Most tasks fit in one chat. Some don’t: a project that takes many steps, a job that needs several workers, or a check you want every morning. Goals and automations are built for those.
Goals
A Goal is a bigger objective the agent works toward in the chat you start it from. It keeps that chat’s conversation, model, and live Python session, and its progress shows up right there in the chat. Start one from the composer with Start goal, describe the outcome you want, and the agent works toward it in steps. The goal panel shows the objective, the plan, and whether it is working, waiting for you, or waiting on something outside the app.
Along the way the agent keeps progress notes and leaves “anchors”, re-entry points in code, the browser, or the desktop, so work can resume where it stopped. You can review every goal under Goals.
Pausing and finishing
Pause scheduling stops new steps from starting; a step that is already running may still finish. When the agent finishes, it reports what it did and the evidence for it, so you can check the result yourself. You can also end a goal early without marking it as done.
Helper agents
For bigger jobs, the agent can start helper agents, give each a part of the work, and check in on them. Each helper works in its own Python session, and the agent team view shows every helper and its latest step. The agent can also ask your other chats for help: a request wakes a chat that is idle, or reaches a busy one at its next step, and the answer comes back to the goal. If help it is waiting for stops, the goal stops and waits for you to take a look.
Automations
An automation pairs one instruction with a trigger: a regular schedule (every few minutes, or a cron expression) or an event on your computer. “Summarise my priorities every weekday at 8:00” is a typical one. Each run is recorded, missed runs are flagged, and you can run one on demand to test it.
Hearing back
The optional messaging gateway in Settings → Messaging lets you talk to VARIANT-1 from Telegram or Discord. Only people you approve can reach it.