Work with a bot

You give a bot work in its chat, the same way you write to a coworker. Each request becomes a task. The bot does the work, checks that the task is really done, and reports back.

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Give a bot a task

If the bot is paused, a new message resumes it first. If the bot asked a question, the box reads “Answer the question above or give a new instruction”.

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Talk to a bot during a task

• A message during a task goes to that task. A correction, for example “use the March file instead”, applies at once. The bot does not ask you to confirm it.
• A reply after a task continues from that task. The bot knows the file and the link that the last task found, so “open it” gives you the link of that file.
• To stop the task in words, write “stop this task”. The bot stops it, the same as Stop. If the bot stopped a task and you did not mean that, click Not what I meant (see A stop that you did not mean).
• When the bot uses one of your accounts, it says which account it used.
• When an app refuses an action, the bot does not try the same action again. It tells you why.
• A bot can put one emoji on your message, for example a thumbs up on “Thanks!”. The emoji shows as a small round mark on the lower edge of your message. The bot still answers in text. In a group, each bot can put its own emoji. A reaction to a message that you sent from Slack or Microsoft Teams shows only on the bot page.
• Under each reply of the bot is a row with the time, thumbs up, thumbs down, Reply and More. The row starts at the left edge of the reply, for a short reply and for a long one. With a mouse, the row shows when you move the pointer over the reply. On a phone or a tablet, the row always shows.
• To delete one message from the chat, press the trash icon next to your message or in the row under the reply of the bot, then press Delete. The bot no longer reads that text in later tasks. The delete does not undo what the bot already did. A fact that the bot saved to its memory in its own words stays until you remove it from Memory, and an answer that repeats the text stays until you delete that answer too. You can delete a message only after its task ended. Cards, approvals and activity lines stay in the chat as the record of what was approved and done. A delete does not remove an attached file: delete the file in Files. The message stays in Slack or Microsoft Teams if you sent it from there.

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The Details panel

Click Details at the top right of the bot page, or press Cmd+\ (Mac) or Ctrl+\ (Windows). On a phone, Details is in the bot menu. The top of the panel shows the bot’s look in a large size, the bot’s name, and its status, for example “Working”, “Ready” or “Needs you”. When the bot has a moving look, the look moves the same way as in the status control. Under the status is a button for the avatar. It reads Create avatar while the bot shows only its initials, and Change avatar after you made an avatar. See “Make an avatar” below. Under the name, the panel has three tabs:

• Now: the current task and its helpers. The Browser or Desktop part shows only for a task that used the computer. Show activity, with the number of actions, opens the list of actions that the bot did, for example “Searched the web”. The list does not show the results of the tools. The files of a task show under it, each file name once: when the bot saved a file again, you see the newest save. Earlier tasks opens the tasks it finished before.
• Routines: the scheduled work of the bot. See Routines, groups and helpers.
• Spend: what the bot spent this month, by day, by task and by AI model, and its monthly spend limit. See Bot settings.

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Make an avatar

A new bot is ready at once. Until you make an avatar, the bot shows its initials on a colored circle. To make an avatar, click Create avatar under the name of the bot in the Details panel, or in the Avatar row of the General settings. You can also ask the bot in the chat. The bot answers with a card that has a Create avatar button. The Create avatar window opens. Describe how the bot looks, then click Make 4 looks. Or click Make 4 looks from my job, and the bot shows four RelayBot characters that fit its job. You can also click Choose an image and use your own picture: Use as is keeps it as a still picture, Animate it makes it move, and Make 4 looks from it makes four new looks from it in its own style. Click a look to use it. To change it, click another look. The window also has the shape and the color of the frame. Click Done when you are finished. After you made an avatar, the same button reads Change avatar.

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Progress and the done check

The Now tab shows the current task and a sentence that tells how it stands. Show activity lists each action that the bot did. The status control at the top of the page shows the current step and when the task started, for example “Started 2 min ago”. The status sentence tells you what the task waits for: Before the bot says a task is done, it checks the result against your request. When the result passes, the task finishes. When the result does not pass, the bot goes on with the work once more. When it still cannot confirm every part, the task finishes with the result and a note: “I could not confirm these parts:”, a list of the parts, and “Reply here if you want me to look again.” Reply in the chat to make the bot look again. When the bot writes email drafts for you, each draft card counts as written: a request for three emails is not done with one draft, so the bot writes the other two before it waits for you.

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Files and questions from a bot

• A bot can send you a file in its message, for example a spreadsheet it made, a file from its computer or a picture of its screen. The file shows under its message. A picture shows as a preview. Click a file to download it.
• When a message answers one of your earlier messages, a line above it shows the first words of that message. Click the line to go to that message.
• To answer a bot message, hover over it and click Reply. The box under the chat shows “Replying to (bot name)” and the first words of that message. Click X to remove it. The bot gets your words and knows which message you answered.
• A question with options shows each option as a row. Click an option to answer. A line under an option tells you more about it.
• When you can pick more than one option, each option has a check box. Check the options you want, add your own answer in Your own answer if you like, and click Send answer. Your answer shows in the chat with each option on its own line.

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Long results and files in a bot task

When a tool gives a bot a very long result, for example a long web page, RelayHub keeps it whole. The bot reads its start and searches the rest when it needs a part. The step list shows this as Read saved results. A bot can give a saved result or a file to another tool or app without copying it. For example, ask “Fetch this page and put the whole page into a new note in Notion”. When the text came from outside RelayHub, for example from a web page, the call is checked before the text leaves to an app, and you can get an approval card. The card shows the size of the text, not the text itself. If the text changes after you approve, the bot asks you again. When an app connected through a connector sends a bot an image, RelayHub saves it as a file. The bot can send it to you in a message.

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Answer a question

When the bot asks a question, a card in the chat shows the question and says “Type your answer below and send it.” The task waits until you answer. The card has no answer field. Type your answer in the box under the chat and send it. Text that the bot writes in a card, for example a question, can show bold words and lists. A Check a step card shows when a step possibly ran before an interruption. Click Check and redo if needed to let the bot check the step and run it again if it did not finish, or It is already done to continue without it.

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Answer a form

When the bot needs several short answers, it can ask them together in one form card. You can also ask for a form, for example “Ask me these in one card with Yes and No buttons.” A form has 2 to 5 questions. Each question takes one of these answers:

• Yes or No.
• One option from a list. A line under an option tells you more about it.
• A short text of up to 500 characters.

Answer each question, then click Send answers once. The line beside the button counts your answers, for example “2 of 3 answered”. The button works when every required question has an answer. If you leave an optional question empty, the bot reads “no answer”. The Enter key does not send the form. The task waits until you answer. The form also shows in Needs you, as a row with the number of questions. Click Answer to open the card in the chat. After you send the answers, the card closes, and the chat shows each question with your answer under it. When the send fails, the card comes back with the line “The answers were not sent. Your answers are kept. Try again.” To answer in your own words, write in the box under the chat. Your message closes the form, and the bot reads it. In Slack and Microsoft Teams, a form comes as numbered text. A form also comes as numbered text when the task read outside content, for example a web page or an email. Reply in one message with a line for each number, for example “1. Yes”.

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Cards that nobody answers

A card that waits for you gets one reminder 5 minutes after it appears. When you open the chat of the bot before then, you get no reminder. The reminder follows your notification settings. A card that nobody answers for 24 hours expires. It stays in the chat as one line with an Expired badge and no buttons. The task continues as if you declined, and the bot says what it did not do. An expired card is not a Deny: the bot can ask about the same action again. When you click Deny, the bot does not ask about that action again in the task until you write to it again (see Permissions). An expired email card is discarded, nothing is sent, and its line reads “Expired: nobody sent this email within 24 hours”. A card that waits for you to give back control of the browser or the desktop does not expire either.

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Stop, pause or resume a bot

Use the status control at the top center of the bot page. Click it, or point to it, to open it.

• Stop stops the current task. It shows for every open task, also for a task that waits for you, for a computer or for a spend limit. The bot stops after the step it does now, and the chat shows “You stopped: (task title)”. The bot stays active and takes the next task you give it.
• Pause pauses the bot. A paused bot starts no task and runs no routine until you resume it.
• Resume starts a paused bot again. A message to a paused bot also resumes it.

When Pause and Stop show together, the line under them says “Pause keeps the task for later. Stop ends it.” The Details panel has no Stop or Pause button. Use the status control.

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A stop that you did not mean

When a message of yours ended a task, the stop line in the chat quotes your words and shows the button Not what I meant. Click the button if you did not ask the bot to stop that task. After you click the button:

• The bot takes your message as a new task, and the line reads “(name) went back to work.”
• The stopped task stays stopped. The bot reads what that task did, so it does not do finished work again.
• When another task is open, the new task waits until that task ends.

When one message stopped several tasks, each stop line has the button. For the task that took the message, the bot takes your message as a new task. For another task, the bot starts a new task from that task’s own request. The button does not show in these cases:

• You pressed Stop. The button is only for a stop that came from your words.
• You deleted the message.

The button is on the bot page, not in Slack or Microsoft Teams. When the bot is paused or archived, the button shows “This bot is paused or archived. Resume it to send it a message.”

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What a bot remembers

A bot keeps notes between tasks, for example a person, a decision or a rule of a task. It also reads your saved memory (Settings > My Memory), and it can save a lasting fact about you there, for example how you like work done. Every chat and every bot of yours then knows it.

• Ask the bot what it remembers about a subject. It searches its notes and your saved memory, and it uses only memories that are confirmed.
• Ask the bot to forget something. It removes the note or the memory.
• A text that is already saved is not saved again.
• When the bot read a web page, an email or a file in the task, a note or a memory that it saves waits for you. Notes show in the bot’s Memory section, and memories show under Pending Confirmations in Settings > My Memory. Confirm or dismiss each one.

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Archive a bot

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Use a bot from Slack or Microsoft Teams

When your company connected Slack or Microsoft Teams in Messaging, you can talk to your bots from there:

• /bot list shows your bots and what they do now.
• /bot use (name) in a direct message sends your next messages to that bot.
• /bot off returns the chat to the RelayHub chat.
• /worker works the same as /bot, for example /worker list.
• In a channel, write @(bot name) and your message.

While a bot does a task that you sent from Slack or Teams, one message in the thread shows what it does now, for example “Now: Search the web. 12 actions done.” The message changes in place while the bot works, at most about once every 10 seconds, and it goes away when the task is done, stops, or waits for you. The answers of the bot come as their own messages. Files, photos and voice notes that you send in Slack or Teams reach the bot with your message. A voice note becomes text that counts as your own words. A file without text goes to the bot of that thread. A file that a bot sends comes as its name with a link to the bot page; open the link to download it. A question with options comes as a numbered list: reply with the number of your answer, or with more numbers (for example “1, 3”) when you can pick more than one, or write your own answer. Approvals are never done from Slack or Teams: the bot sends you a link to the bot page, and you approve or deny it there.