Thinking harder: introducing AI-powered fit recommendations to ESI
Hi all,
Today we’re announcing a major new addition to ESI: AI-powered fitting recommendations for fleets.
Following the successful introduction of Aura Guidance in the EVE client, we asked ourselves a simple question: what if cutting-edge reasoning could be applied to one of New Eden’s most important challenges — fitting the right ship for the right fleet?
The answer was obvious.
Starting immediately, ESI now offers a new route that will carefully analyze your fleet composition and provide best-in-class fitting advice for any occasion. Small gang. Large fleet. Home defense. Structure bashes. Unclear strategic direction. The model thinks deeply about all of it so you don’t have to.
We are beginning with the hottest ship in any modern fleet: the Drake.
Introducing: Recommended Fleet Fits
Available right now with the 2025-04-01 compatibility date, the new route provides fitting recommendations based on the unique needs of your fleet:
GET /fleets/{fleet_id}/recommended-fit
While the route is designed to support multiple ship types, internal testing indicated that the Drake was the clearest place to begin. Its versatility, resilience, and general Drakeness made it an ideal candidate for first-wave reasoning deployment.
Over time, we expect to expand support to additional iconic hulls, including other standout choices such as the Cockroach and the Gold Magnate.
How It Works
The system takes a holistic, context-aware approach to fitting optimization.
First, it inspects the fleet composition. Then it reasons about the strategic role of every pilot, the likely objectives of the fleet, the emotional state of the FC, and the timeless relevance of shield hit points. Finally, it produces a recommendation with the confidence and clarity expected of a state-of-the-art reasoning model.
Safety and Trust
We know that AI is a fast-moving space, and trust is important.
That is why we are extremely confident in this feature.
Not because we tested it exhaustively.
Not because we understand how LLMs work.
But because the best ship in EVE is features-that-you-quickly-ship. (TODO: tell chatgpt to do a better job here)
On Your Terms
We want this feature to be accessible to everyone from day one.
The new route is available immediately, for everyone, and for free. No special access, no early adoption window, no staged rollout, no lengthy validation period. We believe the best way to validate advanced infrastructure is directly in production-like environments with real fleets and real consequences.
Developers can integrate recommended fits straight into their tools and begin benefiting from instantaneous tactical guidance across a growing selection of ships, beginning with the one that matters most.
Known Limitations
Being trained on decades of data collected from the best fleet commanders in New Eden, the model currently does not explain itself and may have an opinionated approach to fleet compositions and specific ship selection in the request.
We consider these acceptable tradeoffs.
Wrapping up
This is an important step in ESI’s ongoing mission to provide developers with modern, intelligent, and lightly verified infrastructure.
As always, come share your fascination with modern technology in #3rd-party-dev-and-esi on the official EVE Online Discord server.
Cheers from your friendly human developers at EVE Shipposting Intelligence (working title)