# Built-in automations

Slate runs thirteen things on its own; **Automations › Built-in** (the row under **Overview** in [Automations](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/loop.md)) says what each does and what turning it off costs. Eleven have a switch. Two always run: clearing the queue a finished session leaves, and the [startup repairs](#the-repairs-at-startup).

## Switch scope

Ten switches are app-wide: off stops it in every workspace. They pause things you already choose one by one (each automation's switch, each reminder, each workspace's sharing) all at once.

**AI memory care** is per workspace: it spends your agent's tokens on that workspace's account. Its card is last in **Built-in** and says it holds for this workspace only. **Auto-capture** appears twice (top card and a list row): one switch.

## What runs

| Automation | Does | Off means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Scheduled automations** | Starts your automations at their times and those that run when a session ends; files each report under its group or project. Open workspace only, while Slate is open and the computer awake | Nothing runs on a schedule; automations stay listed and run by hand |
| **Shared workspace sync** | At startup, then every two minutes: pushes your docs in a shared workspace, pulls others'. Needs sign-in. After repeated failures waits longer, up to an hour | Shared workspaces stop updating both ways; **Sync now** still works |
| **agent runs** | Adds **Run with AI…** to a task (branch, folder, guided run). Every two minutes checks if a shipped run's pull request merged; for 30 days after shipping, hourly checks for a revert | Task card offers only **Just open a session**; started runs keep their rules; no merge or revert checks |
| **Reminders** | Rings when a task with a time comes due, in every workspace on this computer | Nothing rings; times stay |
| **AI memory care** (per workspace) | [Below](#ai-memory-care) | Free rules only: memories whose code is gone or whose state expired are hidden, badly shaped new ones refused; nothing spent |
| **Automatic updates** | Checks for a version, downloads in background, installs on next quit | Keep your version until you check in Settings → About |
| **Tell me when a session needs me** | One notification when a session waits on a permission or question and Slate is not in front; none for a finished turn | Sessions carry on; the amber dot and ⌘⇧J show the waiting one |
| **Show Slate in the menu bar** | Menu bar icon opens a panel of working or waiting sessions, with a count while one needs you | Icon leaves; Sessions and ⌘⇧J still show all |
| **Start Slate at login** | **Off until you choose.** Setup offers it ticked; an older install asks once. Starts Slate in the menu bar at login, [with no window](#starting-at-login), so every agent can reach it | Starts only when you open it; until then agents cannot reach Slate |
| **Auto-capture** | Watches agents' transcripts and your projects, files what happens into the workspace owning the folder. While Slate is open; sessions run after quitting are caught at next launch | Nothing captured on its own, at once; agents can still write through Slate's MCP server |
| **Keep the computer awake** | **Off until turned on.** While a session or automation works, stops the computer sleeping | Computer sleeps on schedule; running work pauses until wake |

**Per-agent capture.** Auto-capture is the master switch. Each agent whose transcripts Slate reads has a **Capture** switch on its row in Connect → **Agents**: off, its sessions are not recorded; it stays connected; other tools unaffected. Cursor has none: its capture is the hook on that row.

A switch applies on the next tick, not next launch: within a minute for the automation tick, two for sync and the merge check. Auto-capture applies at once.

### AI memory care

**Off until turned on.** Each night at 03:00, with the computer awake and Slate open, it reads up to 50 memories the free rules cannot judge.

- Each is read twice, separately, against the code it cites.
- Skipped: pinned or protected memories, lessons with a trigger, preferences, memories with a proposal waiting, any read in the last 90 days.
- One group or project per night: the one with the most memories, on its own agent and account.
- A memory both readings call wrong is retired (**Bring back** under the **retired** chip in Memory undoes it for 30 days). A disagreement waits in Memory → **Needs review**, at most 10 at once.
- Turning it on shows the cost and asks a monthly token cap: 1 million, 4 million or none. It stops for the month when the next night would pass it.
- Runs as an automation named **Memory care**, so **Scheduled automations** must be on.

## What reaches the network

- **Slate's own account** ([Privacy & Security](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/privacy-and-security.md)): the update check (release manifest) and shared-workspace sync.
- **Through your agent's CLI, under its auth**: scheduled automations, session-end automations, agent runs, AI memory care.
- **Your own `gh` or `glab`**: agent run merge check and revert search (revert search is GitHub only).
- Everything else is local.

Turning something off removes nothing: capture off keeps captured sessions; sync off does not withdraw shared docs ([leaving a workspace](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/workspaces/sharing.md)).

## Starting at login

Your agents reach Slate's memory, skills and connections through its MCP server, and that server runs only while Slate does. So Slate can start when you log in.

- **Only if you chose it.** Setup shows **Start Slate in the menu bar when you log in** on the **Agents** step, ticked; untick it to say no. If you installed Slate before this existed, or skipped setup before that step, Slate asks once in a strip at the top of the window: **Turn on** or **Not now**. Either answer is kept, and you are not asked again. Until you answer, Slate adds no login item.
- **macOS's own login item.** Slate registers itself with macOS (SMAppService), so it shows under its own name in **System Settings → General → Login Items**, and you can turn it off there too. If macOS waits for you to allow it, the switch says so, with **Open Login Items**.
- **No window.** A login launch starts only the menu bar icon and the server; it does not even load the window. The Dock icon, the menu bar panel, opening Slate again, or a `slate://` link opens the window. If you are signed out, the window opens at once, because Slate needs you to sign in.
- **Older login items move.** Versions before 0.1.69 wrote `~/Library/LaunchAgents/Slate.plist`. The next launch removes that file, and registers the macOS login item instead if you had the switch on.
- **Your organization can decide.** With a managed preference (see [Managed Macs](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/privacy-and-security/security-details.md#managed-macs)), the switch shows the organization's answer, says **Managed by your organization**, and cannot be changed.
- **Updates still arrive.** With **Automatic updates** on, a Slate that was started at login and not opened checks about 10 minutes in, then about every 4 hours. It installs the update when it quits or when you log out.
- **Development builds** never write the login item. On Linux and Windows the login item opens the window.

## Keeping the computer awake

Stops the computer sleeping before a 7:00 automation, only while there is work: a session whose status is *working*, a running automation, or a turn of Slate's own agent (a session only waiting on you does not count). Afterwards it may sleep on schedule. No effect in safe mode.

One switch, two places: the **coffee-cup button** in the top bar (green with a live dot while holding; click for the switch and what holds it, such as "Holding now — 1 session working, 1 automation running"), and the **Keep the computer awake** row in Built-in.

It never keeps the screen on, never stops you sleeping from the menu, and a Mac on battery still sleeps on lid close. It ends when Slate quits or crashes. On macOS it is `caffeinate -i`.

## The repairs at startup

Each start, Slate fixes rows earlier versions wrote wrongly (a doc indexed with empty search text, one under a vanished parent); some every start, some once. The same pass removes log entries older than 400 days. No switch.

See also: [Privacy & Security](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/privacy-and-security.md), [Sessions](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/sessions.md), [Automations](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/loop.md), [Licensing & Updates](https://liozelmalem-star.github.io/slate-releases/docs/features/licensing.md).