MindRouter and VandalChat

MindRouter is the University of Idaho’s own generative AI service. Anyone with a Vandal account can sign in. It runs on University hardware and is managed by Research Computing and Data Services, so no data is sent to non-campus entities.

VandalChat is a no-code AI chat assistant powered by MindRouter. It is great for drafting and editing writing, explaining concepts, summarizing and asking questions about your documents, working with data, writing code, brainstorming, and translating.

Both ultimately rely on language models, with the strengths and failure modes described on AI Basics, as well as VandalChat’s help page.

Why you might use them

For those new to AI, some first experiments could be:

  • Drafting and reworking text you will edit anyway. A first pass at an announcement, a long document boiled down to its points, the same message rewritten for a different audience, or notes turned into prose.
  • Uploading a document and working from it. Pull every deadline out of a funding announcement, turn a form’s requirements into a checklist a faculty member can follow, or ask what changed between two drafts of a policy.
  • Asking about the software you use every day. It will write an Excel formula, explain one somebody else wrote, or help you troubleshoot a mail merge that will not behave.

Because your text stays on University hardware, it’s more likely you can work from the real message or the real document without violating privacy or confidentiality (see the “What is safe to put in them” section below).

Whatever you try, what you get back is a draft: verify any factual claims before using them.

How to sign in

MindRouter and VandalChat are reachable only from the University network. On campus you are already on it; from home, connect to the University VPN first. How to Install and Connect to University of Idaho VPN covers the setup.

  1. Go to MindRouter or VandalChat.
  2. Sign in with your Vandal credentials at the usual single sign-on page.

What is safe to put in them

Which categories of University information may go into which AI service is set by OIT. OIT’s Guidance for Artificial Intelligence carries the table of approved services and the data risk levels each one is approved for, MindRouter included. Check it before sending anything to these tools.

If you are unsure which category the information in front of you falls into, How to identify High Risk data walks through it with concrete examples.

Who to ask

For help getting started, or for thinking through where a tool like this fits your work, visit the Data Hub or contact Research Computing and Data Services directly.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-11