How it works

How the office works

The detail behind the home page, for when you want it.

Setup

After you pick your team.

Michael suggests the team on the home page. Then he gets ready, and the team learns your business.

Then Michael gets ready

Claude Code, installed for you if it's missing Sign in with your Claude plan, or an Anthropic API key

No password prompt, nothing to type in a terminal. Connectors such as QuickBooks come with a Claude account.

Then the team learns your business

One question to you, only when work needs the answer Learns the rest from your answers and the team's work

Company foundations keeps what each job needs to know about your business. Answer on the card, add a file such as your brand voice guide, or have the team member draft it. A file is checked against the question first, and one that doesn't fit is turned away with the reason.

How it works

Follow one refund through the office.

Invoice #4471, from inbox to done. You touch it once.

  1. 019:12 AM

    It lands in support@.

    Northwind Cafe was charged twice and wants money back. Each job can have its own mailbox, and support@ is Kelly's.

  2. 029:13 AM

    Kelly picks it up.

    Checking the support inbox is on her schedule, every hour. Nobody had to forward anything, least of all Michael.

  3. 039:14 AM

    She can't promise a refund, so she asks Michael.

    In the Retail Shop pack, a refund is on Kelly's Asks you first list, so she can't promise one. Teammates ask each other directly, but anything for you goes through the boss.

  4. 049:15 AM

    Michael can't settle money, so it comes to you.

    He settles what he can and hands back the rest. Money isn't his to give, so one card lands on Needs you, the only inbox you read.

  5. 059:21 AM

    You answer once. Kelly replies. Done.

    Your answer goes to Michael, who hands it back to Kelly, and into her memory. Her support@ mailbox is set to Can send, so she replies to Northwind from it, and Needs you goes quiet.

You choose what goes out.

In the story Kelly sends on her own. Pick how each mailbox sends: on its own, after you approve, or as a draft.

Send on approval: the reply waits on Needs you until you approve it.

  • Can send. Kelly sends on her own.
  • Send on approval. Each email waits on Needs you. Edit it, approve it, ask for changes or stop it.
  • Draft only. Replies wait in Drafts for you. New teammates start here.

Whichever you pick, an email that may have gone out is never sent twice.

Kelly wants to send an email

From support@ To Northwind Cafe

Re: Charged twice for Invoice #4471

Sorry about the double charge. The refund for the second one is on its way today.

Edit it first if you like. Kelly sends exactly what you approve.

Privacy first

A trust layer built to stop agents going rogue and leaking your business data.

Pete, the Research team member, does the team's web research; everyone else is told to ask Pete. Every question the app passes to Pete is checked against what you keep private, and every answer that comes back through the trust layer is cleaned of instructions before your team reads it.

You decide what stays private.

Turn Pete on, then choose which kinds of data may go to them. Here is what happens to one of Kelly's questions.

Research

On. Pete looks things up for the team.Turn off

What your team may send to Pete 4 allowed, 8 private

  • PlacesAllowedPrivate
  • Industry and market topicsAllowedPrivate
  • Dates and general timingAllowedPrivate
  • General questionsAllowedPrivate
  • People's namesAllowedPrivate
  • Contact detailsAllowedPrivate
  • Company and brand namesAllowedPrivate
  • MoneyAllowedPrivate
  • Account numbers and IDsAllowedPrivate
  • Health and personal lifeAllowedPrivate
  • Text from your files and emailAllowedPrivate
  • Passwords and keysAlways private
and 7 more kinds kept private
  • Keeps your business data in. By default, a question with a name, money or an account number is cleaned or sent back before the app passes it to Pete.
  • Built to stop agents going rogue. Answers that come back through the trust layer lose any instructions aimed at AI agents, and one that tries to steer is flagged to Michael. Email a team member reads is labelled as the sender's words, information and never instructions; lines written to steer an AI are pointed out so the member skips them, and Michael is told.
  • Off until you turn them on. Pete joins only when you switch them on in Settings, Research & privacy. Passwords and keys are always private.

The board

See every job, and who it's waiting on.

Michael keeps one board for the whole office. A glance tells you what's moving, what waits on a customer or a teammate, and the few things only you can unblock. Search it, or filter it by team member, and a To do card shows when its next step is due. Here it is at 9:15, while the refund waits on you.

  • Waiting. Says who it waits on: a customer, a supplier or a teammate. Michael chases them so you don't have to, and when someone outside the office doesn't reply after two follow ups, he asks you whether to keep waiting.
  • Blocked. Always means it waits on you, and the question sits on Needs you. Answer once and it moves again.
  • Done. Shows what came of it, so you can check the work without opening anything. Only you take a card out of Done, with a short reason.

Files

Read the file he means, beside his question.

When Michael names a file, it turns into a button. CSV files, notes, text and pictures open in a tab beside the question, so you answer with the numbers in front of you. Copy pastes a draft into Gmail or Google Docs with its headings and links. Here it is later that morning.

  • Named files are buttons. A file the office can show, or a PDF or Office file in its folders, says Open. Anything else says Show in Finder, or Show in folder on Windows. PDF and Office files open in their own app.
  • The question stays beside it. Ask me keeps its column while a file tab is open, so you answer without losing your place.
  • Reads what your business already has. The team reads Excel exports from your accounting and payroll software, long PDFs, PowerPoint decks, and scans and photos, on a Mac or a Windows PC. Company documents are shared with the whole team and searched by meaning: open one in your own app, save it, and the team searches the new version.

Pulse

See what the office got done, and what it cost.

A Pulse tab beside Tasks shows the week: what each team member did, what it cost, and ways to save that wait for your Apply. See the emails lists every email the team archived, marked read or moved to junk, and who moved it. Your time also shows how long the office ran, and how much of that you were away. Here it is on Friday afternoon.

  • Ways to save. Each looks at the last 14 days, comes with the numbers behind it and changes nothing until you click Apply. Undo puts it back. On a Claude plan the saving is counted at pay per use prices and frees plan use. Advice starts two weeks after Pulse starts recording; before that, an Early look shows any patterns it already sees.
  • Compare. Switch it on to see this week beside last week, counted up to the same day, once there is a week before to compare.
  • Real costs. On a Claude plan, what you pay for the plan, split by each team member's share of the work.

And the rest of the day

Everything else, already handled.

  • A mailbox for every job

    Gmail, iCloud, Zoho or any IMAP. Sales can send from an inbox a teammate watches, such as yours, and isn't given it to read.

  • Your tools, connected

    Use the tools on your Claude account. Each starts off; you switch it on for one teammate at a time. QuickBooks starts Read only.

  • Work on a schedule

    Jobs run on a clock. A missed run happens once, never as a backlog. A team member with no jobs yet is offered starter jobs from its pack, added paused until you turn them on. Say a run went wrong, and Michael suggests a fix in Pulse that changes nothing until you Apply.

  • Limits in writing

    No agent pays a bill, promises a refund or posts in public without you. Change a job by saying what should change, like "ask me before any refund over $200", and see the difference before you Apply. If the change overlaps a teammate's work, say how they split it, and Michael routes by that.

  • Talk 1:1

    Open anyone and talk to them directly. Send a screenshot or a file.

  • Ask Michael

    Type a question in the box at the bottom and see where it stands. Sent, Michael has it, Waiting on someone, Answered.

    A finished task shows what came of it, and a file Michael names opens in one click. When Michael offers choices, you pick one and press Reply, and his pick is tagged. A question built on an email opens that email in a tab, exactly as it came, even after it was archived.

Free and open source

Free, open source, and on your computer.

No paid version, no trial. It runs on your own Claude plan or Anthropic API key.

More than 70 people have had code merged.

Star on GitHub Read the license
License
MIT
Price
Free. No paid version, no trial.
Runs on
Your Mac or Windows 11 PC, with your Claude plan or an Anthropic API key. Max keeps it running all day.
Your data
Work, memory and mailbox passwords are kept on your computer. The app sends no usage data, only failure reports with no names, messages or files.
Latest
v0.3.1

One more question

Starting over.

Can I make the team forget and start over?

Yes. Reset memory in Settings has every team member, Michael included, forget its notes, its conversations and the messages it has handled, and start as on its first day. Your team, cards, waiting messages, schedules, settings and Company knowledge stay. This cannot be undone.

Stop doing every job yourself.

Pick your kind of business, pick your team, and let Michael hand it out.

Download Star on GitHub

v0.3.1 · Mac (Apple Silicon or Intel) · Windows 11 (x64)