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Getting started with Operator: routines, artifacts, and customization

Learn how to use Operator's five core features — routines, artifacts, instructions, memories, and customization — to automate and standardize your team's work.

Operator now does more than answer questions. With routines, artifacts, and customization, it can run recurring work, remember how your team operates, and save outputs your whole team can use, without starting from scratch each session.

Note: These additional Operator capabilities are currently in beta.

  • Routines: run repeatable work on a schedule

  • Artifacts: save, share, and keep Operator’s outputs beyond a single conversation. Owners can ask Operator to update them; shared teammates currently have read access.

  • Customize: the workspace area where Instructions, Memories, and Connections are managed

    • Instructions: set cross-teammate rules that apply to everyone in the workspace

    • Memories: save personal context about you so Operator remembers it across conversations

    • Connections: connect Operator to supported tools, subject to availability and permissions

Routines

Set up a routine on a schedule and Operator handles it automatically — returning results and flagging decisions that need a person.

The Routines page in Operator showing a Set up a routine prompt field with suggested routine templates: Daily briefing, Resolution rate watch, Knowledge gaps, and Escalation patterns. A beta label appears at the bottom.

Routines use cases

  • Weekly support-performance summaries

  • Monitoring content or configuration for changes

  • Reviewing product updates for articles that may be affected

  • Recurring analysis that should arrive without a new prompt each time

Getting started

  1. Open Operator and navigate to Routines.

  2. Select "Set up a routine".

    The Routines setup page in Operator showing a prompt field asking 'What would you like Operator to do?' with four suggested routine templates below: Daily briefing, Resolution rate watch, Knowledge gaps, and Escalation patterns, each with a brief description.

  3. Describe what you want Operator to check, how often, and what output to return.

  4. If the routine may propose changes, specify that Operator should return them for review before anything is applied. Your routine is saved and will run automatically at its next scheduled time.

Tip: Start your routine prompt with the signal or source to check, the frequency, and the expected output — for example: "Every Monday, check unresolved billing conversations from the previous week, summarize the top issues, and return a short report. Ask me for approval before making any changes."

Artifacts

Operator saves its work as a document your team can find and share. Owners can ask Operator to update an artifact at any time — shared teammates currently have read access.

Artifacts use cases

  • Operational reports and recurring analysis

  • Onboarding plans and checklists

  • Coaching or calibration documents

  • Drafts to share with teammates

Getting started

  1. Ask Operator to produce the output you want — a report, a plan, an analysis.

  2. Tell Operator to save it: for example, "Save this as an artifact titled Weekly support summary."

  3. The artifact appears in the Artifacts area, where you and your teammates can find it.

Keeping it current

Ask Operator to revise an artifact by name and it updates the same document. Only the owner can make changes, shared teammates can read but not edit.

Artifact access and permissions

  • Artifacts are private by default. Owners can grant teammates read access, but only the owner can currently make changes.

  • The owner can grant teammates read access, but only the owner can currently make changes

Customize

Tell Operator how your team works — once — and it applies those standards across every conversation. No more repeating yourself.

The Instructions page inside Customize in Operator, showing a saved instruction titled Reporting Preferences last updated by Adam one month ago. The left navigation shows Instructions, Memories, and Connections. A beta label appears at the bottom.

Instructions

Instructions are shared workspace rules that tell Operator how to behave — what to do, what to avoid, and where to stop and ask. They apply to everyone in the workspace, not just one person.

  • Be specific — vague rules are hard for Operator to act on

  • Use plain imperatives: "Always", "Never", "When X, do Y"

  • Focus on behavior, not product facts — those belong in your help center

Example instruction

"When reviewing a knowledge-base change, first identify existing content that may be affected. Ground every recommendation in the source change and the current article. Do not invent missing policy details. Present proposed changes for review before applying them."

Important: Instructions are for behavioral rules, not product content. If the information describes how a feature, policy, or product works, it belongs in your help center articles — not in a standing instruction.

Memories

Memories are personal to you. Tell Operator something about your role, your current projects, or how you like to work, and it will remember that specifically about you across future conversations — without you having to repeat it.

The Memories page inside Customize in Operator showing an empty state with the heading What Operator remembers about you and a description that Operator saves details as you work so you don't have to repeat yourself. An example memory bubble shows the text I manage the german help centre with a Saved memory to profile confirmation. A beta label appears at the bottom.

How to save one

Tell Operator what you want it to remember during a conversation. For example: "I’m working on building out a help center for our Salesforce acquisition" and Operator will remember that specifically about you.

Good examples

  • "I’m the lead for the EMEA support team."

  • "I’m currently focused on reducing escalation rates in the billing queue."

  • "I prefer concise summaries over detailed breakdowns."

  • "I manage the German help center."

Connections

Connect Operator to supported tools your team already uses. Available connectors include Linear, Notion, GitHub, and Snowflake, and MCP Server lets you connect to any compatible external server. Availability varies and some integrations are still coming soon — check your workspace for what’s currently accessible.

What to use when

Use this table to decide which feature fits your goal.

Goal

Feature

Example

Run work repeatedly

Routine

"Every Monday, summarize unresolved billing conversations."

Keep and share the output

Artifact

"Save the weekly summary as a report for the support leads."

Define behavior or guardrails

Instruction

"Always show evidence before recommending a change."

Preserve stable context across conversations

Memory

"Remember that we default reports to the previous complete week."

Pull in data from an external tool

Connection

"Check the latest Linear issues and summarize open bugs by priority."

See it in action

Say your team ships a product update. Here's how all six features work together:

  1. Add an instruction defining your preferred article structure, terminology, naming conventions, and behavioral guardrails — so Operator applies them consistently for everyone.

  2. Save any personal context relevant to the task as a memory — for example, which help center you manage or your current focus area.

  3. Add an instruction telling Operator to inspect the release, review existing content, avoid inventing policy, and propose changes for review.

  4. Connect Operator to your issue tracker or release tool (for example, Linear or GitHub) so it can pull in release details directly.

    Create a scheduled routine that checks for new releases via the connection at a set frequency.

  5. Have Operator produce an artifact containing impacted content, recommended updates, open questions, and an approval checklist. The result: your help center stays accurate after every release, reducing manual triage while keeping proposed changes subject to review.

FAQs

What is the difference between instructions and memories?

Instructions are cross-teammate rules that apply to everyone in the workspace — content formatting standards, behavioral guardrails, things Operator should always or never do. Memories are personal to you: context about your role, your projects, or your preferences that Operator remembers specifically about you across conversations.

What is the difference between Customize and instructions?

Customize is where you set the standards that apply to every conversation — your team's tone, terminology, and reporting preferences. Instructions are specific rules about how Operator should behave: what to do, what to avoid, and when to check with you first.

Can teammates see each other's artifacts?

Yes, when the owner shares an artifact with them. Artifacts are private by default — only the owner can currently make changes.

Can I search inside an artifact?

Artifact search covers titles, owners, and metadata — it does not search the content inside an artifact.

Should I save product information as a memory or instruction?

No — keep product information (how features work, pricing, policies) in your help center articles where it belongs. Memories and instructions shape how Operator behaves, not what it knows. Keep changing product facts in your help center content so there is one canonical source of truth.

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