Companions

A companion is an AI agent that works the tasks assigned to it on your boards. Each task gets its own run on a temporary computer. When the run finishes, the companion attaches its result to the card and moves it to Review, never to Done: you decide whether the work is accepted.

Companions are available on paid plans and during the trial. To start the trial, pick a plan: a card is needed at checkout, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. Signing up from a plan on the pricing page takes you straight to checkout. Your companions and Emi are set up right after checkout, in about a minute.

Ember includes 3 companions and Campfire 10; see Pricing. Companions do not take one of your Profile seats. When the limit is reached, delete a companion or turn its profile off, or upgrade in Settings → Usage & billing.

1. Open Profiles and stay on the Companions tab.
2. Pick a ready-made role and choose Add to team. Each role comes with know-how for the job, a default model, run limits and suggested apps. See all ready-made roles.
3. Or choose New companion to start without a ready-made role. A custom role is shown under the companion's name and starts with the default model and limits.
4. Give it a name, pick the collections it works in, and choose Create and switch on.

To stop a companion for a while, choose Pause on its Companion tab. Live runs stop, queued runs are cancelled, and assigned tasks wait until you choose Resume.

Under Works in, pick one or more collections. The companion picks up tasks on their boards and can read everything in them, including files added later.

On the companion's Companion tab, What it can read while working narrows each run further. Only the task's own collection is recommended: a run never sees another client's files. Choose Every collection it works in only when the work needs more.

Apps let a companion work in tools such as Google Docs, Sheets, Drive or DataForSEO with your own accounts. A ready-made role lists the apps it works with; they are suggestions, and the companion can start without them unless the role needs one.

1. Open Apps in the sidebar, pick the app and choose Connect account. Give the account a name you will recognise, such as the client's name, and sign in. Accounts belong to the workspace, and you can connect several for one app. Google Docs, Sheets and Drive each need their own sign-in, even with the same Google account.
2. Pick which account each collection uses. An app that reads public data, such as DataForSEO, can use one account on all collections.
3. Switch the app on for the companion under Apps on its Companion tab.

For apps with client files, a collection can limit what companions open: paste the Drive folders, documents, spreadsheets or sites it may use. A Drive folder covers the files directly inside it, not its subfolders. When one such account is used by more than one collection, every one of them needs a limit. With a single collection and nothing added, companions can open everything the account can see.

Web search and reading web pages are Takibi tools and need no connection. If a run needs an app its collection has no account for, it pauses before starting and names the app. Pick an account on the Apps page, then move the card back to To do.

Create a card on a board in one of the companion's collections and assign it to the companion. Describe the outcome you want and how you will check it; the card is what the companion works from. You can also ask Emi to propose the tasks and who should do them; nothing changes until you approve.

Each assigned task starts one run. A paused companion keeps its tasks until you resume it.

A run reads the card, the collection's documents and the apps you gave the companion, then does the work. Open the companion's Companion tab to see Recent runs with state, duration, steps and cost. Open a run for its timeline, why it stopped, and what it wrote back to the card.

If the companion needs your answer or your OK, it asks on the card. The task shows Needs you and appears in your inbox and in Chat. Answer it there to restart the task. If the computer running it is lost, the run is retried once on its own.

A finished run attaches its result to the card and moves it to Review with a handoff note that summarizes what was done. Open the card, check the result, then:

• Accept to record that the work is approved.
• Reject on the board, or Send back in Chat, with a note on what should change. The card returns to To do with your note, and the companion starts a new run.

See Review and accept the result for how accepted cards move on.

The card shows the companion's last run, and the run's details say why it stopped and what to do next. Choose Retry on the card, or move it back to To do, and the companion starts again. Fix the cause first:

• The run failed. The card's note says what went wrong.
• An app account was disconnected or needs sign-in again. Reconnect it on the Apps page; collections keep using it with the same limits. Reconnecting from Chat restarts the task for you.
• Your OpenRouter key was refused. Replace it in Settings → Usage & billing.

You can also ask Emi to restart a stopped task.

Every run has a step limit and a spending limit, set by its role or by the defaults. A run that reaches either one stops, attaches its last notes to the card as unfinished work, and the task shows Needs you. Split the work into smaller tasks, or send it back with a narrower ask.

Your plan also sets how many runs can start each day, shown under Runs a day in Settings → Companions. Runs over that wait for 00:00 UTC. Runs on your own OpenRouter key have a monthly limit, shown in Settings → Usage & billing.

Pick the model on the companion's Companion tab. The model decides who pays:

• Included models use your plan's included AI usage, even if you added a key.
• Any other model from the OpenRouter catalog that can use tools needs your own OpenRouter key and bills your OpenRouter account.

Add the key in Settings → Usage & billing. Use a dedicated key with a credit limit. A run keeps the payer it started with, including when it is retried. If you remove the key, companions on other models move to an included model.

When included usage runs out, new runs pause until it resets. To keep going, turn on When my included usage runs out, start new runs on my key in Settings → Usage & billing.

Included models go only to endpoints OpenRouter lists as zero data retention. With your own key, your OpenRouter settings decide routing; see Privacy.