Working with Nexus agents

Use Thinking, document conversations, and scoped external agent connections.

Nexus provides a built-in hosted agent and scoped connections from external agents. For installation and optional skills, see Connect your agent. Choose the surface that matches the work and check the selected vault before asking an agent to read or change documents.

Open Thinking

Click the Nexus logo in the web app, or choose Open Thinking from the Nexus menu-bar panel on Mac. These shortcuts open the existing Thinking view in Inbox.

Thinking is shared within the vault. It is not a private personal chat. Use a separate personal vault when you need a personal workspace.

Mention @agent to ask for help. Give a concrete request and name the relevant document or project, such as “Find the launch checklist in this project and summarize the unfinished work.”

The built-in agent is managed for the workspace. Check its availability in Nexus; you do not need to configure a local AI runtime. Opening Thinking does not authorize an external connection or expand permissions.

Work on a document

Use the page agent for a request about the current document. Team comments and document discussions are separate from that chat; check the surface’s description before sharing private context.

Applied document changes are shared according to the document’s normal access. Review the result rather than assuming a reply means every requested change succeeded.

In web Preview, select text to choose between Ask for change (the AI action) and Comment (the speech-bubble action). Ask for change places the selected text into the private page-agent composer; it does not send the request automatically. Comment opens a team-comment composer anchored to the selection. Section controls offer the same distinction.

For an agent edit, review the proposed change and choose Apply when it is ready. A reply or proposal alone does not change the document. If someone edits the document before you apply, Nexus rejects the stale proposal instead of overwriting the newer revision. Access is checked again when applying a change.

For meeting notes, Prepare notes starts a request to organize notes, decisions, and next steps while preserving the original notes and transcript. The built-in hosted agent processes it. Local transcription and vault synchronization are independent of hosted agent execution.

Run built-in board workflows

In Nexus Desktop, open Workflows → Skills, choose the shared nexus-task-board skill, and select an existing project board. Describe the change and choose Prepare change. The built-in hosted agent prepares the proposal; your device does not need a local AI runtime.

Open Runs to review the proposal, then choose Apply to vault if it matches your request. Preparing a proposal does not change the board. Application checks the board revision again, so a newer change cannot be silently overwritten. You can cancel a queued or pending request without applying its proposal.

Queued means the request has reached Nexus and is waiting for the host. Running means the host has claimed it; neither status means the board has changed. If a request stays queued, check built-in agent availability and contact your workspace administrator.

New built-in board schedules use the same shared host. Earlier custom/local schedules keep their existing configuration. Installation does not create or enable schedules automatically. Vault sync and local transcription remain independent of agent hosting.

Completed results and Inbox receipts

With Nexus 0.2.35 or later on the Mac you are using, a completed board workflow links to Open run discussion. Its Inbox receipt records the committed board revision, task IDs, run ID and attribution. This receipt is shared within the vault; the private request, pinned context and agent reasoning are not copied into it. Use the attached discussion for shared follow-up.

If the board change succeeds but receipt delivery is interrupted, the run says Already applied and offers Retry Inbox receipt. Retrying delivers the missing receipt without applying the board change or running the agent again. Older completed runs may also offer this action to create their missing receipt. Opening run history alone does not publish those older receipts.

Scheduled board runs also deliver status receipts to Inbox. An awaiting-review receipt is not evidence that a change was applied: review and apply the proposal in Workflows first.

Connect an external agent

Review the vaults, resources, actions, and expiry on the connection approval screen. You can grant access to selected resources or an entire vault, including future documents when the approval explicitly says so.

An external agent authorized for multiple vaults must select the intended vault for each operation. Separate grants keep one vault’s permission changes from implicitly granting access to another.

An “Until revoked” grant removes its scheduled cutoff. It does not bypass revocation or other access checks.

Use Slack within a project

Slack uses the built-in Nexus agent. It does not require each channel participant to install Nexus Desktop or connect an external agent through MCP.

Connect a channel

1. Have your Slack workspace administrator install the Nexus Slack app if it is not already available, then add Nexus to the intended channel. Private channels must explicitly include the app.
2. As the Nexus vault owner, select the vault and open Settings → Agents → Slack · Project connections. Choose Load Slack connections, then Connect a project, or select an existing connection to edit it. If no Slack installation is available, contact your workspace administrator.
3. Enter the Slack channel ID, not its name, and the project folder, such as projects/website-launch. The folder and its descendants define the connection’s scope. Selecting projects covers all current and future projects under that folder; use this only for a channel whose members should have that access.
4. Choose the allowed actions: read documents and boards, create documents and tasks, or update tasks. Optional additional read-only folders provide context, such as a documentation wiki, without allowing changes there.
5. Decide whether only the configured owner or other channel participants may invoke Nexus. Enabling channel participants allows requests without individual Nexus accounts; requests retain their Slack identity. Review the channel-posting consent, expiry and exclusions, then choose Review changes → Confirm and save.

Anything the connection can read may appear in replies visible to channel members. Choose a scope appropriate for that audience. Adding the bot to another channel does not automatically grant that channel access; configure its connection separately.

Ask Nexus to do work

Type @Nexus and select the actual app mention from Slack’s suggestions. Plain text that merely looks like a mention will not invoke it. Continue in the same thread and mention Nexus again for follow-up requests. Nexus receives recent delivered exchanges from that thread, not the entire channel history.

Try:

• “@Nexus Which vault and folders can this channel access? Do not change anything.”
• “@Nexus Create a launch checklist document in this project and return its Nexus link.”
• “@Nexus Add a card to the Website Launch board to review the homepage, with acceptance criteria.”
• “@Nexus Move the homepage review card to In Progress and give me its link.”

Name the project or board when the channel covers several projects. Cards created or updated from Slack are the actual Nexus board items.

For a new project, ask “@Nexus Create the Stripe Integration project in Ionia and return its board link.” Project creation needs Create documents and Create tasks, and write access covering the new project’s folder. It creates the standard overview, wiki, board and assets index together, without replacing an existing project. A connection scoped to one existing project cannot create sibling projects.

Check the returned Nexus link to review the result. If a request reports that some actions may already have completed, check job activity or the destination before repeating a write. A scope restriction is not a reason to reconnect every vault: the owner should review the channel’s configured folders and actions.