cPanel Meridian, Ask AI and Nova: Enable or Disable

cPanel & WHM 138, released in July 2026, introduced three user-facing features that hosting providers will be asked about: Meridian, a new opt-in cPanel theme organised around six hubs; Ask AI, an assistant inside cPanel that can answer questions about the account and perform a limited set of approved actions; and Nova, an AI-driven site builder. None of them are forced on. Each is controlled by a combination of Tweak Settings, feature lists and, for the theme, the account’s theme setting, so you can roll them out to a pilot group and withdraw them again without touching the accounts themselves. This guide covers each control.

Short answer: Meridian is a theme, so switch accounts with whmapi1 modifyacct user=USER RS=meridian and back with RS=jupiter. Ask AI and Nova each need two things: the server-wide AI setting in WHM → Tweak Settings and the matching entry in the account’s feature list, set with whmapi1 update_featurelist. Roll them out through a dedicated pilot feature list, and withdraw them by removing the feature entries or turning off the Tweak Setting; account data is untouched either way.

Meridian: the theme switch

Meridian is a theme like Jupiter, not a separate product, so the controls you already know apply. WHM → Server Configuration → Tweak Settings → Display has a setting for the default theme applied to new accounts; leave Jupiter as the default until you have tested Meridian with your customisations, then switch. For existing accounts, change per account in WHM → Account Functions → Modify an Account, or in bulk:

whmapi1 modifyacct user=customer RS=meridian
whmapi1 listaccts --output=json | python3 -c 'import sys,json; [print(a["user"]) for a in json.load(sys.stdin)["data"]["acct"]]' \
  | while read u; do whmapi1 modifyacct user=$u RS=meridian; done

Run the loop only after confirming the theme identifier on your build with whmapi1 list_available_themes or by checking the Modify an Account dropdown. Users can switch themselves in cPanel → Preferences → Change Style if the “Change Style” feature is enabled in their feature list.

Custom branding, so logos, colours and custom links, is handled through WHM → cPanel → Customization for Meridian as it was for Jupiter, but the templates differ; test your branding on a single account first. Reverting is the same command with RS=jupiter.

Ask AI: feature list and privacy setting

Ask AI appears as a panel in cPanel when two conditions are met: the server-wide setting is enabled, and the account’s feature list includes the AI assistant feature. The server-wide control is in WHM → Server Configuration → Tweak Settings, in the section covering AI features on 138; enable it there or with whmapi1 set_tweaksetting, checking the key name with whmapi1 get_tweaksetting on your build, since it was introduced with 138 and may be adjusted in point releases.

The assistant runs in a read-only mode by default: it can describe the account, explain error messages and point to interfaces. Approved actions, such as creating an email account or changing a PHP version, are a separate permission and require confirmation from the user before they run. Both the read-only and the action-enabled modes are governed by the feature list. In WHM → Packages → Feature Manager, edit the feature list assigned to the accounts in question and tick or untick the Ask AI entries. From the shell:

whmapi1 get_featurelist_data featurelist=default | grep -i ai
whmapi1 update_featurelist featurelist=default ai_assistant=1

Feature names follow the interface labels; confirm them with the first command before setting. Because AI requests leave the server and go to a third-party model, review the data handling terms in the WHM notice before enabling it for customers, and consider a dedicated feature list for those who opt in.

Nova: the AI site builder

Nova is a site builder alongside Sitejet; it generates a starting site from a description and then lets the user edit it. It is also controlled through the feature list, with an entry separate from Sitejet, so you can offer either or both. Nova needs the server-wide AI setting enabled as well, and on some builds it also needs the WP Toolkit or Sitejet integration present; check the feature’s description in Feature Manager on your server.

Enable it for a pilot feature list:

whmapi1 create_featurelist featurelist=ai-pilot
whmapi1 update_featurelist featurelist=ai-pilot nova=1 ai_assistant=1
whmapi1 modifyacct user=pilotuser FEATURELIST=ai-pilot

Nova-built sites are ordinary files in the document root and survive disabling the feature; the user simply loses the builder interface.

Withdrawing the features

To turn any of them off for everyone, remove the feature from every feature list and disable the server-wide setting. Because the feature list is checked at page load, users lose the panel on their next click. Meridian users are moved back with RS=jupiter per account. Nothing about the account data changes: mail, files and databases are untouched.

The one thing to plan for is user expectations. If customers have been using Ask AI or Nova and you switch it off, tell them ahead of time. For a partial withdrawal, keep an opt-in feature list and move individual accounts to it rather than editing the default list.

Verify

Log into cPanel as a test user in the target feature list. With the features enabled you should see the Meridian hub layout if the theme is set, the Ask AI panel, and Nova under the site builder section. Confirm the account’s configuration from the shell:

whmapi1 accountsummary user=pilotuser | grep -E 'theme|featurelist'
whmapi1 get_featurelist_data featurelist=ai-pilot --output=json | grep -E '"(nova|ai_assistant)"' -A2

Then move the same user to a feature list without the entries and reload; the panels should disappear.

Common pitfall

The most common confusion is enabling the feature list entry without the server-wide Tweak Setting, or the reverse, and concluding the feature is broken. Both are required. The second is changing the default theme in Tweak Settings and expecting existing accounts to follow; the default only applies to accounts created after the change, so existing users stay on Jupiter until modified. Finally, resellers can edit their own feature lists, so if you disable Ask AI at the server level, do it in Tweak Settings rather than only in your own lists, or a reseller’s customers may still have it.

CPanel Meridian at a glance

Official documentation: cPanel & WHM documentation, Linux man pages.

Related guides: What changed in cPanel 138: Meridian, Ask AI, Nova, MCP and domain rename · Install ImageMagick and PHP Imagick for EA-PHP on AlmaLinux 8/9/10 (and CloudLinux CageFS) · Managing web log retention and Apache log cleanup on cPanel (v136+).

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