Turning Orion On

Chapter 6 — Connect the channel

The channel is where you talk to Orion. There are three ways in, and you can use more than one at the same time:

WhatsApp

the main channel. That is where it sends you the morning brief, tells you what is stuck, and takes your requests through the day.

Telegram

an alternative to WhatsApp, with a bot that is yours (more on this below).

Voice in the mobile app

a spoken conversation in real time, no typing. It is part of the plans that include voice — see which ones at orionworkers.com/pricing.

Besides those three, the "Ask Orion" chat follows you on every page of the web dashboard — same conversation, same agent. It does not count as a channel for the free trial: the 14-day clock starts with the first of the three above.

The 14-day free trial starts with your first channel

The 14 days, no card needed, start counting from the first channel you connect: WhatsApp authorized, Telegram linked, or the first voice session — whichever happens first. It does not have to be WhatsApp.

If your organization is in the Y Managers free period, there is a second path: the manager's channel unlocks on its own when real work starts. The account needs 1 deliverables plan in progress and 2 work plans in progress. The Connection page itself shows this checklist with how much is missing ("1 of 1", "0 of 2"), and the system unlocks it automatically at the next check — no card needed. This unlocked channel covers WhatsApp and Telegram, and does not include voice conversation.

Which number to use (read this before you scan)

You have two options, and they give Orion different powers.

Option A — a number dedicated to Orion. A SIM/number that is Orion's alone. You talk to Orion the way you would talk to any contact in your list. That number can take on a public role: Orion serves whoever writes to it — answers questions, triages, books appointments — with a persona separate from the one it uses with you, and escalates to you whatever needs a human. It sees nothing of your personal WhatsApp: the only thing there is what you send it.

Option B — your own number. Orion moves into your WhatsApp, in the chat with yourself ("Message yourself"). Its replies come with the prefix *✨ Orion:* — that is how you tell what is it from what is you. In this mode the public role is locked off**, and the page says so: the number is yours, and Orion will not reply to your contacts.

What your own number switches on in exchange is the automatic relationship radar. It is worth knowing exactly what that means:

• It records who you talked to and when, and uses that to tell you who is going cold and to create contacts in the CRM on its own.
• From the messages you send in 1:1 conversations, it extracts the text; for the contacts you chose to track closely, it keeps a short summary (up to 280 characters) of what you sent, building the history of the relationship.
• It does not reply to your friends, family or customers, and does not mark your messages as read — this is enforced in code, it is not just a promise.
• What other people send you, it does not read. A message that arrives from a third party on your number is not answered, and the text is neither read nor processed by the artificial intelligence — the system only records, for contacts already in your CRM, that there was contact that day, with nothing of the content. What it processes on its own is only what you write.
• If you ask, it reads any conversation of yours. "Summarize my conversation with Ricardo" pulls up to 30 messages from that chat; an export by date range can pull up to 1000. You are the one who orders the reading, and what it reads goes into the context of that conversation with it.

On the first connection in your-own-number mode, it sends a privacy notice in the chat. The Connection page also has the link "How Orion handles your WhatsApp privacy", available at any time.

In short

want an assistant that also serves your customers? Dedicated number. Want the automatic relationship radar over your real life on WhatsApp? Your own number.

Connecting WhatsApp

1. In the dashboard, open Orion → WhatsApp (the page is called Connection).
2. Click "Connect & start 14-day free trial" — or "Connect WhatsApp", if you already have a plan.
3. The QR code appears in seconds. On your phone: WhatsApp → Linked devices → Link a device, then scan. The screen updates on its own once you scan.
4. Prefer it without a QR? Click "Link with a code instead", give the number, and type the displayed code into WhatsApp → Linked devices → Link a device → "Link with phone number instead".

One real limit on the code: WhatsApp restricts how often codes can be issued, and that restriction applies to the whole account, not just to you. That is why the dashboard issues one code on demand and offers no "try again" button — if it does not come, use the QR, or reload the page later.

As soon as the connection closes, Orion sends the first message and introduces itself. That is where Chapter 7 picks up.

Telegram: the bot is yours

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram works with a bot that you create and own. On the Orion → Telegram page, the path has three steps:

1. In Telegram, talk to @BotFather and create a bot. It gives you back a token (something like `123456:ABC…`).
2. Paste the token into the dashboard and choose a PIN of your own.
3. Send that PIN to your bot, inside Telegram. That is how the system confirms that the person who pasted the token is you.

Once that is done, the dashboard shows the bot's name and the status "connected". The Telegram channel is part of the paid plans — see which ones at orionworkers.com/pricing.

Additional service numbers

If you want a separate number to serve the public — reception, support — today it comes in through one path only: the official WhatsApp API (Meta), in the "Additional WhatsApp numbers" block on the same Connection page. The old QR path was withdrawn on August 5, 2026, and with it went the sales prospecting number option: additional numbers exist today only in the customer service role.

Each additional number is a billed item on your plan, and the dashboard refuses the connection before the pop-up even opens if the organization has no active subscription.

Before you start, get this ready:

• Your business's Facebook. You sign in with it, and the WhatsApp account created stays in your name. The number and the conversations are yours; the platform only receives permission to use them.
• A free number. It must not already be in use on WhatsApp. If it is, delete its WhatsApp account first — otherwise the connection fails.
• How to receive the code. You will receive a code to prove the number is yours. On a landline or a virtual number, ask for it by phone call: SMS never arrives on that kind of line.
• A payment method on the WhatsApp account. Without it, WhatsApp blocks sending even with everything else in place.
• Business verification (optional at first). It unlocks higher limits and requires company documents. You can start without it, on lower limits.

And the limits that are WhatsApp's, not ours — worth reading before you click:

• Connecting does not switch the number on right away. WhatsApp reviews the account first. It usually takes a few hours and can take up to 24. During that time the number shows as Under review and cannot send or receive yet.
• 24-hour window. Free-form replies are allowed for up to 24h after the customer's last message. Outside that window, only pre-approved message templates go out.
• The number becomes a business line. It stops working in the regular WhatsApp app on a phone.
• A daily limit that scales. Business-initiated conversations start with a low cap that rises automatically as the number delivers with quality.

Once active, the number gets a Public role button, where you set the role, the tone, the conversation flow, and what it must never do.

Groups

On the same Connection page, below the numbers, is the list of WhatsApp groups your number appears in. No group is authorized by default: you authorize them one by one, set the reply policy, and can write a persona just for that group. It is a big enough subject to have its own chapter — it is in Part V.

Chapter 7 — The setup Orion runs itself

You do not need to configure anything in the dashboard. Right after you connect, Orion itself runs a four-step setup conversation, straight in the channel you just switched on.

1/4 · Personality 🧠 — in a single message, it asks: what your company does, what you want to be called and how it should sound (formal or casual), and whether there is anything it must never do. An example it gives itself: "I run a dental clinic. You can call me Dr. Paulo, speak professionally but in a friendly way. Never confirm appointments without my approval." It gives back a summary and asks for your OK before saving. If you already have a personality set, it shows the current one and asks whether you want to keep it or adjust it.

2/4 · Contact 📇 — your mobile number with area code and your best email. It uses the email to send you reports and to include you on calendar invitations.

3/4 · Google 🔗 — it sends a link to connect your Google account. The details are in Chapter 8.

4/4 · Automatic routines ⏰ — it proposes three daily routines already adapted to what you told it about your business (for example, a summary of the calendar at 8am and an end-of-day review at 6pm). You answer "1 and 3", describe them your own way, or answer skip.

At the end, if Orion is on a dedicated number, it may ask whether you want it to serve your customers too — that is optional, and answering no leaves everything as it is.

The setup commands

skip

skips the current step. You can pick it up later.

later

pauses everything for 3 days. It also works with "not now", "pause", "stop".

setup or continue: picks up where you left off, at any time.

If you stop halfway, it gives you a gentle nudge now and then — never between 9pm and 8am in your local time, and at most three times; after that it stops and waits for you to call. It does not press.

Language

Orion speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish. The starting language comes from your time zone: time zones in Portuguese-speaking countries (and an unknown time zone) start in Portuguese; the rest start in English. After that it mirrors the language you write in — if you write in Spanish, it answers in Spanish.

If you write several messages in a row in a language different from the saved one, it asks once whether you also want to change the language of the messages it sends on its own (reminders, briefs). And you can pin it whenever you want: "talk to me in Portuguese".

Chapter 8 — Google and Microsoft 365

Connecting one of these two accounts is what most increases what Orion can do. You can connect both, one, or neither — nothing here is required.

Google

Two ways, pick the easier one: through the link Orion sends in step 3/4 of the setup, or through the dashboard, at Orion → Google → "Connect Google". Authorize on the Google screen and the page refreshes on its own.

Three limits worth making clear from the start, because they explain almost every "why couldn't it do it?":

It does not read your Gmail inbox. The permission requested is send, not read. For Orion to read what arrives, use the forwarding in Chapter 9.

In Drive, it only sees what it created itself. That is the minimum scope (`drive.file`). If you ask "list my Drive files", only the files Orion created come back — your older documents it does not see, does not open and does not edit. When it tries, that is exactly what it answers.

It does not grant access to anyone. When it creates a document or spreadsheet, Orion gives you back the link; sharing it with someone else is up to you. (In OneDrive, on the Microsoft side, it can generate a sharing link — the asymmetry is real.)

The page itself sums up the permissions requested: your email address, Calendar, Gmail send, Drive files it creates, and read-only Contacts.

Microsoft 365

If your company lives in Outlook and Teams, this is your chapter. Open Orion → Microsoft 365 and click "Connect Microsoft 365". A Microsoft window opens; after you authorize, close it — the page refreshes on its own.

On most accounts this is one click and needs no IT admin. If your company has turned off per-user consent, the Microsoft screen will say "Approval required". In that case, click "Generate admin link" on the same page: the link comes already copied, you send it to IT, and their approval unblocks the whole organization at once.

And the limits, which here are different from Google's:

It reads your Outlook inbox — directly, with no forwarding. Connecting Microsoft 365 grants email read access. It is more power and it is also less privacy than the Google side; the choice is yours, and disconnecting is one button on the same page.

Teams channel messages are not accessed. It reads and writes in 1:1 conversations and in group chats. Team channels (those tabs inside a team) would require an admin permission that the product deliberately does not request.

Personal Microsoft accounts do not work. The connection is built for corporate/educational accounts (work or school).

If a new feature asks you to reconnect, reconnect. The permissions for files, drafts, OneNote and To Do were added on July 28, 2026. Anyone who authorized before that keeps email, calendar and Teams working normally, but the new features will answer by asking for a reconnection — which is the same button as the first time.

About sending things on your behalf

This is worth stating precisely, because it is a point where the promise and the behavior have to match.

When Orion is about to fire off a send to a third party (email, WhatsApp, Teams message, calendar invitation with external guests), there is an automatic hold: the system holds the send, shows you a draft field by field — "Send confirmation — nothing has been sent yet" — and only sends after your yes. That draft is assembled by the system itself, not narrated by the model, and your yes is bound to that exact text: change one comma and you have to confirm again.

This hold fires when the turn read external content before sending — an email, an attachment, a web page, a group message. It is a defense against planted instructions: what it has just read may be exactly what is asking for the send.

On a direct request from you, on a clean turn — "send an email to João saying we're set for Friday" —, there is no hold from the system: it resolves the contact and sends. And in voice conversation there is no hold at all, in any case.

In practice, the habit that works: when you want to review first, split it into two requests. "Write the email to João about the proposal, but don't send it yet." You read it, adjust it, and only then: "go ahead and send it."

Chapter 9 — Forwarded email

This is the optional step that most changes the routine of anyone who lives in the inbox. It exists because Orion does not read your Gmail — the permission it asks for on Google is send. Forwarding is what gives it the other side.

1. In the dashboard, open Orion → Emails and click Copy on the address field. It has the form `[email protected]`.
2. In your provider (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo…), set up auto-forwarding to that address.
3. Gmail sends a confirmation email to the forwarded address — one you would never see. Orion confirms it on its own and tells you on WhatsApp: "✅ Your email is now connected."

From then on, the question that unlocks everything is simple: "anything important in my email?". It summarizes what arrived, sorts out what matters, reads the whole email when you ask, opens attachments (PDF, image, Word, Excel, CSV, text) and drafts replies. The reply goes out through the account you connected — Gmail, if Google is connected; Outlook, if it is Microsoft.

The Emails page shows what it has already received, with the counters for New, Skimmed, Read and Total.

If nothing arrives, it tells you. When Google is connected but no email has ever reached the agent's address, Orion notices — because not even the provider's confirmation showed up — and sends you a message explaining what is missing. It does this once and repeats at most one more time, a few days later. After that, it stops.

Corporate email can block it. Many Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 admins block external auto-forwarding. If that is your case, ask IT to allow "external auto-forwarding" — or connect a personal email.

On Microsoft 365 there is no forwarding. Anyone who connected Microsoft has already granted read permission: Orion reads Outlook directly, without this step. If you use both, forwarding still serves mailboxes that are not in Outlook.

Chapter 10 — Your first day: what to ask for

Talk normally. There are no commands to memorize. Below are the requests that show fastest what it is capable of.

Work and deliverables

• "How is my team's dashboard doing?" · "Which deliverables are late?"
• "Create a deliverable 'Launch campaign' for the Marketing team."
• "Add the task 'review the copy' to the Campaign deliverable." · "Mark that task at 100%."
• Recurring deliverable (a standing goal, with no final deadline — monthly sales, NPS, uptime): "log June's result for the Sales deliverable: 87 thousand." Orion keeps the value for each period; this kind of deliverable never "finishes" at 100%.
• "Create a team deliverables plan for July." · "Create my work plan for July."
• "Log the decision: we prioritized X because Y." That becomes reusable precedent — the more you log the why, the more its recommendations look like yours.

Important — two kinds of "task"

Work task

belongs to a deliverable. "Add task X to deliverable Y."

Personal list (to-do)

things from your own life. "Buy milk", "call the accountant".

If you do not mention a deliverable, it takes it as an item on your personal list. When in doubt, it asks.

"Am I the bottleneck?"

Ask "what is waiting on me?" and it lists everything that is stuck on you. There are six categories, and the empty ones do not show up:

• work plans waiting for your signature;
• cycles waiting for your assessment;
• assessment appeals waiting for your decision;
• edit requests waiting for your approval;
• deliverables plans waiting for your signature;
• deliverables with 100% of tasks waiting for you to confirm completion.

When there is nothing, it says that too: "Nothing is stuck waiting on you right now." And the reverse works: "which of these can you do for me?" — it points out the tasks that are a case for AI and offers to run them or draft them.

Search, files and audio

• "Search the internet for the average price of X" — it searches and summarizes with sources.
• Send audio instead of typing: it transcribes and answers normally (great in traffic). Each plan has a cap on transcription minutes per day and per month, and audio over 20 MB is not transcribed — when the cap runs out, it says so instead of pretending it did not hear.
• Send a PDF, photo or spreadsheet in the chat and ask about it: "summarize this contract", "what does this photo of the whiteboard say?".

Relationships and CRM

• "Add the contact So-and-so, phone X." · "Summarize my sales pipeline."
• "Who am I losing touch with?" — it keeps track of the people who matter and tells you, gently, who is going cold.

Personal organization

To-do list

"add to my list: book the dentist by Friday." The deadline shows up in the morning brief as a visual reminder — it does not act on its own on that date.

Reminders with a time

"remind me every day at 8am to review the pipeline." Here it acts at that time. Use "remind me / every day / at X" when you want action at the right moment.

Memory

"remember that my company focuses on SMBs of 50 to 500 people." It stores that and uses it later. What it stored is visible at Orion → Orion's Notes.

Chapter 11 — What it does without being asked

Orion does not wait for you to ask. It is worth knowing each routine — not least because two of them are built in and you do not have to create them.

The morning brief

Every business day, at 7am in your local time. It starts with what is stuck on you (the same six categories as the previous chapter), then the state of the plans and the team, the day's calendar, what came in by email, your personal list and, at the end, a short summary of news from your country and industry.

It arrives through the channels you have connected — WhatsApp, Telegram — and by email too. When there is nothing to say, it stays quiet: empty day, no message. Weekends are silence too.

The end-of-day close

Every business day, at 6pm in your local time, and it comes built in — you do not have to create this routine. It is the mirror of the morning: what is still waiting on you, tomorrow's calendar and your to-do list. Same rule: empty, it stays quiet; weekend, silence.

The routines you created

The ones you accepted during setup, plus any other you ask for later: "every Monday morning, send me the pipeline summary", "on the 1st of every month, the month's sales close". They are all visible at Orion → Automations, where you see what each one does, how often, and can edit or delete it.

Automation proposals

When it notices you repeating a request (the detector only fires from three occurrences of the same pattern), it proposes automating it: "I noticed you tend to ask me for tomorrow's calendar around 7pm — want me to start sending it on my own at that time?". You answer yes and it sets it up, or you give it another time.

Delivery is limited on purpose: at most one proposal per day, and always in your morning — never at midnight.

Deliverable risk alerts

Every day it computes a risk per deliverable, from data that already exists: a deadline past due with progress below 100%, a pace below what is expected for the point in the calendar the deliverable is at, and progress frozen for several days in a row. The ones that land in the highest bands show up in the morning brief, with a short sentence saying which signal fired.

It does not invent risk: no data, no alert. And the "progress frozen" signal requires at least four days of history before it fires — on a freshly created deliverable it stays quiet on that point, instead of guessing.

What AI can take over

It reads the description of your team's active tasks and sorts each one into three groups:

AI does the whole thing

send an email or a message, book a meeting, create a form, extract, structure or summarize a text, set up a reminder.

AI does the draft

write a document, report or plan, analyze data, create content, research options — always with a human reviewing and approving.

Human only

a decision, an approval, a signature, on-site work, human production, or the technical work of your company's professional domain (an engineering design, a legal filing, a medical report).

When the description is too vague, it classifies it as human. It never overestimates automation.

From there it makes an offer, and the offer comes split into two lists:

``` ✅ I can get these moving now — I already have enough:

1. Write the launch announcement
2. Build the tracking spreadsheet

📎 For these I need you to send me an input: • Review the contract — I need the base material ```

You answer "go ahead with 1" or "all of them". Two deliberate locks: it only makes the offer when it has at least one thing it can really move forward — there is no message that just asks for a document — and at most one offer per week.

And if your team's work is almost all technical work in your domain (engineering, legal, healthcare), the classification will come out "human only" on almost everything and that offer never arrives. That is the correct behavior, not a failure: it would rather stay quiet than offer to do what it does not know how to do.

The relationship radar

Once a week it reminds you of the people you are losing touch with. The dial has three positions, and you change it by talking:

off

no proactive relationship nudges. "turn off the relationship nudges."

light (default): a short weekly reminder, with the few most overdue people.

more

a fuller weekly reminder, including who is coming up on the time to reconnect. "tell me more about keeping in touch."

How to turn off what you do not want

It is worth knowing what each control really does, because they are not interchangeable:

The relationship dial (off / light / more) is what controls the contact nudges. Ask for the change in plain language.

Orion → Automations is where you edit or delete any routine that has been created — from the dashboard or from the conversation.

STOP, on WhatsApp, turns off the re-engagement track — the come-back messages for people who have drifted away — and only works for someone already on that track. If you are not, the word reaches Orion as any other message. STOP does not turn off the relationship radar, nor the morning and end-of-day briefs.

The news roundup (every two months, by email) is switched off through the unsubscribe link in the footer of the email itself. That same link has an option to leave all Orion emails — which is today the only path that also silences the operational morning and end-of-day briefs.