User Guide

Getting started with Zaelar.

This is the guide for using Zaelar day to day — no code, no setup internals. Looking for the architecture and the public repo instead? That's the Technology section.

2-minute walkthrough — video coming soon

Pick how you run it

Your first conversation

There's no onboarding form. Tap the orb (or open the app if you're self-hosting), say hello, and just talk — introduce yourself, mention what you're working on, ask it to do something small. It's listening for you specifically once it's learned your voice, so it won't act on background chatter in the room.

If you'd rather type, the chat wall next to the orb takes plain text at any time — same agent, same memory, same conversation either way.

Three things worth knowing before you dive in

Talk first, don't type

Tap the orb and just speak, the way you'd talk to a person — “find me a table for Friday”, not a search query. Type in the chat wall instead whenever that's easier.

It remembers on its own

You don't fill out a profile. Preferences, names, running errands — it picks them up from talking to you and recalls them later, unprompted.

It shows its work

Anything visual — a comparison, a booking, a live search — opens as a small app on the canvas next to the conversation, so you can see and touch what it's doing.

Self-hosting runs entirely on your machine — nothing about how you talk to it or what it remembers leaves your computer unless you connect a cloud AI key. Zaelar Cloud handles the hosting for you instead; see Pricing for the difference.

Where to go next

Head to What It Can Do for the full tour of abilities, The Canvas & Widgets to understand the on-screen apps it builds, or straight to Examples & Walkthroughs for things to try right now.