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The First Conversation

Your helper introduces itself in its own chat and picks its own name. Here is what to expect and how the welcome email works.

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Your Helper Names Itself

BrainRoad does not pre-fill your helper’s identity. The first time you open the chat, the helper runs its runtime’s own getting-to-know-you ritual: it asks about you and your business, works out how it can help, and picks its own name in conversation with you. Hermes has its own equivalent of the same first-run flow.

This is deliberate. The name and working style come out of a real conversation, not a form. The name shown on the dashboard is a label that follows what the helper calls itself; you can rename it later from the Helper page header while the helper is running, and the helper keeps its own sense of identity in its workspace.

Opening the Chat

From the Helper page on the dashboard, click “Open OpenClaw chat” or “Open Hermes chat”. The runtime’s chat opens in a new tab. That chat is the runtime’s own interface: channels, sessions, and runtime configuration all live there too.

If the helper is asleep when you open the Helper page, it wakes automatically. You will see “Waking — usually 10–40 seconds” while it boots.

What to Talk About First

The first conversation shapes how useful your helper is. Good openers:

  • Describe your business in a few sentences: what you sell, who your customers are, how work usually arrives.
  • Tell it what you want off your plate first, such as replying to inbound email or preparing quotes.
  • Point it at your Business Brain. The more real business context you upload, the better its drafts get. See the Business Brain.

The Welcome Email

After your helper picks its name, it gets a real managed mailbox at @mg.brainroad.com, and BrainRoad sends one welcome email into that mailbox. The helper drafts a reply, and that draft appears in your Inbox as your first review item. Nothing is sent until you approve it. It is a safe, end-to-end test of the same draft-first workflow real customer email will follow.