Apps

Connect the apps you already use, and your assistant can look things up and act in them: find a page in Notion, open an issue in GitHub, catch up on Slack. Connect the ones you chat in, and you can talk to it from there too. Every app in the gallery belongs to Conch, so it works with every provider and every model that can use tools. There is no file to edit.

Everything is on one page, Apps, in the sidebar. It used to be two, Integrations and Channels; old links still lead here.

One app, one card

Each app is one card, whatever it does for you. Slack is one card whether your assistant reads it for you, you message your assistant in it, or both. The same goes for Gmail and the email address you write to, and for 1Password, which fills sign-ins and manages Environments. The card's switch turns the whole app on or off.

A card that needs you comes first, with its one button, such as Sign in again or Say hello. The sidebar shows how many need you.

The page has three parts, top to bottom:

1. Connected: the apps you have.
2. Add another app: what Conch offers, by kind. The kinds are Work, Talk to me here, Files, Passwords, Design, Business, Developer and Home. Passwords has the password managers Conch can read: turn one on from its page here or from Passwords, it's the same switch. Pick a kind above the gallery to see only that one, or type a name in Find an app.
3. Found in and a provider's name: apps Conch came across there. See Apps a provider set up by itself.

Type in Find an app to see apps people shared under From the community, or, when nothing matches, press Make … with Conch.

Every app in the gallery is one Conch can really connect: before an app goes in, Conch's own sign-in is tried against the service. A few well-known services only let apps they already know sign in, so they aren't offered. Zapier reaches many of those, and Add your own takes any other.

What it does

An app's page starts with What it does: a plain switch for each thing, such as Read & search, Draft, Send (asks first) and Talk to me here. Turn off what you don't want. A part that isn't set up yet has a Set up button instead of a switch, so nothing looks on when it isn't.

Setting up one part offers the other when it can. After you connect Slack, the dialog asks Talk to Conch in Slack too?. After you connect Gmail with an app password, it asks Talk to Conch by email too?, and one press uses the same password. Nothing is shared until you press it.

What it found, as it is

When your assistant looks in Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Drive or Slack, the step says so in plain words beside the app's logo, like Looked at your calendar or Read #design. What it found shows under that step, the way the app itself would show it:

• Google Calendar: the days you asked about, Today first. Each event has its time, a line in its calendar's colour, a camera for a video call and the place. A day with nothing on says Free, and today shows where now is.
• Gmail: who each email is from, the subject, its first line and when it came, with a dot for unread and a clip for attachments. Reply puts "Draft a reply to …" in the box you type in. Nothing is sent: you read it, change it and send it.
• Google Drive: each file with its kind, whose it is and when it changed.
• Slack: the channel, then who said what and when. A long message folds; More opens it.

Press a row to open it in the app, in a new tab. Six rows show at first, and Show all has the rest. Your assistant still reads its own answer from the app, behind the step's arrow. Apps you connect by address show their results as text.

Talk to me here

Talk to me here, above the gallery, shows the apps you can message your assistant from: Slack, Gmail and email, Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Matrix and WeChat. Each has its own steps, beside a picture of what you'll see. See Talk to me here.

Connect one

1. Open Apps in the sidebar and pick an app.
2. Press its one button. Most apps open their own sign-in page (Continue with Notion). A few take a token instead, with the steps and a link to the right page beside the field.
3. When it says connected, press Done, or Choose what it can do.

You sign in on the app's own page, so Conch never sees your password. What it keeps stays on this computer, readable by you alone, and is never shown again.

Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and Slack are apps like the others: press their tile. Gmail connects with an app password; Calendar and Drive need your own Google Cloud app, once. Slack connects with your own Slack app. All are described below.

Or connect from a chat

When an app that isn't connected would answer what you asked, your assistant offers it under the reply. You don't have to name the app: ask "what's on my plate this week?" and it may offer Linear or Google Calendar, saying why in a sentence. Naming one ("what's assigned to me in Linear?") offers it too.

Press Connect and connect it right there. Once it's connected, the chat carries on by itself: a quiet line says Connected Linear · carrying on, and the answer follows. There's nothing to ask again. Under that answer, Also try shows a couple of things the app can do; a tap sends exactly those words.

On a phone, signing in opens the app's page in the same tab. When you're done it brings you back to the chat, which carries on the same way.

• Not now puts the card away for this chat.
• Don't suggest, under ⋯ on the card, stops the offers for that app everywhere. To get them back, open Settings → Models and press Suggest again.
• Send another message instead, and the offer folds to a small line. The chat won't carry on from it.

Only one offer shows under a reply, and the same app isn't offered twice in a chat. Your assistant never offers anything after the chat has read a web page or an email, or when nobody's there to press it, such as in a routine.

When a model can only chat

Some models weren't made to use tools: many small models on this computer, a few at OpenRouter, some servers of your own. The model picker shows Chat only — can't use your apps under them.

Ask one of them about an app you connected, and your message waits with a card: "Chat Lite can't use Linear". Press Switch to and the model that can. The chat moves to that model, and your message goes by itself. Conch only offers models you've already set up, the same provider's first.

Answer without it sends your message to the model you chose anyway. Conch asks once per model in a chat. If none of your models can use apps, the card offers Connect a provider.

Even then, Conch doesn't leave the model without your apps. It lists their tools in the model's instructions and reads the model's requests from its reply, so many small models manage simple steps, like saving a memory or looking something up. A model made for tools is still more dependable. Only a model too small to read even a short list of tools answers without any, and the chat says so.

When a model asks for a tool almost right, Conch reads what it meant: a number written as text, a missing quote, a field the tool doesn't take. When it can't, it tells the model exactly what to fix, so it gets a second try.

Decide what it may do

Choose how your assistant uses each app. Saving a Gmail draft always asks, whatever you choose, so it only offers Ask or Off:

• Ask every time. It asks before every action.
• Ask before changes. It looks things up on its own, and asks before it creates, sends, changes or deletes anything. Apps from the gallery start here.
• Don't ask. It acts without asking. Something it reads could try to trick it, so Conch asks you to confirm it's you first.

Under Each tool, every tool the app offers has its own Allow, Ask or Off, for when the switches under What it does aren't fine enough. Turn off what you don't need: your assistant stays more focused with fewer tools. Sending a Slack message, like saving a Gmail draft, only offers Ask or Off.

If an app later changes what one of its tools does, Conch stops allowing that tool by itself and tells you.

The switch at the top turns an app off and keeps its sign-in for later. Disconnect makes Conch forget the sign-in. To remove Conch on the app's side too, look for "connected apps" in that app's own settings.

When one stops working

Conch checks your apps and keeps their sign-ins fresh. One that needs you moves to the top of Connected with the one button that fixes it, such as Sign in again or Paste a new token. The sidebar shows how many need you, and a chat that needed the app says so in place.

The gallery

1Password

1Password is one app with two parts, each with its own switch on its page:

• Fill sign-ins from 1Password. Your 1Password logins show in Passwords, read where they are, and your assistant fills one in the browser when you say OK. Nothing is copied. It needs 1Password's command line on this computer; Set up shows how.
• Manage Environments. For developers: your assistant sees the names of your 1Password Environments and their variables, and adds to them when you say yes. It never reads the secret values. Set up walks you through turning it on in 1Password.

Something that isn't listed

Press Add your own. It opens on Describe it: say what you want in your own words, press Build it, and Conch makes the app for you in a chat. See Make an app.

The dialog's other tabs:

• From a link adds an app someone shared, from its GitHub page or a .conchapp file.
• By address connects any app that speaks MCP, the open standard assistants use for tools. Paste its address, and Conch opens its sign-in page if it needs one.
• Run a program connects an MCP app that runs on this computer.

What you add by address or as a program starts at Ask every time.

Apps a provider set up by itself

A provider can have apps of its own: set up in its settings, brought by a plugin, or connected in its account. When Conch can connect the same app itself, it brings it in on its own, so it works with every model. Health → Fixed on its own notes each one.

One that needs no sign-in goes straight to Connected. One you have to sign in to waits in its own section, Found in and the provider's name, at the bottom of the page, below the gallery. It says once where the apps came from, and each has one button: Sign in. They aren't problems, so the sidebar doesn't count them. Hover one and press × to leave it out of Conch.

Conch only offers what it can really connect. Some services let only apps they already know sign in, and a provider's plugin is one of those. Conch can't sign in to these by itself, so it leaves them with the provider.

What Conch can't connect (a program in the provider's settings, a plugin, a service that takes no new apps) only works with that provider. It's in Settings → Providers → Set up inside a provider, folded away. Something you leave out or disconnect stays out; to bring it back, press Use with every model there.

Connect Slack

Slack belongs to Conch too, so every model can read and send in it. You make a small Slack app in your own workspace, once, and paste one key.

1. In Apps, choose Slack. If you already talk to your assistant in Slack, Conch offers to use the same app: press Use it.
2. Otherwise press Make the app in Slack. Slack opens with everything filled in: pick your workspace, press Next, then Create.
3. Open Install App, press Install to Workspace (or Reinstall), then Allow.
4. Copy the User OAuth Token. It starts with xoxp-. Paste it in Conch, and it's connected.

Your assistant can then see the channels you're in, search, and catch up on a channel. Sending a message always shows you the exact words and the channel, and asks; you can turn sending off, but never let it go by itself. What it reads in Slack is other people's words, so after reading, anything that could send something out asks first.

An app made before Slack worked this way can't read for you yet. The dialog says so, and No User OAuth Token there? has the settings to paste on the app's App Manifest page. Disconnect makes Conch forget the key and asks Slack to forget it too.

To message your assistant in Slack as well, turn on Talk to me here on Slack's page and press Set up. It uses the same Slack app, but needs two more keys from it, the bot token and an app-level token: they're separate from the one that reads as you, so Conch asks for them on purpose. See Slack.

Connect Gmail with an app password

The simple way, for Gmail only. It takes about two minutes.

1. In Apps, press Gmail. Type your Gmail address and press Next.
2. Press Open Google’s app passwords page. Google only offers app passwords once 2-Step Verification is on; its page says how. Name the password “Conch” and press Create.
3. Paste the 16 letters into App password. Conch checks them by signing in to Gmail as they land, and says so if Google refuses them.

If you already talk to your assistant by email from Gmail, Conch asks whether Gmail may use the same app password: press Use it for Gmail. The other way round, turning on Talk to me here on Gmail's page uses Gmail's app password for writing to you+conch@gmail.com. It's never shared without asking.

With an app password, your assistant can search Gmail, read emails and save drafts in your Drafts folder. It can't send: Conch only reads mail and adds drafts (IMAP), and asks you before every draft. Google Calendar and Google Drive can't use an app password; they need the Google Cloud way below.

If Google stops taking the password (you removed it, or changed your Google password), Gmail moves to the top of Connected with Sign in again. Its page has the field to paste a new one. Disconnect forgets the password; to stop it working at Google too, remove it on Google’s app passwords page.

Connect with your own Google Cloud app

The way for Google Calendar and Google Drive, and the advanced way for Gmail (press Use your own Google Cloud app instead (advanced) in its dialog). One Google account can serve all three apps; each asks Google only for what it needs, and a later one adds its permission to the same account.

Google accounts belong to Conch, not your model provider. Choose the personal or work account you want; Conch shows its email address and the access actually granted. Reconnecting an account keeps its existing access and requests the additional permissions.

One-time setup, with no hosted connection service

You need your own Google Cloud project and a Desktop app OAuth client. The same credential file works for a local Conch and a self-hosted server. There is no Conch cloud account, public callback address, or extra service to run.

1. Follow the setup guide to create or choose a Google Cloud project. An optional Project ID makes subsequent links open the right project.
2. Open each API linked for your job and press Enable. You do not need to enable unrelated Google apps.
3. Open Branding in Google Auth Platform and complete the app details. In Audience, add your email under Test users while the app is in Testing. Personal Google accounts use External; Internal is for eligible Workspace organizations.
4. Open Clients, press Create client, choose Desktop app, and download the JSON. Choose that file under Google credential JSON, or paste its contents into Or paste credential JSON. Conch checks the file before you save it.
5. Press Save and connect Google. Choose your account on Google’s own sign-in page and review its permissions.

Already have the file? Press I already have a credential file. No need to copy individual IDs or secrets. Credentials are encrypted on your Conch computer, never shared with your assistant or a Conch connection service. Keep the downloaded file private.

On a local HTTP loopback address, Google returns to Conch automatically. On a remote address, it returns to a local address that your browser may refuse to open. That is expected. Copy the complete address from the address bar, paste it into Return address from Google in Conch, and press Finish connecting. Never paste it into chat. You do not need a terminal, port forwarding, or a public Google callback. Keep using the same browser and Conch address throughout sign-in.

An existing Web application client still works. Under Advanced: existing Web client, copy the exact callback into that client's Authorized redirect URIs. You can import its JSON after registering that address, or enter its ID and secret there. Remote Web-client callbacks require HTTPS. Desktop clients do not need a registered callback.

Your current job stays open. If a popup is blocked, press Open Google sign-in. Reloading Conch resumes the pending flow in the same tab. A sign-in expires after ten minutes; if Conch restarts, start a new sign-in without repeating app setup. Conch checks the account and actual API access before continuing your job. Use Reconnect to restore revoked access or add permissions for a new job. Use Connect Google · another account to add work and personal separately. Changing accounts during a reconnect is refused so a job cannot silently move to another mailbox.

If Google needs something changed

Open Sign-in help for links to the correct project settings:

• API not enabled: enable the named API, wait briefly, then press Check connection. Conch keeps your sign-in and does not ask you to grant access again unnecessarily.
• Test user missing or access blocked: add the exact Google email under Audience → Test users. Workspace administrators may need to allow the app.
• Unverified app: check that it is your own app in your own project before using Google's available personal-testing option. A policy block may need an administrator, not another sign-in attempt.
• Access expires every week: Google Testing mode can expire refresh tokens after seven days. Review Audience before leaving Testing; sensitive access or public distribution may require verification. Conch does not publish your app for you.
• Wrong file or callback: import a current Desktop app OAuth JSON, not a service-account key. Web clients must contain the callback displayed by this Conch installation.

What Google access allows

Gmail supports search, reading and saving drafts only. Conch asks before saving and verifies the saved content. Replies use the original message’s verified thread, reply address and subject; sent-email followups go to the original recipients. Mail is decoded into readable text with a source link that opens the correct account. It never sends messages. Google’s own draft scope also includes sending; Conch explains this before consent, but does not expose a send action. If Google does not confirm a save, Conch checks for the existing draft rather than automatically creating a duplicate. Check the draft in Gmail if the result remains uncertain.

Calendar is read-only. Drive currently searches files and reads their metadata and description; it does not read document bodies or change files. The Google APIs must be enabled in the registered project. Google Workspace admins can restrict access. Public applications using Gmail or Drive scopes may require Google verification; a testing app’s refresh tokens can expire after seven days. Conch does not claim that a public OAuth application has been verified for you.

Disconnect on one app keeps a Google account the other Google apps still use. When no app uses it any more, Conch revokes Google access before removing its local sign-in. If Google is offline, Conch keeps the entry so you can retry deliberately; you can also remove access in your Google account’s third-party connections. Repair everything checks connected accounts and refreshes access when it safely can.