Create a Bot

Create a durable bot, tell it what to do, choose where it runs and bring several bots together in a group.

A Bot is an assistant that stays with you over time. Unlike an agent conversation, it keeps its own chat, memory and routines, so it can take on recurring work.

#Open the Bot view

Click Bot in the main navigation, or press Ctrl+4 (Cmd+4 on macOS). Your bots and groups are listed in the sidebar under Conversations.

#Create a bot

1. Click New conversation (the pencil icon) at the top of the sidebar. In the Bot view, Ctrl+Shift+B (Cmd+Shift+B on macOS) does the same.
2. In the To: field, choose New bot. To pick the name yourself, type it first and choose Create "name". Otherwise Vato picks a random name.
3. The bot asks What should this bot do? Type its mission in the message field and press Enter.

Before you send, you can change the model with the model picker under the message field. For Claude and Codex, you can also choose which of your accounts the bot uses.

Be concrete. For example: "Review my pull requests every morning and flag bugs before I merge."

#Choose where it runs

If your account has a Vato Cloud machine, the bot then asks where it should run:

If Vato Cloud is greyed out, the reason is written under it. To change the mission before you choose, click it. Without Vato Cloud, this question is skipped and the bot runs on this computer. See Environments.

#Answer its first questions

A new bot doesn't start working right away. It first asks short questions, one at a time, about the goal, the audience and its limits. It then sums up what it understood and waits for you to confirm.

What it learns is saved as its Bot working brief, in Actions → Memory. To correct a fact, say so in the chat.

#Talk to your bot

Open a bot from the sidebar and write in its chat. You can react to messages, reply to them or copy them.

To fix one of your messages, click it, edit the text and send it again. The bot answers the new version, and earlier versions stay under Chat restore points. Your files and the bot's memory are not changed.

#Bring bots together in a group

A group lets two to six bots share a mission and pass work between them. Each bot keeps its own model, account, memory and tools.

1. Click New conversation.
2. In the To: field, type a bot's name and press Tab to add it. Add at least one more bot.
3. Click Open, or press Enter.

Group conversations are listed with your bots. When you write in a group, Send to lets you send the message to every bot or only to the ones you choose.

#Organize your bots

Right-click a bot in the sidebar, or click its ... button, to:

• Pin it at the top of the list, or Move to section.
• Mark as read or Mark as unread.
• Mute notifications.
• Duplicate it. The copy doesn't include its chat or its routines.
• Hide from sidebar. Hidden bots are listed under Hidden conversations.
• Delete it for good.

#Next steps

• Give your bot missions and triggers
• Choose where your bot runs