> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.genie-app.de/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Auto: your workspace's own background agent > Auto watches your workspace in the background, hands work to the member best placed to do it, and makes on its own only the changes you allow. Members can give it goals to work on. **Auto** is your workspace's own agent that works in the background. Three times a day it checks what changed, looks closer when something needs attention, **hands each piece of work to the member best placed to do it**, and makes on its own **exactly the changes your workspace allows it to make** — action by action. Everything else waits for a person to approve it. Members can also give Auto **goals** — high-level tasks it works on by itself, run after run — and, when your workspace's managers allow it, Auto can **talk to Genie AI itself** to get things done. There is **one Auto per workspace**. It acts as itself, under its own name *Auto* — in the activity log and on the [Tracing](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/tracing.md) page — never as a person, and it never counts as a member or a seat. ## Turn it on Open **Workspace settings → Auto**. Auto starts **off** in every workspace. Owners and admins switch it on. The first time, a short introduction explains that Auto works as itself and answers to the person who turned it on. Everyone who uses Genie AI in the workspace can open the page: they see whether Auto is on, what it may do alone, and the work it left for them. Each member also has their own **Push notifications** switch on this page, to be told when Auto hands them work. > [!NOTE] > > Managing Auto takes a role that holds everything Auto itself can do. If you are an admin on a custom role with fewer permissions, you take part in Auto like any member but can't change its settings. ## What Auto does Auto works in two steps: * **Quick check** — a free look at the workspace, three times a day, that spots things worth a closer look: agents that are still failing or were paused by the platform, documents that recently arrived, entities idle in a stage for two weeks or more, and proposals waiting in the review queue. It uses no credits. * **Deep run** — when a quick check finds something new, Auto investigates with read-only tools and writes up its findings. A deep run starts only when the workspace has the credits for it, at most three times a day, and is billed like a Genie AI chat turn. Something Auto has already looked at doesn't trigger another run until it changes, and a failure that a later run has fixed isn't reported. Owners and admins can also start either by hand with **Quick check** and **Deep run**, up to ten times a day. ## Work for the right person A deep run leaves up to six pieces of work. Each has an **assignee** — for example the owner of a failing agent — who gets a notification and approves or dismisses it. Each is one of three kinds: | Kind | What approving does | | - | - | | **Notice** | Closes it. It may link to the page it's about. | | **Ontology changes** | Applies up to 20 changes to your [knowledge model](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/overview.md#knowledge-model) — recording, linking, naming, advancing a stage. Auto never merges, splits, hides or deletes. In a workspace that stages ontology changes, they land in the approver's draft instead. | | **Task** | Opens a new Genie AI chat that sends a prepared first-person request, so the work runs in front of the approver with every confirmation Genie AI normally asks for. | Every card shows exactly what approving does, in full, and the work waiting for you also leads the **Recommended** row on the workspace dashboard. Long text collapses. Work nobody decides expires after 14 days, and something dismissed stays quiet for 30. An owner or admin can switch off **Hand work to members**, which keeps all of Auto's work with the managers. ## Decide what Auto may do alone Open **What Auto may do** from the Auto page. For each kind of action, an owner or admin chooses one of three modes: | Mode | What Auto does | | - | - | | **Never** | Doesn't propose it at all. | | **Ask first** | Leaves it for its assignee to approve. This is the default. | | **On its own** | Does it right away, as itself. The history says *Applied by Auto without asking*, and the activity log names Auto. | The actions are grouped by what they do: recording what documents say, linking entries, processes, confirming and rejecting, shaping the knowledge model, tasks for Genie AI, and the twice-daily tidying of the knowledge model. **Every kind of change** sets them all at once, after a dialog that says what it will do. A change made of several actions applies alone only when *every* action in it is set to **On its own**. Members see the modes as read-only words. ## Give Auto a goal A **goal** is a task you give Auto in plain words — *"Link every supplier contract to its supplier"* or *"Find out why Invoice sync keeps failing and get it fixed"*. Auto works on it **by itself, as you**, over several runs, until it is done, blocked or cancelled. * **As you.** A goal run sees only what you can see and can do only what you could do, and never more than the managers allowed Auto. Anything it can't do alone waits for you on the Auto page. * **Rhythm.** A goal starts right away when Auto is on and free, and Auto comes back three hours after each run, giving you time to decide what it left you. A goal given while Auto is off waits until a manager turns it on. * **Limits.** A goal gets at most 8 runs and a spending budget across all its runs; when either is used up, it is marked **blocked** with Auto's note. Each member can have 5 active goals and give 20 a day. * **Status.** A goal is *active*, *done*, *blocked* (Auto says what it needs) or *cancelled*. You can cancel yours at any time, and managers can cancel anyone's. The **Goals** section is first on the Auto page: the form, then every goal with its status, runs used, Auto's latest note and its history. ## Talk to Genie AI itself When an owner or admin sets **Task for Genie AI** to **On its own** — after a dialog that says what that allows — Auto may hold conversations with Genie AI **in chats of its own**, over several turns, to get done what needs Genie AI's tools. The chats are listed under **Auto's chats with Genie AI** on the Auto page and open like any chat, and each turn appears on the Tracing page. A goal's chats are yours and appear in your chat history. Without that setting, a task Auto proposes is never sent unasked: it runs as your chat, with every confirmation card, once you approve it. ## It follows the workspace's rules A run in a workspace answers to that workspace alone: * It sees only what its role allows there, including [access areas](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/overview.md#access-areas), and nothing carries over from one workspace to another. * The workspace's [PII rules](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/pii-rules.md) apply to what Auto sends to the model. * The workspace's wallet pays when the workspace pays, and every run appears on the workspace's [Tracing](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/tracing.md) page. * Changes Auto makes are logged in the activity log under its own name. * Everything it does is bounded by spending limits (see [Spend limits](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/governance.md#spend-limits)). When a limit stops Auto, the page says so. ## Ask Genie AI Genie AI can show you what Auto found, give or cancel a goal, start a run, dismiss work, and turn Auto off or narrow what it may do — try *"What did Auto find in this workspace?"* Two things stay with you: **approving** work, and **letting Auto do more** on its own. Both are confirmation cards that show the details in full and that you press yourself. The same tools are available through the [Genie MCP Server](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/mcp-api.md). ## Notifications When a deep run leaves work for you, you get *"Auto has work for you — 2 new items are waiting for you."* It lands in your [notification inbox](https://docs.genie-app.de/account/settings.md#notification-inbox) and reaches you by push and email as your settings say. It names only the workspace and the count, never what Auto found. Changes Auto made itself notify nobody. ## Related pages > [card] [Workspaces overview](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/overview.md) > > Find your way around the workspace and its sidebar. > [card] [Genie Agents](https://docs.genie-app.de/workspaces/workflow-apps.md) > > The automations Auto keeps an eye on. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.