What You Need First

Start Here

Half of a build like this is gathering things you cannot buy later. Get these first and the ten steps go smoothly.

Hardware

What	Why	Notes
A computer that stays on	An assistant that sleeps with your laptop is a novelty	A used Apple Silicon Mac mini is the sensible choice. It does not need to be new
A place to put it	It runs 24/7 and it makes noise	Not a bedroom. Treat it like an employee’s desk
An external drive	For a local snapshot you can roll back to	Small is fine
A network you control	You will want to reach this machine remotely	—

Accounts to create

Account	Purpose	Important
A new email account	The agent’s own mailbox. It reads from here and writes from here	This is the keystone. Do not reuse yours
A user account on the computer	So its files and permissions are genuinely separate	Administrator rights are not required
Access to your calendars, reminders and contacts	Shared with the agent’s identity	Share the calendar. Never hand over a password

Decisions to make before you start

Make these deliberately, in daylight. Changing them later is much harder than deciding them now.

1. What is it called? A name you will all actually use.
2. How does it sound? Write it down. Mine is dry and brief, and it never sends four paragraphs when one line will do.
3. What may it never do? Start with my four in The Rules It Cannot Break and edit.
4. Which channel? Which app does your household already live in? That is the answer.
5. Who is allowed to talk to it? And what may each person reach?
6. What is the first job? Pick exactly one.

The rule about ordering

Identity, then machine, then tools, then permissions, then job.

It is tempting to start by connecting the calendar and watching it do something. Resist that. If you connect tools before the agent has its own identity, you will wire everything to your account, and every later improvement means unpicking it.

I know because I did exactly that.

A realistic expectation

Stage	Time	What it feels like
Steps 1–3	An evening	Groundwork. Nothing appears to happen
Steps 4–6	Half a day	It starts answering. Genuinely exciting
Steps 7–8	An evening	It starts being useful rather than clever
Step 9	An hour	It stops being a stranger
Step 10	An hour	You can relax about leaving it running
The next few months	Ongoing	The real work: tuning what it says and when

The last row is the one people underestimate. Steps 1 to 10 get you a working agent. Patience after that gets you a good one.

Do not skip the limits

Step 6 is where people cut corners because it feels like ceremony. It is the step that decides whether you have an assistant or a liability. Do it before the agent has anything powerful.