research and browsing

search is the thing everyone asks an agent for first and the thing most agents do worst, because they search from someone else's server with someone else's limits. yours searches from its own computer, opens the results in a real browser, and reads them. this page is what that looks like, how to ask for it, and what it refuses.

what can it do?

search. it runs web searches and reads the results, not just the snippets. ask a question and it goes and looks:

what changed in the lisbon short-term rental rules this year? give me the source for each point

browse. it opens sites in a real browser on its own machine, so pages that need a click, a scroll or a form filled are within reach. you can watch it do this on the live desktop.

read and compare. give it several pages, or a document you attach, and ask for the comparison rather than the summary of each. that is the request a human assistant would take a morning over.

keep what it finds. anything worth keeping can be saved as a file on its machine (files) or written into its notes (memory), so the same research is not redone next week.

what does a good request look like?

say what you will do with the answer. "find me the best" is a search; "find me three i could actually book this weekend under 200" is a task. the second gets a better answer because it tells your agent when to stop.

compare the three cheapest business checking accounts for a one-person company in portugal, and tell me which one you'd pick and why

read this contract and list every date i have to act by

does it cite where things came from?

yes. ask it to, and it names the pages. it is built to say "i found this here" rather than to present a search result as its own knowledge, and if something it read contradicts something it believed, it says which is which.

what does it cost?

nothing beyond your plan. searching and browsing use the same daily allowance as any other work (plans and billing); there is no separate research fee.

what will it not do?

it will not pretend a site it could not reach was read. some websites refuse automated visitors and answer with an error page instead of content; when that happens your agent says so and tries another source, and if there is no other source it tells you that too. it will not sign in to a site with your credentials unless you have connected that service or taken the desktop yourself to do it.

what is switched on later

a set of premium research tools, deeper search and hosted browsing for the jobs where quality matters more than speed, exists on the machine. as of this writing no customer's agent has used them, and we are not calling them available until they are on for you and this page says so. when that happens, this page will say what changes and what, if anything, it costs. until then, everything above is what you have, and it is a lot.

what next

• live desktop: watch it browse, and take over when a site needs you
• files: keeping what it finds
• skills: the connected accounts that let it read your own services
• your agent's passport: the proof the premium tools will ask for
• your logins: acting inside accounts that are yours