Chat is a conversation. Work is «do this job until it is done»: a plan, steps, asks for permission when needed, and a finished result.
Honest limit: this is not cloud 24/7. Your machine or VPS must stay awake with the gateway running — sleep pauses Work. Kanban and cron are restart-durable; process-local delegate_task is not.
Work inbox keeps goals visible after the chat window closes.Approval gate before a sensitive action.Chat | Work — Headquarters watches helpers; Work tracks your jobs.
Work ≠ Chat
Chat
Conversation loop: ask, tool-call, reply. Great for exploration. Closing the window ends the live turn.
Work
Inbox of WorkTasks with plans, ledgers, schedules, and approvals. Designed for briefs, digests, and jobs that must finish.
Agent HQ (Fleet)
Dispatch board for live subagents and durable Kanban workers — one «Needs you» inbox. Complements Work; does not replace it.
How a Work task runs
Create
`vibeos work create "…"` or Desktop Chat|Work. Mark complex to auto-decompose into Kanban steps.
Plan
`vibeos work plan <id>` runs kanban_decompose (or a single leaf). Optional dual-brain: planner model once, executor runs steps.
Run
Gateway cron + Kanban dispatcher claim work. Progress ledger notes stay cache-safe. Browser pack uses an isolated Work profile.
Approve
Send / pay / delete / share ask by default — stricter than Chat. Outbound SMTP drafts park until you approve.
From a goal to a finished file or report — with checkpoints for you.Durable multi-agent work on a board that survives restarts — unlike process-local delegate_task children.
Multi-agent — not «another chat agent»
Three stacks, different durability. Specialists are roles and profiles — coordination is conductor + Kanban ledger, not peer-to-peer agent chat.
Triggers & schedules
Email → Work
Allowlisted senders — plus self-send to your gateway address for dogfood. Self-replies (Re:) stay suppressed so notify loops never spawn tasks. Injection scan; suspicious mail is quarantined, never «run everything».
Webhooks
HMAC-signed create_work with delivery-id idempotency for automations.
Schedules & monitors
Day-part windows (morning/afternoon/evening) or monitors with a delta gate (default every 15m, floor 5m).
Phone ops
Telegram `/work` status, inbox, approvals while away from Desktop.
Safety defaults
Stricter approvals
CAPTCHA patience ≠ permission to pay or send. Auto-review before outbound SMTP.
Isolated browser
Work uses a separate browser profile; bank/SMS/photo-ID challenges stay human-only.
Workload floors
When work.enabled, defaults cap concurrent Kanban / cron / delegation so the machine stays responsive.
What we do not claim
No second agent core, no mid-run toolset swap, no cloud Operator VM, no fake SaaS app store — connectors via MCP + skills.
Example journeys
Morning digest
Create with --window morning → gateway cron fires → deliverable in Work inbox.
Complex research brief
Desktop Work → complex / dual-brain → Kanban children → approve outbound if emailing.
Email intake
Allowlisted sender or self-send to the gateway address → WorkTask (or quarantine) → operator approve → package. Self-replies stay chat-silent.
Chat swarm → durable
Live delegate_task in Fleet → promote long jobs to Kanban workers in HQ Durable.
How it works inside
Desktop Fleet HQ focuses the roster without mutating the agent mid-chat. Observation panels only — no new core model tools.
HQ lenses, report & research mission
HQ Report
Career wins / fails / blocked plus board health for a window (display.fleet.report_days, default 7). Copy exports Markdown for ops notes.
Research mission
When the active board has a research swarm: gather → critique → synthesize stages, ledger current_step, and recent Board KB finds.
Density & unified attention
display.fleet.density (comfortable|compact) and attention_unified (default true) merge command approvals, Kanban human rows, and Work waiting.
Planning is first-class: decompose once, execute many steps, keep a progress ledger operators can steer.
Work plans in detail
kanban_decompose
Turns a goal into ordered Kanban children. Fallback: one leaf task if the model cannot fan out.
Dual-brain (optional)
Planner model drafts the plan once; executor profile runs steps — checkbox next to the brain model list; default off.
Progress ledger
Magentic-style notebook on the Kanban comment (optional pinned file). Steer / unblock without rewriting the system prompt mid-run.
Chat Plan tab
Session todo checklist with Build / Build parallel / Revise — adjacent to WorkTask plans, not a replacement.
Standing /goal
Ralph-style completion contracts across Chat turns. Session-scoped — different from durable WorkTasks.
Commands
Enable work.enabled, run `vibeos work ready` (exit 0 = preview-ready, including live IMAP when EMAIL_* are real). Open Desktop Chat|Work, or email yourself a non-Re: brief to dogfood Email→Work.
