Set up a Relay

Click Edit setup on a Relay (or create a new one) to open setup. It has six steps, listed on the left: Basics, How it works, What it can use (optional), Ongoing work (optional), Permissions, and Review & publish. You can jump to any step, and finished steps get a check mark. A summary of every choice stays on the right.

Use Save draft to keep your progress, Next and Back to move between steps, and Publish on the last step to put the Relay to work.

1. Basics

Appearance lets you build the Relay's robot avatar from parts — Shell, Finish, Visor, Eyes, Colour, Markings, and Gear. Shuffle picks a random combination and Reset goes back to the default.

2. How it works

• Instructions — what the Relay is for and how it should work (up to 8,000 characters).
• Escalate when — when it should stop and ask a person (up to 2,000 characters).
• Example jobs (one per line) — up to 10. These appear as Examples when someone assigns a job.
• Tools in conversations — what it may do while chatting: Read workspace files and resources, Search knowledge bases, Query tables, and Search the web.

3. What it can use

A Relay reads only what you connect here, with the access of the person it is working for, and that access is checked again on every read.

• Data. Fill the slots its specialization expects (optional slots are marked), and add Other resources: knowledge bases, tables, dashboards, metrics, semantic models, and rules — up to 30 in total.
• Files. Add files uploads documents, and From Library picks existing ones. Each shows Processing, Ready, or Failed. See Knowledge and data.
• Email. Choose how it sends email: Does not send email, My Gmail, My Outlook, or Workspace inbox. A Needs connection label means the account is not connected yet.
• Calendar. Choose Does not book meetings, My Google Calendar, or My Outlook calendar, and which calendar to book on (primary by default).
• Integrations. Pick the connected tools (MCP servers and integration accounts) it may use. Each shows whether it only reads or can make changes.
• Workflows. Pick deployed workflows it may run. Mark one Runs on its own to skip the approval Assist would otherwise ask for, or leave it on Asks first. A workflow that is not deployed shows Not deployed.
• Equipment. Tick Computer or Browser if the Relay needs one. You then set it up from More → Equipment on the Relay. See Browser and computer.

4. Ongoing work

Ongoing work is a list of routines — jobs the Relay does without being asked each time. Start from one of the starting point's suggestions or click Custom. You can also add routines later on the Relay's Routines tab, including by showing it once. Each responsibility has a Name, an Objective, and a Trigger:

• On a schedule — Weekdays at 9:00, Mondays at 8:00, Every day at 7:00, Every hour, or Custom with a cron expression (a standard way to write a schedule, such as 0 9 * * 1-5).
• When a monitor alerts — pick one of your monitors. When it fires, the Relay picks up the work.
• Watch a source — keep an eye on a Gmail, Outlook, or Google Calendar account, or a Workspace table:
  • What needs your attention — describe what to look for (up to 1,000 characters).
  • Check — every 1, 5, 15, 30, 60, or 240 minutes, or once a day. The default is 15 minutes; mail and calendar sources can't be checked more often than every 5 minutes.
  • Quiet from / Quiet until — hours when it should not check.
  • Follow-up — Message me, or Message me and open a job.

A watch shows Watching, Needs connection, or Error on the Routines tab.

5. Permissions

Pick how much the Relay may do on its own. There are three presets:

New Relays start on Observe. Sending email and booking meetings always need approval, whatever the preset. On Operate, deleting, cancelling, refunding, or spending runs without approval only when it is within the Relay's delegated limits (below). Anything Allowed that changes something is still checked by auto-review first, and the Charter tab shows the result as Allowed, Needs approval, and Never.

Spending and deleting sets the Relay's delegated limits: Always ask (the default), Paper (spending and deleting are only simulated and recorded), or Live within limits. With limits on, set the Currency, how much it may spend Per action, Per day, and Per week, Actions per day, Pause after failed calls in a row, Allowed instruments, accounts or campaigns, Pause at the daily limit, and Active hours.

You can also choose its Reasoning model, Reasoning effort, and Decision model — the model auto-review uses to check that an action fits the job.

The rest of the step sets limits and people:

• Result goes to — The job, or A Library file in a Library folder (default Relay briefings).
• Jobs at once — 1 to 10 (default 2). Jobs per day — 1 to 200 (default 25).
• Hand-off depth (max 2) — how many times work can be passed on from Relay to Relay, 0 to 2 (default 1).
• Approval expires after (hours) — 1 to 168 (default 24). See Jobs and approvals.
• Email recipients and Meetings — who it may email or invite: Only my organization's domain, Only listed domains, or Anyone, plus up to 20 extra domains.
• Meeting limits — Longest meeting (15–480 minutes, default 60), Book up to (1–90 days ahead, default 30), Working hours (default 09:00–17:00), and Time zone (default UTC).
• Approvers — who may approve its actions. If you name nobody, the owner, the steward, and workspace admins can approve.
• Can hand work to — which other Relays it may pass part of a job to. By default, none.
• Notify on failure — who hears about failed jobs. By default, the owner.

6. Review & publish

The last step lists anything still missing (for example Add instructions or Connect a data slot), runs an Access check on each connected resource, and takes an optional Version note (up to 500 characters). Click Publish to put this version to work. Every publish creates a new version, shown in the Relay's header.

After publishing

More → Settings on the Relay holds its operating controls:

• Run checks — a go-live checklist: connected accounts work, tool connections answer, workflows are deployed, schedule and time zone are set, limits and approvers are set, and a paper run is done. Anything missing shows a Fix: hint.
• Dry run — Start a dry run to try the Relay on a job without real effects. Everything other than reading is simulated.
• Budgets and limits — including Jobs at once, Jobs per day, Open hand-offs per job, and Review expires (hours).
• Versions, and Retire Relay.