For One Person
For a TeamIs my agent broken?
Your agent stays quiet when nothing is worth saying, so it can look stopped. Find what you saw below, and what to press.
Archie lists the emails and texts your agent left alone
Each line says who it was from, what it was about, and why.
For email: in Archie, open your agent’s Skills tab, press Email Manager, and look under Tell me about for Read and left alone.
For texts: press Text Replies and look under Which texts to watch. Lines clear after a day, and the list appears only once something is on it.
What you saw, and what it means
My agent said nothing at all
Four of these six are your agent following its settings.
Why
Tell me about starts at Only mail that needs a reply from me, so a real email that asks nothing of you, like “got it, thanks”, is left alone.
How to check
On your agent’s Skills tab, press Email Manager and look under Tell me about for Read and left alone.
What to do
Under the same Tell me about, pick Anything a real person sent me. It costs no more.
Why
On the free starter credits, or the plan with the AI included, your agent does not read mail. Or it does not yet know which chat to tell you in.
What to do
Connect an AI account of your own: on your agent’s Setup tab, pick AI account. Then send your agent one message in the chat you want news in.
Why
After more than an hour off, your agent sums up the pile in one list. Each line is a conversation still waiting on you. It also counts any it left unread so a backlog cannot run up your AI bill.
What to do
Press or reply with a number: “3” has your agent write an answer to the third and show it to you first. The list works for a day.
Why
Your agent tells you about only so many emails an hour, and reads only so many, since each read costs a little on your AI account.
At the reading limit it says so in chat, and it does not go back over the mail it skipped.
What to do
On the Skills tab, press Email Manager and, under How often, and how many, raise Tell me about at most, or set it to 0 for no limit.
With drafts on, more can mean more drafts, each costing a little on your AI account.
Why
Nothing is read while your computer is asleep or off, or Archie has been quit.
When it starts again, your agent reads what arrived while it was off, as long as the gap is under about a week.
After a longer gap it may only be able to start from that moment, so check that stretch of your inbox yourself.
What to do
Make sure the computer running Archie is on, awake, online, and has Archie running. Closing Archie’s window leaves it running; only quitting Archie switches your agent off.
To keep it working while you are out, keep it plugged in and awake.
On a Mac: System Settings, Battery, Options, then turn on Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off (Energy Saver on a desktop Mac).
On Windows: Settings, System, Power & battery, then under Screen and sleep set sleep when plugged in to Never.
Why
Never tell me about drops an email unread, on an address or word you typed, so a rule on “invoice” also hides your plumber’s invoice.
What to do
On the Skills tab, press Email Manager and take anything too broad out of Never tell me about. If a real person sent it, widen Tell me about to Anything a real person sent me.
For a sender you never want missed: under When a reply is wanted, set Always write a reply, even when it looks like none is needed to Yes, for the people I name. Then add them.
My agent did something I did not expect
Why
Your agent cannot send an email or a text on its own. A text goes out only when you press Send, and an email only when you send it or set a time for it. No setting turns this off.
What to do
Press Send. To change it first, press Edit it, then Rewrite it for me, and say what is wrong.
Why
The account was connected without Let it send replies.
What to do
On your agent’s Connections tab, under Email, calendar, files, press Reconnect on the account.
Check Let it send replies, press Reconnect with Google or Reconnect with Outlook, and approve sending. Drafts already waiting can then be sent.
For iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo, AOL, Zoho Mail or GMX, press Reconnect and paste the app password again. Still off? Make a new app password on the provider’s site and use that.
Why
Text drafts are taken back when you answer from your phone, but an email draft stays for a day unless you dismiss it. A reply you set to send later calls itself off if they write back first.
What to do
Press Dismiss.
Why
A drafted reply goes out under your name, so it matches the message it answers.
What to do
Press Edit it, then Rewrite it for me, and say what is off, or press Other versions for three more.
Why
On a Mac, your agent uses an app the way a screen reader does, and macOS needs your OK once. Websites work without it.
What to do
On your agent’s Connections tab, under Computer control, press Open System Settings. Under Privacy & Security, Accessibility, switch Archie on (or Archie for Teams, which is listed as Archie for Business if you installed it before it was renamed).
Archie notices within seconds.
An account has stopped working
Why
The account’s permission stopped working: Google or Microsoft withdrew it, you changed your password, or an administrator revoked it.
How to check
On your agent’s Connections tab, under Email, calendar, files, the account says Not opening, with how long and why. Its other badges stay lit either way.
What to do
Press Reconnect on that row, sign in again, and approve the permissions. Your settings, drafts and your agent’s memory stay.
Use Reconnect: an account removed and added back starts reading from that moment.
Mail that piled up is usually read once the account opens.
After a gap of more than about a week, or sometimes after reconnecting an Outlook account, Archie can only start from now, so check that stretch yourself.
For iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo, AOL, Zoho Mail or GMX, Reconnect asks for the app password. If you changed the account’s own password, make a new app password first.
Why
Usually an add-on needs an account Archie can no longer reach, or the ability was switched off on the Setup tab, under What it can do.
What to do
Ask your agent “why couldn’t you do that?” It names the screen that turns the ability back on, or the account to reconnect on the Connections tab.
Text messages
Why
Text watching needs the Mac your texts arrive on, with Archie running and Full Disk Access on, and an AI account of your own.
On the free starter credits, or the plan with the AI included, your agent does not read texts.
What to do
On your agent’s Skills tab, press Text Replies to see what is missing. For the permission, press Open Full Disk Access, switch Archie on, then quit and reopen Archie.
Nothing in that category. Press Everything to see the rest.
Not on this list? Send us your agent’s technical log.
Then the problem is ours to find, and the log saves a round of guessing.
- In Archie, open your agent, go to the Setup tab, and pick Activity log.
- Press Export beside Technical log to save it to a file.
- Email it to [email protected], with roughly when it happened and who the message was from.
That log holds what your agent read and what it decided: who each email was from, its subject line, and a short summary of each email or text it left alone. It does not hold the full text of an email or a text.
Read the file first and cut anything you would rather keep to yourself. Jett or Jack reads it, and you hear back within one business day, even if only to say we are on it.
Write to Jett and Jack