapse, AI assistant feedback, Let's start configuring, What do you want to do?, Unsaved changes, Save, Discard.
• Documents one current unified assistant across Builder and JSON views (supersedes the earlier separate JSON-mode resource assistant); no version history.
• Fragment coverage is limited to availability plus standard config-sync propagation; no fragment-specific save UI is narrated (not separately verified live).
• Follows house style for service personification: mechanical verbs (the assistant "stages", "reads", "proposes", "generates") and user-centered framing (you describe the change; you save or discard).

Checks (run in the worktree)

• prettier: clean (no changes)
• markdownlint: pass (0)
• vale: 0 errors; readability grade 8.22 (below the section's neighbors)

make build-prod was intentionally not run to avoid contending with the coordinator and Netlify builds; the coordinator should confirm the production build and the Netlify deploy preview.

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