---
title: Add-ons
description: The 13 built-in abilities every run already has, how to narrow them for a single run, and how to teach it something of your own.
---

Add-ons are the things Else can already do inside a run — read the live web, open
a PDF, write a spreadsheet, produce a design, build a file you can download.
There are **13 of them and they are all on**. There is nothing to install, no
per-account switch to find, and no upgrade that unlocks them.

## What the 13 let it do

The panel above the composer groups them the way it uses them.

**Research — getting the facts in.**
*Web research* searches, reads and cites current sources. *Browser reading* opens
pages and follows links across websites, which is what a search result page alone
can't do. *Assistant knowledge* uses files you have uploaded and your team
context.

**Workspace — opening what you hand it.**
*Convert to text* turns any file into clean, editable text. *PDF reader* pulls the
readable text out of a PDF. *Word documents*, *Spreadsheets* and *Slide decks*
each read **and** write their format, so "take this deck and rebuild section 3" is
one job rather than two.

**Create — producing the thing you asked for.**
*Documents* creates reports, sheets and briefs. *Code files* creates downloadable
source-code artefacts. *Visual design* generates a downloadable design.
*Generative art* generates procedural artwork from a seed. *Website builder*
builds and previews a site — which arrives as files you download, not as a hosted
address you can send someone.

If you ask for an outcome, you generally don't need to think about any of this.
The list matters in one direction: it tells you what is genuinely in reach, so you
can [ask for the artefact](/docs/writing-a-good-request) instead of hoping for it.

## Switching them off for one run

The panel is headed *This run — Just for what you're about to send*, and its
footer says *Only what you pick here is available to this run*. Take that
literally. It is a per-run control, not a global setting — narrowing it now does
not change your account, and the next thing you send starts from the full set
again.

All 13 rows start marked **Ready** and switched on. Turning one off is a way of
saying *don't go there for this job* — no web for a run that should only use the
file I attached, no browser for a run that shouldn't wander.

The consequence of switching something off is worth knowing: if the run then turns
out to need it, **it stops and asks you** rather than quietly reaching for it. A
capability the run wasn't granted is one of the things that puts work into *Needs
you* — see [When it checks with you](/docs/when-it-checks-with-you). That is usually
the behaviour you want, but it means an over-narrowed run comes back with a
question instead of a result.

## What having them all on costs you

Nothing by itself. You are not charged for an ability being available — you are
charged for what a run actually used, and every charge lands on the receipt for
that run. Leaving all 13 on doesn't spend money; a run that decides to read
fifteen web pages does. What bounds that is not the Add-on list — and in a chat it is
not the spend limit you set either, because nothing acts on that number today. A chat
is bounded by a fixed per-turn ceiling; the limit you set is read only on work you
hand off. See [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits).

The honest second half: a broader set gives it more ways to be slow. A run allowed
to browse may browse. If you already know the answer is in the file you attached,
narrowing the run is a speed decision as much as a safety one.

## Teaching it one of your own

You can add your own. On the **Assistants** screen, the second section is headed
**Things you taught it**: *"Teach it something once — a format you like, a
checklist you follow — and reuse it in any chat."* If you haven't made any, it
says so plainly — *"You haven't made any yet. Create your first one below."* —
and offers **Create your own**.

The right use is a repeatable expectation rather than a one-off instruction: the
structure your weekly summary always takes, the checklist a draft has to survive
before you'll read it, the house rules for how numbers get formatted. Teach it
once, then reference it in any chat instead of re-typing it.

Two boundaries, stated up front:

- **What you teach it is guidance, not new machinery.** It shapes how the work is
  done. It does not grant Else an ability the 13 built-ins don't already cover, and
  it cannot reach anything on its own.
- **It belongs to you.** What you teach it stays on your account. It is not
  published, shared or pooled with anyone else's.

The word for all of this in the product is *add-on* — or, for the ones you make,
*things you taught it*. If you're looking for a marketplace, there isn't one, and
you don't need one to get the 13 working.