One coordinator
Describe the result you want in ordinary language. Your assistant asks for missing essentials and checks the result. In the Agency program, it must consult and delegate to specialists. You do not need to manage an entire roster.
THE PERSONAL CHIEF OF STAFF / FIELD GUIDE 01
A SYSTEM
BUILT
AROUND YOU.
Your priorities. Your assistant. Your way of working.
Build a team that remembers, prepares, and follows through.
WINDOWS + MAC / BEGINNER FRIENDLY / YOUR OWN ACCOUNTS
01 / UNDERSTAND YOUR SETUP
EVERY PIECE HAS A JOB.
Chief is your desk. Hermes does the work. Your model provider supplies the intelligence.
YouDecisions + direction
↓Chief desktopYour agents and work
TelegramTalk to Hermes
MausBot mobileRemote access to Chief
Hermes + your model providerTools, execution, scheduling · specialists in the Agency program
↕Hindsight in DockerYour private memory service + persistent storage
Chief Exec Workspace is a separate, later product. You can use this personal setup without installing the shared workspace. Telegram and Chief have separate conversation histories; shared memory can preserve selected facts, but does not merge chats.
02 / THE OPERATING PLAYBOOK
START SMALL.
MAKE IT DEPENDABLE.
A good assistant earns more responsibility through useful, verifiable work.
Two distinct spaces
The morning brief handles obligations coming toward you. The idea board captures ideas coming from you. An idea becomes a task only when you choose to move it forward.
Evidence before “done”
A file, a checked result, a delivery receipt. Plans are not completed work. Saving a setup checklist is not proof that a service is running.
THE MORNING BRIEF
Your day, with decisions made easier.
- Gather: only connected, authorized calendar, email, task and intake sources. Record freshness and missing sources.
- Reconcile: check the task and resolution ledger. Close the specific resolved item; a new obligation remains a new item.
- Prepare: rank three priorities, identify conflicts and prep windows, and draft useful work within granted scope.
- Present: snapshot, calendar, priorities, decisions, waiting on, completed with receipts, and the next 7–14 days.
- Deliver: initially to your private Telegram DM. Keep sensitive briefs local or behind sign-in.
- Improve: correct the format, then schedule it. One successful manual brief comes before automation.
VISIONS & BRAINSTORMS
Room for ideas. No instant obligations.
- Capture: save the owner's idea, date and source. During a brain dump, capture only until “I’m done.”
- Frame: when invited, identify the goal, audience, constraints and open question.
- Explore: develop several distinct options. Label agent suggestions separately from the original idea.
- Challenge: compare cost, effort, benefit, assumptions and a small test for each promising option.
- Choose: keep, explore, shelve, or promote to a task. No automatic promotion.
- Preserve: dated corrections and source links. Weekly reviews revisit chosen initiatives without turning every thought into homework.
How much authority should my assistant have?
| Level | Default rule |
|---|---|
| 1 · Observe | Read only sources you have connected and authorized. |
| 2 · Draft | Prepare drafts and research in the agreed working folder. |
| 3 · Internal work | Requires a specific standing scope; “internal” does not automatically mean safe. |
| 4 · External action | Approve the recipient, content and action before sending or publishing. |
| 5 · Binding action | Explicit approval for each financial, legal, personnel or irreversible commitment. |
Instructions guide behavior. They do not replace tool permissions, account access controls or approval enforcement.
What changed from the original installation vision?
We keep the decision-first brief, protected idea space, graduated authority and evidence of completion. We replace personal names, organization categories, account details and hardware assumptions with your choices.
The identity files are written for Hermes. The morning brief retains the supplied 20-section charter; the brainstorm skill retains the six supplied board rules. Name, niche and delivery preferences are filled in by the wizard. They retain useful ideas from the supplied Felix package—identity, continuity and disciplined follow-through—without copying its commercial persona, OpenClaw commands, revenue targets or unrelated integrations.
We replace constant five-minute agent loops with deliberate schedules, and vague “always on” promises with restart and delivery checks. Public setup guidance is separate from private brief content. Browser checkboxes do not approve real-world actions or synchronize a task ledger.
What should I expect my computer and accounts to handle?
Start with one owner and one active task. Chief, Hermes, Docker and Hindsight share your computer. Using hosted models shifts inference off the computer, but Hermes tools and memory still consume CPU, RAM, storage and network. Local models need additional resources.
A practical starting recommendation is 16 GB RAM with free disk space for Docker images, documents and backups; 32 GB gives more room for browsers and parallel tasks. This is a planning recommendation, not a measured minimum or a concurrency guarantee. Follow each vendor’s current requirements.
Budget separately for your model provider, Hindsight extraction/reflection calls, optional services and hosting. Docker Desktop licensing depends on your use and organization. Avoid assuming every provider's free plan covers a commercial rollout.
For unattended briefs, the computer must be awake, online, and running Docker and the Hermes gateway. Test a restart. A laptop with its lid closed is not a dependable server.
03 / GUIDED SETUP
LET’S MAKE IT YOURS.
Follow the steps on your computer. This website creates your guide and starter files; it cannot install software or verify your devices remotely.
Your choices and checkmarks stay in this browser. Never enter credentials here. Completion is self-reported.
04 / YOUR FIRST REAL WIN
GIVE IT A RESULT.
LET IT HELP WITH THE REST.
“Help me prepare for my next important meeting.
Ask me for what you need, then bring me a one-page brief.”
Start with one useful result. Add connections and autonomy as the setup proves itself.
REFERENCE DESK
Reviewed October 8, 2026. Vendor screens and commands can change. Each setup step links to its official source.
Brand assets supplied by Chief. Operational concepts adapted from the supplied Chief operations manual; the brief and brainstorm templates closely preserve the supplied source workflows, with personalization and separately labelled integration notes. The supplied Felix archive is not redistributed. Third-party tools keep their own names and licenses. Chief’s current desktop core uses Apache-2.0; do not replace its notices with an MIT-only statement.
Anton font license · Figtree font license · ZIP library license