Otto · Help
Help Center
Everything you need to set up Otto, give agents useful work, and stay in control as they take on more. Still deciding? Read the FAQ.
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01
Set up your Otto
Set up your Otto once, then it stays on and ready to work. You will power it on, pair it to the Otto app, connect it to the internet, and choose how it accesses AI models.
02
Meet Otto
After setup, the app brings you to its main screen: your chat with Otto. Once the agent finishes starting, it sends a short introduction. This is where you talk with Otto day to day.
03
Connect your apps
Connections let Otto work with the tools you already use. Connect the apps that matter to your work, and Otto can help turn a conversation into useful action.
04
Work with Otto
Your conversations with Otto are where you give it work and receive results. Once Otto has the right connections and permissions, it can do more than answer questions: it can work with the apps, files, and computer that belong to your Otto.
05
Have your agent work while you’re away
Your agent does not stop when you leave the conversation. Give it something to keep moving, and it can check in, do the work, and come back when there is something worth your attention.
06
Shape your agent team
Think of an agent like a person on your team. It has a persistent role, a set of responsibilities, access to the tools it needs, and a relationship with you that grows over time.
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Getting started
Set up Otto, connect your tools, and start giving agents useful work.
Set up your Otto
Set up your Otto once, then it stays on and ready to work. You will power it on, pair it to the Otto app, connect it to the internet, and choose how it accesses AI models.
Meet Otto
After setup, the app brings you to its main screen: your chat with Otto. Once the agent finishes starting, it sends a short introduction. This is where you talk with Otto day to day.
Connect your apps
Connections let Otto work with the tools you already use. Connect the apps that matter to your work, and Otto can help turn a conversation into useful action.
Work with Otto
Your conversations with Otto are where you give it work and receive results. Once Otto has the right connections and permissions, it can do more than answer questions: it can work with the apps, files, and computer that belong to your Otto.
Have your agent work while you’re away
Your agent does not stop when you leave the conversation. Give it something to keep moving, and it can check in, do the work, and come back when there is something worth your attention.
Shape your agent team
Think of an agent like a person on your team. It has a persistent role, a set of responsibilities, access to the tools it needs, and a relationship with you that grows over time.
Working with agents
Give each agent a role, useful context, and a clear place to work.
Create and configure an agent
Create a focused agent for a recurring role, then adjust its identity, models, and spending limit from its settings. Agents are useful when a responsibility needs its own name, working preferences, or boundary—but they do not replace clear…
Give an agent the right context for the job
An agent can only make good decisions from the information it can use. Give it a focused role, the files and connections it needs, and the details of the task at hand. You can add context gradually—start with the smallest useful set and ex…
How Otto remembers across conversations
Otto uses several kinds of context, and each one has a different lifetime. Use the right kind for the information you want an agent to carry forward: a conversation for today’s details, identity for durable behavior, files for reference ma…
Choose the right way to work with your agent
Otto gives you three ways to ask an agent to help: a one-off task, an ongoing responsibility, or an automation. Start with the smallest option that fits the work. That makes it easier to review the result, set the right access, and avoid r…
Build a focused agent team on one Otto
Use several agents on one Otto when separate roles need separate instructions, context, app access, or approval boundaries. A team works best when every responsibility has one clear owner. It is not a reason to create an agent for every ta…
Keep each project in the right Otto session
A session is a conversation and its work history for an agent. It holds the questions you asked, the files and decisions you shared, and the agent's results. Use the agent's Main session for work that should build over time, and a focused…
Change an agent safely: edit, pause, or delete
Change an agent when its role, access, or workload changes. Edit it when the role is still useful, pause its automations when work should temporarily stop, and delete it when the role is finished. These actions have different effects: edit…
Automations
Keep work moving on a schedule and stay in control of the outcome.
Create an automation that runs on its own
An automation asks an agent to repeat a defined piece of work at a scheduled time or on a one-time trigger. Use one when you already know the task, the expected result, and what the agent should do when it cannot complete the work.
Put automation results where you will use them
Choose where Otto should deliver an automation's result and whether it should notify you. The right destination keeps a recurring project together without turning every routine run into an interruption.
Set automation permissions and limits
An automation can run while you are away, so its access should match the work—not the maximum your connected apps allow. Give a recurring report read access, for example, and reserve change access and automatic execution for workflows you…
Read and recover failed runs
An automation run is one attempt to carry out the task in its saved schedule. Run history helps you answer three questions: **Did it start? What happened? What should change before the next attempt?** Read the run before editing the automa…
Connections and data
Connect apps, files, and custom tools without sharing passwords.
Connect an app so your agent can use it
Connect an app when an agent needs current information or needs to take an approved action in one of your accounts. Otto keeps the sign-in outside the conversation: you authorize the service in its own sign-in flow, and the connection then…
Manage which apps Otto can use
Keep connected apps limited to the accounts and workflows your agents actually need. From Settings > Integrations, you can review connected accounts, add a second account when the provider supports it, reconnect an app, or disconnect it en…
Add a custom API or MCP server for a specific workflow
Add an owner-managed connection when the service you need is not in Otto's integration catalog. You can add either an API or an MCP server from Settings > Integrations. This is an advanced option: you are responsible for choosing a trustwo…
Give Otto files and context for a better answer
Attach a brief, image, spreadsheet, policy, or other reference file to a chat when Otto needs the contents for one task. For information that should stay current, use a connected app instead. For guidance that should apply every time an ag…
Safety and control
Review activity, choose when to approve work, and protect your data.
Keep control of actions Otto takes
Approvals let Otto pause before it takes an action that could affect another app, person, or system. Use them while you are learning a workflow, then choose a narrower level of supervision only after you understand what the agent does.
Get notified when Otto needs you
Notifications bring important events from Otto to your attention without asking you to keep the conversation open. Use them for decisions and problems that would otherwise leave an agent or automation waiting; keep routine results in their…
See what Otto did in the run log
The Run log gives you a device-wide history of automation runs, including runs that are still in progress, finished successfully, found no change, or stopped with an issue. Open a run to see its timeline and, when available, the conversati…
Keep your files and credentials under control
Otto keeps your files on your Otto and never hands an agent or a model your app passwords. This page explains where each kind of credential is held, what may be sent to a model or external service, and the checks to make before you let wor…
Devices
Keep Otto healthy and decide when another device makes sense.
Keep your Otto ready for work
Your Otto is the always-on computer where your agents, files, connected credentials, browser sessions, and automations live. Use Devices to check whether it is reachable, review its settings, and prepare it for software or ownership change…
Add another Otto and switch between devices
Manage more than one Otto from the same account when you need a separate physical location, network, capacity, or data boundary. Use Devices to add a device and choose which Otto you are working with before you open its agents, connections…
Decide when you need another Otto
Use another Otto when the device itself needs to be separate—not simply because you have another role, project, or task. One Otto can host several focused agents, each with its own instructions, app access, files, automations, and spending…
Help and troubleshooting
Fix common problems, understand usage, and contact support.
Get Otto working again
Use this guide when an agent, automation, connection, notification, or device is not behaving as expected. Start with the first symptom that matches what you see, and make one change at a time so you can tell which fix worked.
Choose models and keep usage under control
Models affect how an agent approaches a task. The right choice depends on the work you need done, how quickly you need the result, and how much usage you are comfortable with. Otto lets you set defaults for the device and, when supported,…
Get help and check Otto's service status
Use the help center to solve common setup, connection, device, and automation problems. When the problem continues after the relevant troubleshooting steps, contact support with enough context to investigate without sharing secrets.
Still need help?
If you are stuck, include your device name, what you were trying to do, and any relevant error.