Quick Start

Where to talk to it

On Vellum Cloud, your assistant is the same wherever you sign in, with the same memory and the same conversation history carried across:

• Web: open vellum.ai in any browser. No install needed.
• iPhone or iPad: install the Vellum Assistant app from the App Store and sign in.
• Mac: install the desktop app. Same assistant, with the added ability to read your local files and control your Mac when you ask it to.

On a local install, your assistant lives on your Mac through the desktop app. Beyond that, you can hook up Telegram, Slack, email, and phone calls so your assistant can reach you outside of those first-party surfaces. See Channels for the full set.

What to say first

There's no wrong answer. A few good first moves:

• Give it a name. “Your name is Becky.” That name will stick.
• Tell it about yourself. “I'm Marina. I work in marketing, live in Brooklyn, and prefer short, direct answers.” That's the kind of context it folds into how it talks to you.
• Ask what it can do. “What are you good at?” or “What tools do you have?” It'll walk you through its current capabilities.
• Shape its style. “Be more casual, less corporate. Don't hedge.” Style notes persist across conversations.

None of this is required. You can also just dive into a real task and let it pick up your context as it goes.

Give it a real task

The best way to see what your assistant can do is to give it something you actually need. Some examples:

• “Draft a follow-up email to Sarah about the launch meeting we had this morning.”
• “Help me think through whether to take the new role.”
• “Summarize what's on my calendar this week.”
• “Build me a simple expense tracker I can use in the browser.”
• “Remind me at 4pm to drink water.”

If a task needs a tool your assistant doesn't have set up yet (your calendar, your email, etc.), it'll tell you what it needs and walk you through connecting it.

Approvals

The first time your assistant tries to do something that could matter (sending an email, saving a file, scheduling something on your calendar), it'll stop and ask you first. You see exactly what it wants to do and you click Allow or Deny.

If you're using voice, it asks the same question out loud and you say yes or no. On iPhone, the prompt comes through as a notification you can tap.

You can also set up trust rules so it stops asking about things you've already approved. For the full picture, see The permissions model.

What it remembers

Anything you tell it, anything it figures out about you, anything that comes up in conversation that's likely to matter later, it stores as a memory. Memories surface in future conversations when they're relevant, so you don't have to repeat yourself.

You can ask “What do you remember about me?” anytime. You can also tell it to forget something: “Forget what I told you about that project.” See Memory & Context for how it works.

Connect more places

Your assistant can also reach you outside of the apps. Most people set up at least one of these in their first week:

• Telegram: chat with your assistant from any device that has Telegram installed.
• Slack: put your assistant in a Slack DM or workspace.
• Phone calls: your assistant gets a real phone number you can call.
• Email: your assistant gets its own email address it can send and receive on.

Setup is a few minutes per channel and runs through a verification handshake so only you can claim the connection. See Channels.

Where to go next

• Key Concepts: the workspace, memory, channels, tools, scheduling. The mental model behind how your assistant works.
• Your first skill: how to add a new capability, like a new integration or a custom workflow.
• Security best practices: the practical guide to staying safe while giving your assistant useful access.
• FAQ: answers to the questions most people have in their first week.