Official User Manual
Dovie user manual
This manual is for people using the current Dovie product. It covers installation and sign-in, starting work, managing AI teammates and teams, using local workspaces and tools, handling approvals, and reviewing subscriptions and usage.
Product and manual scope
Understand the current Dovie surfaces and the responsibility of each one.
Current product boundary
| Surface | Primary purpose | Current boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Dovie desktop | Conversations, AI teammates and teams, local workspaces, tool execution, artifacts, and approvals | The public desktop release is currently for macOS; work is executed in the desktop app |
| Dovie Dashboard | Account, subscription, credits, and usage by conversation, teammate, and event | An account console, not an online task-execution workspace |
| Dovie website | Product information, downloads, this manual, and security information | Does not host user tasks or workspaces |
Core terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AI teammate | An execution actor with an identity, model, tools, skills, permission preferences, and persistent working context. |
| AI team | A group of AI teammates that can divide responsibility around one goal. |
| Conversation | The visible, continuing record of work between a user and an AI teammate or team. |
| Team mission | A team execution space that can contain member activity, a task graph, approvals, and artifacts. |
| Workspace | A local folder selected by the user. It supplies file context and defines the normal write boundary. |
| Artifact | A file, image, report, or other output associated with a conversation or mission. |
| Skill | A reusable method or capability package installed for a specific AI teammate. |
Install, sign in, and start
Install the desktop app, authenticate your account, and initialize the local runtime.
Install the desktop app
- On the download page, choose Apple Silicon (ARM64) or Intel (x64) for your Mac.
- Open the downloaded DMG and move Dovie to the Applications folder.
- On first launch, wait for local workspace initialization to finish. Do not force-quit during initialization.
- Use Check for updates in the sidebar account menu for later desktop releases.
Sign in or create an account
Dovie desktop and Dashboard use the same account. Desktop supports Google, phone and password, email verification code, or email and password, with registration and password recovery entries. Dashboard supports email code, email and password, and Continue with Google when configured. On first use, email-code authentication completes sign-in or registration according to the account state.
- Verification codes are sent only to the email address you enter. Request a new code after expiry.
- If the session expires, Dovie asks you to authenticate again before opening the workspace.
- Open Dashboard in the website header opens Dashboard in a new browser tab.
Interface and first task
Choose an execution actor and workspace, then submit a task with a clear boundary.
Main interface
| Area | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Left navigation | New conversation, AI teammates, Skill Marketplace, Remote Connections, Automation Tasks, and conversation history grouped by workspace. |
| Conversation area | Enter goals and inspect replies, tool calls, run status, approvals, and team speakers. |
| Quick actions and right panel | Open files, browser, computer operation, task graph, artifact preview, and recent activity when supported by the selected teammate. |
| Account menu | Open settings, subscription options, update checks, or sign out. |
Start your first task
- Select New conversation.
- Choose an AI teammate or team beneath the composer.
- Select the local workspace for this task. For file work, choose the folder that contains the relevant files.
- State the goal, necessary context, acceptance criteria, output format, and boundaries.
- Add local attachments if needed, then choose the model and reasoning effort.
- Confirm Default permission or the Full access permission you explicitly need, then send.
Inspect and control execution
- The run timer shows whether the current response or task is still executing.
- Sequential tool calls are grouped. Expand them to inspect actions, arguments, output, and errors.
- Use Stop when needed, then wait for background tools to finish cleanup before sending another message.
- From the timeline, copy a message, recall a turn back into the composer, or branch a new conversation after the response is stable.
- Long conversations may compact older context into a summary. The timeline displays when this happens.
Conversations, teams, and task graphs
Use the right collaboration mode for single-teammate work, team discussion, or a structured mission.
Choose a collaboration mode
| Mode | Best for | How to start |
|---|---|---|
| Single-teammate conversation | One AI teammate can own the goal end to end | Choose the teammate in a new conversation and send. |
| Team conversation | The team should share the goal and continue a joint discussion | Choose a team; type @ to target a member. |
| Member-directed work | A specific member should own the current turn | Mention that member in the team conversation, then state the task. |
| Team mission | Visible ownership, dependencies, node states, and staged artifacts are required | After the team creates a mission, use the mission room for conversation, graph, and artifacts. |
Team collaboration and task graph
- Speaker identity is shown in the team timeline so you can see which member performed the work.
- Task graph nodes show ownership, dependencies, runtime state, approval state, and output. Open a node for details.
- Members may progress in parallel, while nodes with unmet dependencies remain waiting.
- Artifacts remain linked to the relevant conversation and node and can be opened from the files/artifacts panel.
Manage conversation history
- History is grouped by workspace and marks running conversations and unread updates.
- Rename conversations, load older history, or delete finished conversations.
- A running conversation cannot be deleted. Stop it or switch away and wait for the run to finish.
- Deletion cannot be undone. Confirm that important artifacts exist in the local workspace first.
AI teammates and teams
Add, configure, create, and continuously improve AI teammates.
Add and manage teammates
- Open AI teammates from the sidebar.
- Search Teammate templates or My teammates and open a profile.
- Add a template teammate or inspect an existing teammate in detail.
- Set its name, summary, default model, tools, and skills as required, then select it in a new conversation.
- Removing a teammate hides it from lists and selectors but does not delete historical conversations.
- Some teammates require a local CLI, account authorization, or tool runtime. The profile shows detection, installation, and configuration state.
- Growth summaries reflect accumulated memory, skills, and sessions; they are not unverified capability promises.
Create or evolve an AI teammate
- Select Create AI teammate on the AI teammates page, or use the creation entry in a new conversation.
- Describe the role, working style, boundaries, tools, and skills the teammate needs.
- Review the draft and complete its avatar, default model, tools, skills, and default permission.
- Validate it in a test conversation before publishing to My teammates. Published teammates remain editable.
Build a team
Create a team from the actor selector in a new conversation, name it, and choose members. Teams work best when responsibilities complement each other rather than overlap.
- Give each member a clear responsibility and collaboration boundary.
- Confirm the team workspace and cross-workspace write policy.
- Once work starts, mention a member directly or let the team allocate responsibility.
Workspaces, attachments, and artifacts
Keep input files, actual edits, and final deliverables in verifiable locations.
Manage local workspaces
- A workspace is a local folder registered with Dovie. Add one from history or Settings → Runtime and data.
- Choose the correct workspace before starting. It becomes the main file context and normal write boundary.
- Removing a workspace from the sidebar does not delete the original folder from disk.
- For important projects, use version control or your own backup before granting write access.
Add attachments
Add or drag local files into the composer. Attachments are submitted with the current message and remain in the timeline with their name, type, and size. Images can be previewed directly.
Inspect and deliver artifacts
- Use Files in quick actions to view artifacts linked to the current conversation or mission.
- Open an artifact card from the timeline to preview it. Unsupported file types offer an option to open the containing folder.
- The image preview can move through session images and download the current image.
- Recalling a message attempts to remove its artifact cards and newly generated files, but does not roll back edits to existing files.
- Before delivery, open the actual file and verify its content, location, and format instead of relying only on the conversation summary.
Tools, permissions, and approvals
Enable browser and computer operation only within the minimum necessary scope.
Browser Use and Computer Use
| Capability | Purpose | Required state |
|---|---|---|
| Browser Use | Search, open, and read pages and complete web tasks in the built-in browser | The selected teammate has browser enabled and its dependency is ready |
| Computer Use | Read the screen, locate windows, and operate local applications | The selected teammate has computer_use enabled, the runtime is ready, and macOS Screen Recording and Accessibility are granted |
- When a tool is unavailable, enable it in the teammate profile and prepare the required dependency.
- Check computer permissions in Settings → Computer operation and open macOS System Settings from there.
- Configure the built-in browser search engine, new-tab behavior, and address bar in Settings → Browser.
Conversation permission modes
| Mode | Behavior | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Default permission | Follows the selected teammate approval policy and asks for confirmation when required | Use for normal work |
| Full access permission | Prioritizes full-access execution for the current conversation and reduces interactive approvals | Use temporarily only when the goal, workspace, and risk are explicit |
Handle approval requests
- Review the action, command, target, severity, and expected impact.
- Choose Allow once, Always allow the same operation, or Deny and explain how to adjust.
- If a request needs an administrator password, secret, or clarification, provide only what that action requires.
- Approvals expire after the countdown and are cancelled automatically. The teammate must request again.
Skills, automation, and remote connections
Install reusable capabilities for the right teammate and schedule work only in supported environments.
Use Skill Marketplace
- Open Skill Marketplace and search Public skills or My skills.
- Select the target AI teammate at the top before inspecting a skill and its requirements.
- Install the skill and confirm its state. Add any missing environment variable, file, command, or configuration.
- Uninstall it from a teammate when no longer needed. Local skill data can be deleted only after no teammate uses it.
Create an automation task
- Open Automation Tasks and select Create task. If the page says unsupported, resolve runtime support first.
- Enter a task name and complete instruction, then choose a workspace and executing teammate.
- Choose once, hourly, daily, fixed interval, or Cron, and send results to a new or selected conversation.
- Set the unattended approval policy, enabled state, and whether a one-shot task is deleted after running.
- After creation, filter, edit, run now, enable or disable, or delete the task and review its last-run state.
Configure remote connections
Remote Connections links a messaging platform currently listed on the page to a selected AI teammate. Available platforms and capabilities depend on both the desktop build and server configuration; use the list shown in the app as the source of truth.
- Choose a platform and target AI teammate.
- Complete the generated configuration form. Follow the QR flow when the selected platform supports it.
- Save and connect, then confirm that the platform reports a connected state.
- If pairing is enabled, review pending users and approve only trusted requests. Review connected accounts when the platform supports account listing.
- Disconnect the platform from the same page when it is no longer needed.
Task Hub (release- and access-controlled)
Discover, save, and manage external task information when the entry and account entitlement are available.
Availability
Task Hub is controlled by both a desktop release flag and account entitlements. If the production app does not show the entry, or the page reports blocked, locked, or sample access, the account does not have the full capability. This is not necessarily a client fault.
Discover and save tasks
- Use keywords and the filters presented on the Task Hub page.
- Open a detail page and verify its title, summary, source, publication time, content state, and original link.
- Open the original source in the system browser. Dovie does not replace source verification.
- Save entries to My tasks and manage saved and archived states.
- When entitled, report inaccurate, expired, or non-compliant entries and review the report status.
Account dashboard, subscription, and usage
Manage account entitlements and audit platform-billed and BYO usage.
Understand subscription and billing
- Dashboard presents platform-billed consumption as credits. Change the time range from the header.
- Platform billing counts against Dovie usage. BYO uses your own provider or Codex account; events may still be recorded but are not deducted as platform model cost.
- Subscription & credits shows monthly credits, add-ons, and any pending overdraft. Use the ledger as the balance-change record.
- Upgrade or manage subscription opens a separate plan or checkout page. Confirm the plan, billing interval, and active period before paying.
Settings, privacy, and troubleshooting
Manage device preferences, local permissions, privacy rights, and runtime health.
Settings reference
| Category | What you can manage |
|---|---|
| Account | Profile, avatar, and password. |
| General | Interface language, new or most recent conversation at startup, and sidebar mode. |
| Computer operation | Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions and the local computer-operation runtime. |
| Privacy | Data-processing consent, data export, access history, and account-deletion requests. |
| Browser | Search engine, new tab, address-bar search, and browser-data clearing. |
| Runtime and data | Local service health, registered workspaces, database usage, and local-path diagnostics. |
Privacy and account data
- Open Settings → Privacy to review the current data-processing notice and consent state.
- Data export and account deletion enter a data-subject request flow and may not complete immediately.
- Account deletion is permanent and requires the explicit confirmation shown on the page.
- Clearing built-in browser data affects local browser data only; it does not delete the Dovie account.
Common troubleshooting
| Symptom | Check first |
|---|---|
| Cannot sign in or repeatedly asked to sign in | Check the network and code expiry. In password mode, confirm the account has a password, then authenticate again. |
| Message cannot be sent | Confirm local initialization finished, the selected teammate is available, the workspace still exists, and read the error banner. |
| Browser or computer action is unavailable | Enable the tool in the teammate profile and prepare its dependency. Computer Use also requires macOS permissions. |
| Artifact cannot be previewed | Open the containing folder and verify the file still exists and was not moved. |
| Automation reports unsupported | The current runtime does not expose automation. Check the desktop version and Runtime and data. |
| Task Hub is missing or limited | The release flag may be off or the account may not have full entitlement. |
| Local service is unhealthy | In Settings → Runtime and data, refresh, run a health check, or recover. Preserve the full error if it still fails. |