⚙️ Processes: describe your work in one sentence
A process is work AMBA does for you on its own, every day or when files arrive: collect reports from a team, remind them when something is missing, put the files in order, summarize them and send the result to you. You write it the way you would tell a colleague; AMBA asks only what it cannot tell and shows it back to you as your own lines before anything runs.
Processes belong to the project, not to one agent. Open a project and choose the Processes tab next to the agent tabs.
1. Create a process with one sentence
Open the project → Processes tab.
Write what should happen, for example:
At 2 pm every day collect the reports from the accounting team, at 3 pm remind them if some are missing, when all are in put the files in order, then at 4 pm summarize them and send them to me.
Press Send. AMBA reads the sentence and asks at most 3 short questions, each with answers to tap, for example:
- Which group is "accounting team"? — the groups your bot already knows are listed by name. Connect a new Telegram group sets one up right there (see below).
- How many reports usually arrive per day? — tap a number, or Any file is enough.
- Who receives the result, or whether "2" means morning or afternoon, is asked only when AMBA cannot tell (by default the report goes to you).
AMBA shows the process as lines in your words:
When What 14:00 every day Collect reports from Accounting group 15:00 If not complete → remind Accounting group When complete Put the files in order by day in the project 16:00 Summarize the reports → send to Ms Lan Anytime Ms Lan can ask back / approve on Telegram Under the lines, AMBA will: lists everything the process may do: which chats it reads, who it messages, which files it creates and which decisions it remembers.
Press Turn on. That is your consent to exactly what the AMBA will: line says. If the process sends to someone AMBA has never reached, it first sends them a short test message; if that message cannot be delivered, the process stays off and AMBA tells you why.
Try it (optional) runs the process once on today's files without sending anything: you see what would be sent and to whom.
Connecting a Telegram group from a question
If no bot is connected yet, Connect a new Telegram group → Connect a Telegram bot asks for the bot token from @BotFather (the only thing you type; see Connected Accounts). Then add the bot to the group, send one message in the group and tap Reload: the group appears by its name. Turn the bot's privacy mode off in @BotFather (/setprivacy → Disable) so it can see files in the group.
You can also ask the agent in its chat ("set up a daily report for me"): its proposal shows Create this as a process, which opens the Processes tab with your words.
2. The process card
Each process is a card with the same lines, and next to each line what happened today: ✓ 14:02 received 4/4 · ⏳ waiting for 16:00 · ⚠ not complete, reminded at 15:00. Below them: Next: the next run, and the last result in words ("Sent to Ms Lan", "Not sent: no files today").
Actions: Run now · Pause / Resume · ⋯ → History (each day it ran, step by step), Advanced, Delete.
| The card says | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not finished | Something is still missing (an answer, a person). Read the lines and finish them. |
| Previewing | A try run is in progress. Nothing is sent. |
| On | It runs at its times or when files arrive. |
| Paused | Paused by you or from the tray. Resume turns it back on without editing. |
| Needs attention: … | Something stops it. The card names it and shows one button that opens the fix. |
Fixes you may see: Sign in again (Google needs you to sign in again), Connect the bot, Check the file source (the bot cannot read the group, the folder is gone), Choose (a person has no chat yet), Choose the dates (files in Sources wait for a date), See what happened (the last three runs failed), Turn back on.
3. Change a process
- With a sentence: type in Change it in one sentence… under the card, for example "move the summary to 5 pm", "also send it to Mr Hung", "no need on Saturdays". AMBA shows the change as lines (
16:00 → 17:00) before anything applies; press Apply. - By tapping a line: a time line opens −1 hour / +1 hour, days (Every day, Mon–Fri, Weekends) and Send to. Changing a time takes three taps: the line, +1 hour, Apply.
What happens after Apply depends on the change:
| Change | Applies |
|---|---|
| Time, days, pause or resume, removing a recipient, reminder wording | At once, no try run |
| Adding a recipient this project already reaches with the same bot | At once |
| Adding a new recipient | After a test message to that person or group succeeds |
| What the summary contains, file sources, new kinds of steps, anything AMBA may do in addition | Shown as changed lines; press Turn on again (a try run is offered) |
Until you turn a bigger change on, the version you approved keeps running. Earlier versions are listed under ⋯ → Advanced → Version history.
4. Test step by step
You can try any line of a process on its own, before turning it on or at any time later, without waiting for its time and without sending anything to your team. Test step by step on the card (or ▶ Test next to a line) opens testing.
- ▶ Test runs only the steps behind that line and opens a panel under it:
- Input — the files and the day used, and who is still missing;
- Result — counts, the report files (open them to preview) and the key figures;
- Would send — the exact message as Telegram will show it, and to whom. It is not sent;
- Error — the reason and the button that fixes it.
- Test data (above the lines): Today (today's files in Sources), Day… (any day that has files) or Previous step's result. After a successful test AMBA switches to the previous step's result by itself, so the next line runs on it with one tap, without running the earlier steps again.
- Simulate lets you test a branch without waiting for it: assume a file source is complete or that someone is still missing (Assume complete / Assume missing), set figures (for example a loss for the day, which also drops the parts of the report that only appear on a profit), or Assume the time is 15:00.
- Run up to here tests from the first line up to the chosen line.
- Send me a test (only on lines that remind, ask or deliver): sends that one message for real, but only to your own Telegram chat, through your bot, labelled [Test]. Nobody else receives it. The first time, AMBA asks which chat is yours.
Tests never count as runs: they do not appear in History or in the card's status, and they are kept for 7 days (the latest 20). Each line of a real run in ⋯ → History opens the same panel (with Sent instead of Would send) and Test this step again.
5. Sources and file sources
Every file that arrives is kept in the project's Sources, by source and business day; agents and processes only read it, never change it. AMBA works out which day a file belongs to from its content, title, file name, the message sent with it and its arrival time — no AI involved.
In the file tree, each source is an item (for example Telegram · Accounting group) with a health dot: Receiving · No files yet · Needs sign-in again · The bot cannot read the group · The group changed address (AMBA follows the new one by itself). Each day under a source has a small badge: which report used it, files of unknown kind, files needing a date, or why the day has files but no report — click it to fix. The Sources button in the Processes tab takes you to Sources in the file tree; Check the file source on a process card opens that source's tab. Click a source to open its Ingestion history and Setup (Check, Pause, Remove source). See Project Sources.
⋯ → Add source at the top of Sources adds a new source:
- Telegram — choose the bot and the group by name. The group is also saved in the project directory.
- Drive — if you are not signed in to Google, click Sign in with Google right there; then open the folder by name (My Drive, Shared drives, Shared with me) → Choose this folder. Tick Also take the files already there to take the files already in the folder, and pick how deep Subfolders go (up to 3 levels).
- Folder — pick a folder on this computer with the system picker. A folder inside the project is read in place; for a folder outside it, new files are copied into Sources and the originals stay where they are.
The new source shows in the tree at once (No files yet until the first file). When a process description mentions a Drive folder or a folder on this computer, the question "which file source is …?" offers Google Drive folder and Folder on this computer to add it right in the conversation. A process that mentions a group ("the accounting team") adds that group as a file source; later processes reuse it. Sources from earlier AMBA versions were moved here automatically.
⋯ → Import files from Drive (once) copies files picked by name from Google Drive into Sources once; ⋯ → Upload Files adds files from this computer. AMBA sorts them by day like files from a source.
6. Talking with the person who receives the report
When the sentence says the owner can ask back or approve ("I can ask back and approve the bonus on Telegram"), the card shows Conversation with Ms Lan. Her questions on Telegram are answered by the agent from the project's files within about a minute while AMBA runs, and decisions she states are recorded with her exact words. The conversation is shown under the card, not as a separate agent tab.
7. Keep AMBA running
Processes run only while AMBA is open and the computer is awake. In Settings → General → Background & processes, keep Keep running in the background and Keep the computer awake for scheduled processes on, and turn on Start AMBA when I sign in. Closing the window then leaves AMBA in the tray; the sidebar shows Processes on: N with the next run, and the tray menu can Pause all processes. AMBA cannot wake a computer that is asleep or switched off; a missed run catches up within 24 hours when AMBA starts again and still works on the missed day.
8. Earlier automations
If you used automations in an earlier version, AMBA moved them into processes and file sources on the first start: the Processes tab says how many and lists anything it could not move, with the reason. They keep their times, recipients and the bot's position in each chat, so no message is read twice.
9. Privacy
Everything a process does runs on your computer. Files stay in the project; only the text a step needs is sent to the AI model you configured, as in any chat. Messages go out only to the chats listed in AMBA will:, through your own bot. Every message sent (including Send me a test) and every call to the model is listed under Data leaving this device (Project Configuration → Permissions & Security).