---
title: Your first task
description: A walkthrough of one real delegation — from the sentence you type to the result you download.
---

Start by typing what you want in one sentence. Pressing Send starts a chat, and
the work happens there. Handing work off to run without you is a separate,
deliberate choice — this page covers both, in that order.

## 1. Say what you want

Open the home screen and type the outcome, not the steps. *"Turn this spreadsheet
into a report I can send to my team"* beats *"open the file, then make a chart,
then…"*.

If you have material, give it to Else in the same breath. Three equivalent ways:
the **Attach files** button, pasting (a screenshot from your clipboard gets named
for you), or dragging files onto the composer. In a chat you can attach up to
**5 files, each under 5 MB** — documents, spreadsheets, slide decks, PDFs,
images, text and source files. Anything else is refused up front, with the reason.

## 2. Set the run up, if you want to

Before you send, the panel headed *This run — Just for what you're about to send*
lets you shape that one run. Everything is already set to a sensible default, so
you can skip this the first time.

- **What it can use.** All **13** built-in Add-ons are listed and marked *Ready* —
  web research, browser reading, file conversion, PDF reading, Word documents,
  spreadsheets, slide decks, visual design, generative art, code files, documents
  and a website builder. Untick anything you'd rather it didn't touch. Connected
  Apps appear here too; ones you haven't set up show as *Connect in Apps*.
- **Check with me before big steps.** Defaults to the strictest option, *Before
  anything leaves this app*.
- **Spend limit for this run.** Starts at **$0.15**, raisable to **$5.00**. The
  field's label promises a pause, and on a chat that is not what happens: the number
  is recorded and shown back to you, and nothing acts on it. What ends a chat turn is
  a fixed per-turn ceiling you cannot see or change. The number you type is read only
  when you hand work off — see [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits) before you rely on
  it either way.
- **Which engine.** Leave it on **Auto** (best value for each request), or pick
  **Fast** (cheapest acceptable answer), **Smart** (balanced quality, long
  context) or **Max** (deepest reasoning). If you want to be specific, *Pick an
  exact engine* opens the full list of engines with real supply.

Then send.

## 3. Watch it work

The run shows the stages it's genuinely in. **Planning the run** always comes
first. Others appear as they become real: **Working in a secure browser** if it
needs the live web, **Working in the secure workspace** if it needs to open or
produce files, and a verification stage at the end.

If it hits something only you can decide — an email to send, an action in a
connected App that isn't pre-approved, a spending ceiling reached — it stops and asks.
Nothing runs and nothing is charged while it waits, and it waits as long as it
takes: a parked question has no expiry. It will also ask genuine questions when
the brief is ambiguous — up to **three** rounds in a working run, not endlessly.

## 4. Take the result

The answer arrives in the chat, formatted, ready to read. Anything it
made as a file — report, spreadsheet, slide deck, image, PDF, website — shows up as a
deliverable you can preview and download. A website arrives as an HTML file you
download, not as a hosted address.

## Handing a task off to run without you

Some work shouldn't need you sitting there. Two places create a task:

1. **A task card on the home screen** — *Spreadsheet to report*, *Deep research*
   and others. Each card asks for a few specifics before it will start.
2. **The composer on the Tasks screen**, where you write the task yourself.

There you also choose whether it runs once or repeats — *Just once*, *Every
morning*, *Weekdays at 9am*, *Mondays at 9am*, *Every hour* or *Every 30 minutes*.
A task is work you hand off to run without you; a repeat is optional.

Handing work off is also the path where a limit is genuinely read. Settings → *How it
works* → *Ask before spending more than* offers **$0.10**, **$0.50**, **$1.00** or
**$5.00**, and a task found above what you pick between steps stops and checks with
you. It is a separate number from the field above the composer, and it applies to
tasks started from the Tasks screen without a limit of their own.

One asymmetry to know: **a task accepts text files only, up to 5 files and 100 KB
in total.** PDFs, Office files and images run in a live chat instead, so they
can be mounted in the secure workspace. If you need those, stay in a chat.

## Following and finishing a task

The task row tells you where it is in plain words: *Making a plan*, *Working on
it*, *Needs you*, *Paused*, *Done*, or *Couldn't finish*. Runs do fail; when one
does, you still get the full record of what happened.

A finished task opens result-first: the answer, then its files, then the
**Receipt** — what it cost and what share of the spend limit that used, auditable
line by line. A **Share** control gives someone a read-only view of the run; your
deliverable files stay yours and aren't included in what they see.

If a task has gone somewhere you didn't intend, turn it into a chat and ask the
same question directly. The work so far is discarded and what was already spent
stays spent — the screen shows you that exact amount before you confirm.