How to use Tenbrain

Before you start: what you need

Tenbrain runs your AI team in a workspace: a private server made for you alone. Your employees work there around the clock, even with your laptop closed, and you reach them from your computer or your phone. You need:

• An AI plan: Claude Pro or Max, ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Business, or SuperGrok. Your employees run only on it, so Tenbrain never sells you AI usage and there are no API keys to add.
• The Tenbrain app on a computer (Linux, or Windows 10 or 11, or macOS), the Android app (Android 8 or newer), or both. iPhone comes later.

Create your Tenbrain account

1. Open your Tenbrain account page and choose Create an account. You can also do this in the app (from the download section): open Settings, then Account and cloud workspace, and choose Create an account.
2. Enter your email and a password of at least 10 characters.
3. Type the code we email you to confirm your address.

One account works everywhere: sign in with it in the desktop app and on your phone, and both find your workspace on their own.

Get your workspace

Your 7-day free trial starts when you confirm your email, and no card is needed.

Your workspace is made in about half a minute, on its own private network, with Erlo, your Chief of Staff, already set up. Then connect your devices.

Choose a plan whenever you’re ready, in the app’s Account and cloud workspace settings or on your account page: Pro ($29 a month) or Max ($69 a month), in USD. If you choose during the trial, your card is first charged when the trial ends; in the last 48 hours of the trial, billing starts when you choose.

If the trial ends without a plan, your workspace is paused until you choose one. Your team, chats and files are kept for 7 days, and we email you 2 days before they are deleted.

Max gives your workspace 4× speed and 50 GB for your files (Pro has 2× speed and 20 GB). Pick it for heavy use, or for a Claude or ChatGPT plan of $100 a month and up.

Connect your computer and phone to your workspace

Get the apps from the download section. The page puts the right file for your device first.

On a computer:

1. Install it. On Ubuntu or Debian, open the .deb file, or run sudo apt install ./Tenbrain-0.8.24.deb.
2. Using the AppImage on Linux instead? If it asks for FUSE, run sudo apt install fuse3 (Fedora: sudo dnf install fuse3). Then run chmod +x Tenbrain-0.8.24.AppImage and open it. On Ubuntu 24.04 or later, start it with ./Tenbrain-0.8.24.AppImage --no-sandbox, or use the .deb.
3. On Windows 10 or 11, run the installer. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
4. On a Mac (macOS 13 or newer), open the .dmg and drag Tenbrain to Applications. It isn’t signed by Apple yet, so the first time, right-click it and choose Open (on macOS 15 or later: open it once, then System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway).
5. Open Tenbrain and sign in with your Tenbrain account. The app opens on your workspace and works on it from then on.

On your phone:

1. Install the Android app. Allow your browser to install apps when Android asks.
2. Sign in with your Tenbrain account and tap your workspace. There’s no code to scan.

Your devices only show the team and send what you ask: the work happens in the workspace. Everything between them and the workspace is encrypted end to end, and we never see your team’s chats.

Updating from an older app? If your Android app is 1.0.38 or older, uninstall it once, install the new one and sign in again: the app is now signed with our own key, so Android cannot update the old one in place. If your desktop app is 0.8.5 or older, install the new version by hand once (on Linux, the new .deb or AppImage; on Windows, the new Setup). After that, updates install from inside the app.

Connect your AI plan and meet your team

1. When the app asks, connect Claude, ChatGPT or Grok. You sign in on that AI’s own page; the sign-in goes straight to your workspace, and Tenbrain never sees your password.
2. Open Erlo’s chat from the team list on the left. Erlo greets you and helps you set up: tell her your name, what your business does, and what you want off your plate.
3. Hire the rest of your team when you’re ready (see Hire and shape employees below).

Chat with an AI employee and hand over work

Your team is listed on the left. Click someone to open their chat, then say what you need in plain words, the way you would to a new hire: “Draft a reply to the lead from Northwind and suggest a call on Thursday.”

• While they work, a status line shows the current step. Details opens the side panel with every step so far, and Stop ends the turn at once.
• Send another message while they’re busy and it waits its turn.
• The + in the message box attaches files (images, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and CSV), brings a teammate in with Talk with…, hands over a task, or puts something on a schedule.
• Employees ask each other for help and hand work on when it belongs to another role, so you don’t have to relay messages.
• Bigger jobs run as tasks in the background, with live progress, the cost of the run, and a short report of how it was done at the end. You can close the app; the workspace keeps going.

Each employee’s empty chat shows a few starters for its role. They’re a good first message if you’re not sure what to ask.

Approvals and access levels: decide what needs your OK

When an employee wants to do something that needs your OK, an approval card appears in its chat and on your phone. The card says what will happen, to whom, and whether it can be undone. You can Deny it, Edit it first, or press the action button, such as Send email. Employees waiting on you move to a Needs you group at the top of the team list, with an amber count.

How much needs your OK is set by the access level in Settings › Access and rules. Each employee can also have its own level in its Details.

New teams start on Full access, which works without asking. For real client work, switch to Balanced: routine work still flows, and anything that sends, posts, pays or deletes waits for you.

On top of any level, add your own rules in the same place. “Always ask” stops the team when an action matches, for example “always ask before emailing anyone at acme.com”. “Always allow this kind of thing” on a card saves you being asked again. Secrets and private notes stay off limits on every level.

The team browser: websites, sign-ins and take-over

Your team works in its own browser inside your workspace, separate from yours, with a window per employee. It opens only when a job needs it and closes when the work is done.

• Watch: open an employee’s browser to see what it’s doing, live.
• Take over: when a site needs a sign-in, a two-step code or a CAPTCHA, the employee asks you to take over. Sign in yourself from your computer, then hand it back. Your password never reaches the chat, and one-off codes go in a masked box the employee can’t read.
• Site rules: in Settings › Team browser, decide what happens before sending, buying or deleting on a website. Ask me shows you a card first, Read only never lets it happen, and Trusted lets it happen without asking. Set a default, then add sites that need a different rule.
• If the browser misbehaves, Restart it there; your team stays signed in. Reset signs the team out of every site.

Memory: what your team remembers

Your employees remember what matters on their own: facts about you and the business, how you like things done, and a daily note of the work. Facts the whole team needs are shared with everyone, so you don’t repeat yourself.

• To see or change it, just ask in the chat: “What do you remember about …?”, “Remember that …”, “Forget that”, or “That’s out of date: …”. The newest wins.
• Give a standing rule the same way, such as “Send client emails only when I say send”. Rules are in front of the employee every time.
• Mark an employee as private, like the Personal Assistant, and what you tell it stays private to it.
• Coming from another assistant? Settings › General › Import memory brings in what ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini remembers about you.

Skills: teach your team how you do things

A skill is a short set of instructions an employee follows whenever a task fits, such as how you write meeting notes, a proposal or a weekly report. Each role arrives with skills of its own, such as meeting notes and the weekly report for the Chief of Staff, and lead research and the proposal writer for Sales.

1. Open Skills from the rail on the left.
2. Choose Add a skill, then paste a link (a GitHub folder, a .zip or a SKILL.md) or pick a file. You see a preview before anything is added.
3. Choose who uses it: everyone, or the employees you pick.

Skills use Claude’s open skill format, so skills written for Claude work as they are. To write your own, see how to create Claude skills. Adding one again makes a new version, and earlier versions can be restored. Skills are know-how only: they never override your rules or approvals.

Jobs: work that runs without you asking

A job is who does what, and when, with a limit on how many times a day it may run. Make one from an employee’s Details with New job, from the + in the message box with Put something on a schedule, or just ask in chat: “Every Monday at 9, scan our three competitors and file what changed.”

• On a schedule: every weekday at 8:00, every Monday, the first of the month.
• After another job: when the Researcher’s weekly scan is done, the SEO Writer turns it into a brief.
• Only when you run it: from Run now, whenever you like.

Jobs run in your workspace around the clock, with your computer off. Each job keeps its history of runs, its results arrive in the employee’s chat, and a run over the daily limit is skipped and noted.

Hire more employees and shape each one

Use the + at the top of the team list and choose Hire an employee. Six roles are ready: Chief of Staff, Sales Assistant, Researcher, SEO Writer, Designer and Personal Assistant. Rename them as you like.

Click an employee’s name at the top of its chat to open Details. There you can:

• edit the job description and the employee’s own rules;
• choose the model it works on, and the backups that take over when its AI runs out;
• give it its own access level, turn its skills on or off, and see its jobs;
• make it private, pause it, or remove it.

Your AI plans and usage

Your employees use your AI plan’s normal allowance. Tenbrain never charges per message or per task.

• Connect or change plans in Settings › AI Providers, and choose the default that new employees start on. With more than one connected, work moves to another when a plan reaches its limit.
• Not happy with an answer? Try it again with another AI provider from the reply.
• Apps come from each AI’s own connectors. Open Marketplace › Apps, pick Claude, ChatGPT or Grok, and Connect opens that AI’s own page. There are no API keys and no other AI providers.
• Settings › Usage and Tenbrain plan shows how much of each plan is used, by employee, day and kind of work.
• Keep heavy jobs in check with each job’s daily limit.

Manage your workspace and account

Open Settings › Account and cloud workspace in the desktop app.

• Updates: a new version goes on by itself when nothing is running. Update your workspace puts it on now; your files, logins and team stay, and the workspace is away for about half a minute.
• Restart your workspace if your team seems stuck. Running work stops and picks up again afterwards; nothing saved is lost.
• Organization: one bill, and a seat (Pro or Max) for each person you invite from Settings › Organization. Each person gets their own private workspace; you see each seat’s plan, status, storage and cost, never what is in it, and members never reach your workspace. Someone invited you? Accept it in Settings › Account and cloud workspace.
• Your phone and computers stay signed in until you sign out. Resetting your password signs your other devices out.
• Delete my account removes your account and your workspace, with its team, memory, chats and logins, after a waiting period. Until then you can keep it.

Keyboard shortcuts in the desktop app

On a Mac, use Cmd where this says Ctrl.

Troubleshooting and help

• Your team seems stuck: Restart your workspace in Settings › Account and cloud workspace. The app reconnects by itself.
• Something else isn’t working: open Settings › Health and data. Each check shows a tick, or a Fix it button.
• An employee says it’s signed out or out of plan: sign in again in Settings › AI Providers, or connect your other plan so work moves there.
• A website won’t load or stays signed out: Restart the team browser in Settings › Team browser, then take over and sign in.
• A task stopped: it tells you why (a limit, a sign-in, a blocked site, a denial) and picks up from the step that failed when you answer.
• Forgot your password? On the sign-in screen, Forgot password? sends a code by email.

Still stuck? Write to support@tenbrain.ai or book a demo and we’ll set it up with you. New to AI employees? Start with our guide to AI employee platforms.