Sara help

Short guides for the self-hosted AI companion and assistant. Everything here also works in the phone apps.

Getting started

1. Sign in. Use the owner token your server printed when it was installed (on the server: sudo sara reset-token makes a new one). New phones and computers don't need it: in Settings → Data & health → Devices press Add a phone or computer and scan the code.
2. Connect a brain (the AI model she thinks with). See Choosing a brain.
3. Say hello. Just type. Ask a question, tell her about your day, or ask her to plan something.
4. Make her yours in Settings → Her: name, personality, look and voice.

The Today page has a Getting started list that ticks itself off as you go.

Choosing a brain

Sara can think with different AI models. You can use more than one: one for chatting, a cheaper one for background jobs (Settings → Models → Which model does what).

Phone and notifications

• Phone apps: install Sara for iPhone or Android, then scan the code from Settings → Data & health → Devices → Add a phone or computer. Or open your server's address in the phone's browser and use Add to Home Screen.
• Notifications: Settings → Connections → Phone and notifications. You can reply from the notification.
• Share to Sara: share text or a photo from any app and pick Send to Sara.

Voice and calls

• 🎙 sends a voice note; she can answer by voice. 🔈 reads her replies aloud.
• 📞 starts a hands-free call. Live calls use Grok voice (your Grok sign-in or an xAI key); classic calls use the voice you picked.
• Pick her voice in Settings → Her → Voice. A free voice can run on your server (deploy/install-voice.sh).

Memory and privacy

• After a conversation has been quiet for a while she writes short notes and remembers facts about you. See and edit them on the Memory page.
• To make her forget something, delete it on the Memory page, or delete the conversation and tick also forget what she learned.
• Off the record (🕶 in the sidebar): a conversation that's never saved and never remembered. It's gone when you close it or the server restarts.
• Private conversations use only models on your own machines and no web tools.
• Everything is stored on your server. Nothing is sent anywhere except to the AI model you chose (and services you connect, like Google).

Planner and your day

• Planner: to-dos, reminders and notes. Ask her ("remind me to call Mom at 6") or add them yourself.
• Today: your list, calendar, important mail and how she's doing, in one place.
• Morning briefing: weather, list, calendar and mail at the time you pick (Settings → You → Morning briefing).
• Weekly review: what got done, what's stalled, and a plan for next week (same page, or Planner → Review my week).
• Leave-by reminders: for calendar events with an address she tells you when to leave (Settings → You → Leave-by reminders).

Coding help

• Make a project (+ Project) and give it a workspace: a folder on the server where she reads and writes files.
• Switch a conversation to coding mode (the button next to the title) for the engineering workflow: she plans, edits, runs tests and shows what changed.
• Risky actions (running commands, sending mail, pushing code) ask you first. Change that per tool in Settings → Abilities → Tools and approvals.
• With GitHub connected she can commit, push, open pull requests and work with issues.
• Every change she makes can be undone from the snapshot list on the project page.

Gmail, Calendar and GitHub

• Google (Settings → Abilities → Gmail and Calendar): she can find and read mail, list what needs an answer, draft replies, and see or add calendar events. Sending and adding events ask you first.
• GitHub (Settings → Abilities → GitHub): add a token; she can then list and read issues and pull requests, open issues, comment and open pull requests (writing asks you first).
• Text in mail and on GitHub can come from anyone. She treats it as information, never as instructions.

Her look and character

• Look: describe one and Grok Imagine paints it, with matching expressions and animation (Settings → Her → Look).
• Outfits: dress her for the season or the day. Old looks are kept in Saved looks to switch back.
• Character file: save her whole character (name, personality, look, voice) as one file, or load one (Settings → Her → Name and personality).
• Colours, chat background and layout for each device: Settings → You → About you → Appearance.

Finding things

• The search box above the conversations looks through everything: conversations, memories, notes, to-dos, the scrapbook and project files.
• Tags: ⋯ next to a conversation → Tags. Tap a tag under the search box to see only those.
• Pins: 📌 under a message keeps it at the top of the conversation.
• Shortcuts: Ctrl/⌘ K search, Alt T Today, Alt P Planner, Ctrl/⌘ , Settings.

Backups, updates and health

• Backups run every day on the server. Add an off-server copy (a folder or S3-compatible storage like Backblaze B2), encrypted with your passphrase, in Settings → Data & health → Backups.
• Updates: Settings → Data & health → Updates checks for a new version and installs it. A backup is made first, and if the new version doesn't start, Sara goes back to the one she had by herself. On the server: sudo sara update.
• Health shows whether everything is working, and why not.
• Restore a backup on the server: sudo sara restore <file>.

Signing in safely

• The owner token is the master key to your Sara. Keep it in a password manager; don't share it.
• New devices don't need the token: Settings → Data & health → Devices and sign-in → Add a phone or computer makes a one-time code that works for 10 minutes.
• Passkeys (same page): sign in with your fingerprint, face or device PIN. Nothing secret leaves your device.
• Two-step sign-in (same page): signing in with the token also asks for a 6-digit code from an authenticator app.
• See every signed-in device on that page and sign out any you don't recognize.
• Lost your phone with the authenticator? On the server, sudo sara reset-token makes a new token and turns passkeys and two-step sign-in off, so you can set them up again.

Safety

• Sara is an AI. She says so when you start, every few hours, and whenever you sincerely ask.
• If you mention being in crisis she points you to real help (in the US, call or text 988).
• Sexual content involving minors is always blocked, whatever the model or settings.
• If a reply is offensive or harmful, use ⚑ under it to report it.

Something's wrong

She doesn't answer

Open Settings → Data & health → Health: it checks every model and says what's wrong (wrong key, the computer running Ollama is off, the subscription signed out…).

I can't sign in

On the server run sudo sara reset-token for a new owner token (this signs out every browser; the phone apps sign in again with a new code).

The phone app can't connect

Check the server address (it must start with https://), and that the server is running: sudo sara status.

Still stuck?

See the support page.