ai teammates for a small team with work to finish

start with the gap in the team

a solo founder may need a second reader more than another writer. a two-person studio may need help assembling a clear handoff more than a bot with a broad operations title. look for the part of a task that keeps falling between people.

try a preparation bot whose job is to turn supplied material into a brief, and a review bot whose job is to check that brief against the material. keep the decision with you. these are roles you define, not a prebuilt pack you have to adopt.

create each through New bot with a name and one plain-language job. each has its own chats and memory. if the job changes, you can edit it later. use the founder guide if you want to begin with work you own alone.¹

put a person at each end of the handoff

choose one person to supply the brief and one to accept the result. that can be the same person. the useful question is who will notice when the bot has prepared the wrong thing.

for a small design studio, the brief owner might attach the approved client notes and the current draft. a preparation bot can be asked to list requirements; a review bot can be asked to compare the draft with that list. the person accepting the work still checks the source notes before sending anything to the client.

make the handoff rule concrete: "return a review note with the source file, the requirement and the question that needs a person. do not turn a suggestion into an approved requirement."

this keeps a bot's contribution inspectable. another bot agreeing with it does not remove the need for the human owner to check.

use a room when the jobs need each other

a group chat puts several bots in one thread. bots hand work to each other through @mentions. set Who answers to Only when mentioned if a person should direct the order, or Leader when a lead bot should assign the tasks.²

for a release-note review, try a preparer and a checker in a small room. use these group instructions: "work from the change notes we supply. the preparer drafts the handoff. the checker flags claims the notes do not support. bring disagreements to the human owner. ask before changing any file or app."

then send: "@preparer, turn these notes into a draft handoff. @checker, compare the proposed text with the notes when asked. no publishing."

pin the agreed brief as the room's one pinned item. keep membership small so it is clear who contributes what. the group chat guide covers choosing a leader and other answer settings. separate jobs matter more than a large roster.

separate app access from shared context

being in the same room does not give every bot the same access. each keeps its own permissions and ai. let a reviewer work from attached files if that is enough; a preparation bot may need access to a particular app, but that is a separate choice.

apps can be off, read only, or read and write for each bot, with an exact action list available. read-only limits are enforced before a call reaches the app. sends ask first unless you allow a daily amount. one exception: a bot on Full access with no sending rule of its own may send up to 25 a day without asking, so set Ask every time for it.⁸ other app changes are not documented as asking automatically: retain read-only access, or put "ask me before you change anything" into the routine.³

memory also needs a choice. bots do not learn from group chats unless Learn from group chats is enabled for that bot. agree what is worth carrying forward before enabling it. review a bot's notes in Memory settings when its job changes.⁴

budget for work use before rolling it out

dusk bot is free for personal use on your own computer. business work needs a work license. it is source-available under polyform strict, not open source; do not treat a free personal install as a team deployment license.⁵⁶

as of 12 november 2026, dusk cloud pro is $50/month or $500/year and includes a work license for one person. team plans start at $100/month with a dedicated machine and shared bots. write to [email protected] for a team plan. confirm the people covered and the arrangement you need before buying.⁷

ai usage is not on the dusk bill. your ai provider bills you on your plan with them. work that keeps running uses that ai allowance too. the ai employees guide looks more closely at comparing those costs with other buying models.

before buying for several people, ask how access and billing work for your group. if your team needs roles, approvals or an activity log, ask before buying.

keep the setup only if the handoff improves

try one real task before expanding the bot roster. give it the material you would give a person, define what done means, and have the accepting person review the result. note what needed correction: missing context, an unclear brief or a claim the source did not support. change the job when that is the cause.

if the team spends its time untangling bot replies, reduce the room or split the work into separate chats. if two bots keep producing the same contribution, keep the one whose job is clearer.

keep client commitments, sensitive people decisions and sign-off with a person. a bot can help prepare a handoff without taking responsibility for it. the small-business guide is a better next step if your issue is choosing a single recurring job rather than coordinating a room.