Features

Team rooms in the Atelier

The Atelier is part of Fine Techs Companion OS. “Genie” is the name of your companion – that is its name until you give it one of your own.

What is a team room?

A team room is a small workspace for a task you do not want to do alone. Genie puts together a small team for it: a few AI specialists who do the work and a reviewer (also an AI, not a person) who checks the results. You see everyone in the room as figures on the stage. Each figure shows whether it is ready, working or done.

A team room suits, for example:

writing an invitation or a letter,
researching something and summarising it,
drafting a plan for an event.

The team writes drafts. Anything that goes out – sending, posting, paying – only happens after your approval (see “App actions in a project”). The only exception: you explicitly set a project to “autonomous”; then a spending limit and a log apply (see “Let it work on its own”).

How do I start a team room?

There are three ways:

In the Atelier: open “Atelier” on the left. Under “What should the team do?” write in one sentence what it is about. If the work belongs to a project, pick it. Then “Create room”.
From a to-do: on the project page every open to-do has “Start a team room for this”. The room then knows the project and the to-do right away.
On the project page under “Team rooms” with “Start team room”.

Genie turns this into a plan right away: which steps are needed and who takes which step. Then you see the question “Start the plan?”:

Go: the team starts.
Change plan: you can rename, move or remove steps or pick another specialist. With “Call in a specialist” you bring someone into the team.

While the team works you see live who is doing what. You do not need to reload the page. “Stop” halts the run at any time.

What does Genie do as room lead?

Genie plans the room and then stays as room lead. Under “Talk to Genie” you can ask questions or give instructions, for example:

“Make the invitation shorter and more formal.”
“Who said that about the 200 visitors?”
“Create a to-do: ask the print shop by 15 November.”

The rules:

Genie always asks first. If Genie wants to change something, the answer contains a question (“Shall I …?”) and below it what exactly would happen. Only when you click “Yes, do it” does it happen. With “No” nothing happens. Afterwards the answer shows “Done” or “Declined”.
Genie does not make things up. Answers with numbers, dates or names rely on what is in the room: the task, the results of the steps, the project and its roadmap. Below you see the sources. If Genie finds nothing, it says so honestly. A number that is in no source is marked in yellow: “not backed up — please check”.
Conversations are kept. With “New conversation” you start afresh. Genie keeps a short summary of the old conversation.

What does it cost?

Every room has a fixed cost cap, $1 by default. At the top of the room you see how much has been used, for example “$0.08 of $1.00”. A small task with plan, work and review cost about 20 to 30 cents in our test runs.

When the cap is reached, the team stops and asks:

“Release +$1”: the team carries on.
“Finish”: Genie sums up what is already there.

Genie's answers in the conversation count towards the cap too. When it is used up, Genie says so instead of spending more. Changes to the roadmap (goal, milestone, to-do) cost nothing. For other suggestions you see roughly what they cost beforehand.

How do I attach results to the project?

When the team is done, the result is in the room. Below it:

“Copy” puts the text on the clipboard.
“Save in project” stores the result in the project. You then find it on the project page under “Artifacts”.
“Run again with new member” starts the room again with a changed team.

If the room worked on a to-do, Genie asks after saving whether the to-do is done. One click is enough.

Decisions from the conversation (“Shall I record this as a decision?”) also end up on the project page under “Decisions”.

How does the roadmap work?

The roadmap is at the very top of every project page. It shows where the project is heading and how far it is:

Goal: one sentence about what the project is for. If the goal changes, the old version stays visible in the history.
Way to the goal: the milestones as stations. Stations reached light up green.
Progress: how many to-dos are already done.
Next up: the three to-dos that are due now.
Milestones and to-dos: you add them with “Add milestone” and “Add to-do”. The pencil edits a to-do, the box ticks it off.

When all to-dos of a milestone are done, the roadmap asks whether the milestone is reached (“Yes, reached” or “Later”). It is never set to reached on its own.

If a team room belongs to a project, the roadmap also appears in the room as a small card. Genie knows it and can suggest a goal, milestones and to-dos in the conversation. Here too: only with “Yes, do it” does it go into the roadmap.

Before we start

Above the plan you see three groups: what the product does itself, what needs a connection (with a button to Connections; without it those steps run as drafts) and what only you can do. Each step shows “Draft” or “Done for real” and “Done when …”; the reviewer says “Met” or “Not met” and why. With “goal first” switched on, the companion writes the goal in one sentence (“That's right” / “Change”) and asks a few short questions for unclear tasks before planning.

If the plan cannot be created, the room calmly says “The plan could not be created just now.” with a “Plan again” button; your task and answers are kept. A short reason from the model is shown when there is one.

If your AI key for the model is missing or was rejected, “Plan again” does not help: the room then names the provider (e.g. Anthropic) and shows the button “Open AI access”. If you have only one key (only OpenAI or only Anthropic), your companion picks a matching model automatically – you see it under Settings › Models & budget.

When the reviewer could not check

If the reviewer could not check a step (for example because the provider is not answering), the step shows “Review not possible” – without a green check mark. Please look at the result yourself.

Progress towards the goal

At the top of the room the bar “Progress towards the goal” shows “… % done · … of … steps finished” and each step with its state. While a project runs, the “Atelier” entry in the navigation shows a small bar too. A step waiting for your approval does not count as done.

Steps under “You need to do” are yours (e.g. creating an account); tick them off with “Done” once finished – only then does the step count.

App actions in a project

With an app connected, a step can really post or send. The room then shows the card “App action: …” with exactly the values that will go out. Only “Approve and run” makes it happen – exactly once, with exactly these values. There is a fixed daily maximum of app actions per area.

Let it work on its own

A project normally stays on “Always ask”. Using the button in the room header you can let a single project work autonomously. First you see a warning: it may send, post and change through your connected apps without asking; workflows approved by the reviewer become active; you set a spending limit ($0.10 to $50.00) after which the project stops and asks you; every autonomous action is listed in the log. Only after you confirm the warning does it switch on. “Back to “Always ask”” switches back at any time; if the warning changes, you have to confirm it again.

Emails about a project

When a project is done, needs your approval or reached its spending limit, you get one short email with a button “Open in the Atelier”. Turn it off under Settings › General.

Did this help?

Results in the Atelier and answers in the chat show “Did this help?”. After “No” you can say what was not good. Only with your explicit consent is the case used – anonymised – to improve.