Ask Dot (in-app agent)

Dot is the agent that lives inside dotby. Open it from anywhere, ask a question about your workspace, and get an answer grounded in your actual tasks rather than in a summary you pasted.

It is the counterpart to MCP: MCP brings your assistant to dotby; Dot is already here.

Open it

Press ⌘K and run Ask Dot.

Dot is available to full workspace members. Guests do not get it, for the same reason they do not get a member directory.

Bring your own key

Dot runs on your model key, not on a quota we resell. You connect a provider account, and inference is billed to you at cost.

Three reasons this is the right shape:

• No markup. You pay the model provider directly.
• No surprise ceiling. There is no “you have used your 200 AI credits” moment in the middle of a sprint.
• Your choice of model. A cheap fast model for triage, a stronger one for the questions that deserve it.

1. Connect a provider

   In workspace settings, open the agent configuration and connect your provider account. You can authorize it directly, or paste an API key.

2. Test it

   There is a test action. Use it — a key that is wrong fails clearly here instead of failing mysteriously later, in front of someone.

3. Pick your models

   Two separate choices, because they are two different jobs:

   Slot	Does	Default
   Triage	Fast, cheap classification work	Claude Haiku 4.5
   Chat	The conversation you actually read	Claude Sonnet 5

   dotby shows a recommended shortlist with live per-million pricing, so you can see what a choice costs before you make it.

Caution

Your key is stored encrypted, and it is never returned to the browser after you save it. Remove it at any time and Dot stops working immediately — there is no cached copy that keeps running.

Watch what it costs

There is a usage summary on the same settings screen. Check it in the first week.

The useful habit: if triage volume is high, move the triage slot to the cheapest model that still gets it right. That is where the tokens go, and it is almost never where the quality matters.

Availability

Dot is rolled out per workspace behind a platform flag, on top of the plan gate. If the command is not in your palette, either your workspace has not been enabled yet or no provider key is connected.

There is also an emergency switch on our side. If Dot is ever off for everyone, that is deliberate and temporary — nothing about your data changes.

Dot or MCP?

Both, honestly. They answer different situations.

Situation	Use
You are in dotby and have a question	Dot
You are in your editor and want to file the bug you just found	MCP
You want an agent to read code and the tracker	MCP
You want teammates to have an agent without each configuring one	Dot
You are scripting something repeatable	The API

The permission model is identical in all three: an agent can only ever do what the person behind it could do.

Next

• Connect an AI agent — bring your own assistant instead.
• API keys and tokens — for scripts and CI.
• Roles and permissions — what an agent inherits.