Aethel User Guide

Lucin Solutions LLC · Aethel v1.0.0 · May 2026

Welcome

Aethel is a personal AI assistant that lives on your Mac or PC. She reads your calendar, sends emails on your behalf, drives your real Chrome browser, runs scheduled tasks while you sleep, watches inboxes and web pages for changes, remembers what you tell her, and chats with you on Telegram or in a browser. All by talking to her in plain language.

This guide walks you through everything: installing, the setup wizard, day-to-day use, every tab in the GUI, troubleshooting, and managing your license. It's written to be read top to bottom, but skip to whatever you need.

In a hurry? Read the Quick Start guide instead, it's two pages.

What you'll need before starting

• A Mac (macOS 12 Monterey or newer) or a Windows 10 / 11 PC
• A free Gmail account (Aethel uses Google Calendar, Gmail, Tasks, and Contacts)
• A free Telegram account, with the app installed on your phone. Telegram is your main way to chat with Aethel from anywhere.
• Google Chrome installed (only if you want browser automation; it's optional)
• The Aethel installer file and your license key, both came in your welcome email
• About 15 to 20 minutes for first-time setup, with most of it spent in the setup wizard

Installing Aethel

On Mac

1. Open the Aethel.zip file we sent you (double-click it).
2. A folder appears with Aethel.app inside. Drag Aethel.app into your Applications folder.
3. First launch is special. Open the Applications folder, right-click Aethel.app, and choose Open. macOS asks "Are you sure you want to open it?", click Open again. You only do this once. After that, double-clicking works normally.

What if I see "Aethel can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software"?

This happens if you double-click instead of right-click on first launch. Apple shows it for any app that hasn't paid their yearly "notarization" fee, totally normal. Two ways to get past it:

• Easy way: close the dialog, go back to Applications, right-click Aethel.app and pick Open from the menu. macOS will ask once more whether you trust the app, click Open.
• Backup way: open System Settings → Privacy & Security. Scroll down. You'll see "Aethel was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer" with a button next to it. Click Open Anyway. macOS asks for your password, then opens Aethel.

After this one-time approval, double-clicking Aethel.app works forever. We're working on Apple Developer notarization; once we have it, this whole dance disappears.

On Windows

1. Double-click Aethel-Setup-1.0.0.exe (the installer).
2. Windows shows a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen with "Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting." Click the small More info link (it's quiet, easy to miss), then click the Run anyway button that appears.
3. The installer asks where to install (default: C:\Aethel\) and whether to Start Aethel automatically when you log in. We recommend yes so your scheduled tasks always run.
4. Click Install. When it's done, Aethel launches and the Setup Wizard appears.

What if Windows Defender quarantines Aethel after install?

Rare, but it happens with unsigned apps. Open Windows Security (Start menu → "Windows Security") → Virus & threat protection → Protection history → find the Aethel entry → Restore. Then go to Manage settings → Exclusions → Add or remove exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder → C:\Aethel\. That tells Defender to leave Aethel alone for future updates.

We're working on a Windows code-signing certificate; once we have it, SmartScreen and Defender will both stop flagging us.

First-time setup (the Wizard)

The wizard has ten short steps. The Back and Next buttons are at the bottom; your progress is saved if you close midway and come back. Most steps take under a minute, the AI engine sign-in and Telegram bot creation take the longest.

1. Welcome

A friendly hello from Aethel, with a quick list of what she can do. Click Next.

2. License

You'll see two cards:

• I have a license key: paste the key from your welcome email and click Activate. If the key is valid you'll see a green check and Next unlocks.
• Subscribe: opens the Aethel store in your browser to pick a Monthly or Yearly plan. After payment, you'll get an email with your key, paste it into the first card.

If you've already used Aethel on another computer and forgot your key, click the small Forgot your key? link at the bottom; that opens the Lemon Squeezy customer portal where you can look it up.

The wizard validates your key against our license server, so make sure your computer is online for this step.

3. Dependencies

Aethel needs a few open-source tools to run her AI engine: Python, Node.js, npm, and Git. The wizard checks for each and shows a green check if it's installed, or an Install button if not.

Click Install for anything missing. On Mac you may be asked to type your password to allow the install (Aethel uses Homebrew under the hood). On Windows, the wizard runs the installer for you, just follow the prompts.

Version requirements

The wizard isn't picky about which installs you have, only that they're new enough:

• Python 3.10 or newer. On Intel Macs only, Python must be 3.10 to 3.12 — Python 3.13 dropped a few of the AI deps that Aethel uses for voice transcription on Intel hardware. Apple Silicon Macs and Windows can use any Python 3.10+. If you have an older Python (or 3.13 on an Intel Mac), the wizard tells you what version it found and what's needed.
• Node.js 18 or newer. Older Node silently fails the Playwright-MCP setup. The wizard surfaces the version and asks you to install a newer one if needed.

If you click Install on Python, the wizard installs Python 3.12 which works on every supported Mac and Windows.

If you previously installed Node via nvm or another version manager, the wizard might miss it. Open a terminal, type node --version, and if you see a number ≥ 18, click Re-check in the wizard.

4. Permissions (Mac only)

macOS asks for permission before any app can:

• Take screenshots, needed when you ask things like "What's on my screen right now?" or "Read the chart in this window."
• Control your keyboard and mouse, needed for browser automation tasks like filling out forms.

The wizard shows three buttons. For each, click the button, macOS opens System Settings to the right toggle, flip the toggle next to Aethel, close System Settings, then click Re-check in the wizard. The status changes from a red X to a green check.

You can skip this step and come back later from the System settings page. Without these permissions, only those specific features stop working; everything else (Telegram, email, calendar, web chat) is fine.

Note for updates: every time you update Aethel, macOS resets these permissions and you'll need to flip the toggles again. This is an Apple security policy, not something we can fix on our end. The wizard re-runs after every update so you'll see this same page automatically.

5. AI Engine

Aethel needs an AI brain. Pick one:

• Gemini (Google): recommended for new users. Free with a personal Google account: 60 requests per minute, 1,000 requests per day, more than enough for typical daily use. No payment details required.
• Codex (OpenAI): included if you already pay for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise. Without a ChatGPT subscription, it falls back to OpenAI API pricing (pay per token, usually a few cents per task).
• Claude (Anthropic): requires a Claude subscription (Claude Pro / Max / Team) or an Anthropic Console account with billing set up. No free tier.

You can switch engines later from Settings → AI, so picking "wrong" today is reversible.

What happens when you click "Install" and "Sign in"

This part has more moving parts than the others, so here's what to expect:

1. Install: a real Terminal window opens (yes, the dark scary one). It runs npm install -g <engine-cli> and shows live output. When it's done, the Terminal closes itself. On Windows, it might stay open; close it manually.
2. Sign in: a second Terminal window opens with the engine's sign-in flow:
   • Gemini: opens your default browser to a Google sign-in page. Pick your account, click Allow, the browser shows "Success", the Terminal closes.
   • Codex: prints a URL in the Terminal. Copy it, paste into a browser, sign in to ChatGPT, copy the auth code back into the Terminal.
   • Claude: similar URL flow, ends in the Terminal.

When sign-in succeeds, Aethel's wizard detects it within a few seconds and the Next button unlocks. If the Terminal hangs, close it and click Sign in again.

6. Google sign-in

Click Sign in with Google. Your browser opens to Google's OAuth consent screen. Pick the Gmail account you want Aethel to use (usually your main one). You'll see a screen asking you to approve four permissions:

• Calendar: read and create events
• Tasks: read and edit your Google Tasks
• Gmail: read, search, send, and label email (Aethel will not permanently delete email; deletes go to Trash, recoverable for 30 days from your Gmail web UI)
• Contacts (read-only): look up names so Aethel knows whose email address to use

About the "Google hasn't verified this app" warning

You'll see a screen with a warning that says "Google hasn't verified this app" and the words "unsafe" or "dangerous." That's Google's standard language for any app still going through their review process; it doesn't mean Aethel is unsafe. Specifically:

• The app is from Lucin Solutions LLC, the same company you paid for your license.
• Google is reviewing the app; verification is a multi-step process that takes weeks. Once it's done, this warning goes away automatically for everyone.
• All the data Google sees stays on your computer. Lucin Solutions does not run a server that receives or stores your Google data (full details in our Privacy Policy at tryaethel.com/privacy).

To proceed: click Advanced at the bottom of the warning page (it's small and looks disabled), then click Go to Aethel (unsafe) at the very bottom of the expanded section. You're back on the consent screen, click Continue, then Allow to approve all four permissions in one go.

The browser shows a "You can close this tab now" message. Aethel's wizard detects success and the Next button unlocks.

7. Browser (optional)

This step lets Aethel drive your real Chrome browser, opening tabs, filling forms, clicking buttons, all the things a person would do when "log into my bank and check the balance" or "cancel this subscription." It's powerful and optional. Skip if you don't need it now; you can set it up later from Settings → Integrations.

If you want it:

1. Click the Open Chrome Web Store button. The Playwright MCP Bridge extension page opens in Chrome.
2. Click Add to Chrome. Chrome shows a permission dialog asking "Allow this extension to debug websites?". Click Allow. That permission is how the bridge works (it uses Chrome's official debugger API, the same thing developer tools use). It's not malware.
3. Find the new extension's puzzle-piece icon in Chrome's toolbar (top-right). Click it. The popup shows a line of text starting with PLAYWRIGHT_MCP_EXTENSION_TOKEN= followed by a long token.
4. Copy that whole line (or just the token, the wizard accepts both and strips the prefix). Paste it into the wizard's token field.
5. Click Save. The wizard shows a green check.

8. Telegram

Telegram is the main surface where you'll chat with Aethel from anywhere in the world. The wizard guides you through creating your own personal Telegram bot:

1. Click Open BotFather in the wizard. Telegram opens (web or app) with a chat called @BotFather already started.
2. In the BotFather chat, type /newbot and send it. BotFather replies asking for a name for your bot.
3. Type a display name (anything, e.g., "My Aethel"). Send.
4. BotFather asks for a username. The username must end in bot, for example carlos_aethel_bot or aethel_demo_bot. If someone's already used that username, BotFather will ask you to pick another.
5. BotFather replies with a long token that looks like 123456789:AAEx.... Copy the entire token. (Tap and hold on phone, or click and select on web.)
6. Paste the token into the wizard's Bot token field. Click Test connection. You should see a green check confirming Aethel can talk to your bot.
7. Open the chat with your new bot in Telegram (BotFather sent you a t.me/your_bot_name link). Send any message like "hi". The wizard detects you and adds you as the bot's admin (that's what authorizes you to talk to Aethel).

You can authorize more people later (family, teammates) from Settings → Integrations. Authorized non-admins can chat with the bot but only see their own data; admins (you, by default) see shared memory and can approve AI-suggested automations.

9. First task

Create one scheduled task to make sure everything works end to end. The wizard pre-fills a Morning Briefing for 7 a.m.:

• Name: Morning Briefing
• When: Daily at 07:00
• What: "Send me a short briefing for today. Include calendar events, urgent emails, and the weather. Send it as a Telegram message."

Click Next to accept, or change the time and prompt to whatever you want, e.g., "Remind me to drink water every two hours" or "Sweep my inbox each evening at 6 pm and tell me what's left to handle."

10. Test run

The last step runs your task right now so you can watch what happens. A live log streams in the wizard:

• The AI engine connects.
• Aethel calls her tools (get_weather, read_calendar, search_emails, etc.) and you see each call as it happens.
• The AI composes a final message.
• A Telegram message arrives in your bot chat.

This usually takes 30 to 90 seconds. If anything fails, the log shows the specific error. You can click Run again to retry, or Skip if you'd rather move on and debug later.

When the test succeeds, click Finish. Aethel disappears into the menu bar (Mac, top-right) or system tray (Windows, near the clock).

Day-to-day use

Once setup is done, you mostly forget the GUI exists. You chat with Aethel through one of two surfaces.

Telegram

Message your bot like a friend. Examples:

• "What's on my calendar tomorrow?"
• "Email Sarah and ask if she's free Friday."
• "Remind me to take out the trash at 8 pm."
• "What's the weather looking like this weekend?"
• "Save this idea: launch a podcast about AI tools."
• "Search my inbox for 'invoice' and tell me what's outstanding."

You can send voice messages too (tap and hold the microphone in Telegram). Aethel transcribes them locally with Whisper and replies. She can reply with voice if you ask, or by default replies as text.

You can send photos, documents, audio files, anything Telegram supports. Aethel can describe images, read PDFs, and process audio.

What you'll see while Aethel is working

The instant you send a message, the placeholder shows the model that's about to think (e.g. "Claude Opus 4.7" or "Gemini 3"). As the AI works, you see a list of human-readable tool names appear under it:

`` Claude Opus 4.7 · (8s) 🔧 Checking the weather 🔧 Searching the web /cancel to stop ``

Each line is a tool the AI is calling on your behalf. When the answer text starts streaming, the progress placeholder gets replaced by the answer. If a run is taking too long, type /cancel at any time to stop it.

Web chat

Open the URL shown on Aethel's Dashboard in any browser on your home Wi-Fi. It looks like https://YourMac.local:5004 or https://192.168.x.x:5004. Sign in with the password you set the first time.

The web chat has the same brain as Telegram, plus:

• Drag and drop files onto the window
• Paste images from your clipboard
• Voice in and out via the microphone button (your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time)

You'll see the same kind of progress card as on Telegram — a small panel with the model name and a growing list of "🔧 Checking the weather" / "🔧 Searching the web" style lines while the AI works. The card vanishes the moment the answer text starts flowing. The Stop button has a brief 0.7-second cooldown right after you hit Send so an accidental double-click doesn't cancel the message you just sent.

About the browser security warning for web chat

The first time you open the web chat, your browser shows "Your connection is not private" or "Not Secure". This is because Aethel uses a self-signed HTTPS certificate (HTTPS is required by browsers for microphone access on local networks; we can't avoid it without buying a certificate for every user, which isn't practical). Click Advanced → Proceed anyway. Your browser caches the trust, so you only see this once per device.

Web chat password

The first time you sign in, you'll be asked to claim your account. Pick your name from the dropdown, click Claim. Aethel sends a 6-digit code to your Telegram bot chat. Type that code into the web form, then set a password. From then on, just log in normally.

If you forget your password, ask the admin (you, on this machine) to reset it from Settings → Integrations → Web Chat → Reset password.

Slash commands

Anything you type that starts with / is treated as a slash command and bypasses the AI entirely. Slash commands work on both Telegram and web chat. The point: when the AI itself is misbehaving (rate-limited, confused, out of quota), you still need a way to control Aethel — type /help from the train and you can see status, swap engines, list tasks, all without sending a single AI request.

If you type a / command Aethel doesn't recognize, you'll get "Command not recognized. Type /help to see available commands." — Aethel won't try to interpret it as a chat message. The / prefix is reserved.

Reference

Commands marked (admin) only work for the first user listed in Settings → Integrations → Authorized users.

Why /engine is the most useful one

When Gemini hits its daily quota or Claude's CLI silently breaks after an update, you don't have to be at the GUI to recover. From your phone:

`` /engine codex ``

…and Aethel switches over for the next message. Your subscriptions or API keys for the other two engines are how you keep moving when one goes down.

Approving AI-proposed tasks

After Aethel runs a few tasks, she may notice patterns and propose a new scheduled task. "You've asked me to summarize your inbox at 6 pm three days in a row. Want me to do this automatically every evening? /approve abc123 to confirm, /reject abc123 to dismiss."

Reply /approve abc123 and the task starts running on schedule. /reject abc123 deletes the proposal.

You can also see and edit pending proposals in Tasks in the GUI; pending ones show a yellow badge.

Stopping a response mid-stream

If Aethel is generating a response and you realize you asked the wrong thing, you can interrupt:

• Telegram: reply /cancel. The current AI call stops, and whatever's been generated so far stays in the chat.
• Web chat: click the Stop button next to the input box. Same behavior.
• GUI: the Tasks tab shows running tasks; click the red stop icon next to any one to cancel it.

What Aethel does on her own (and what she asks first)

Aethel is built to act, not defer. When you ask her to do something, she'll do her best to complete it, including logging in to accounts, navigating sites, and using your saved Chrome passwords. She won't refuse a task because a site is "sensitive."

That said, anything that moves money, deletes data, posts publicly, or messages a third party is paused for your explicit go-ahead before the irreversible step. Here's the full breakdown.

The four categories Aethel checks for any action:

1. Login → just do it
2. Read → just do it
3. Write to yourself → just do it
4. Write with impact → confirm first, then do it

🌐 Browser actions (driving your real Chrome)

🖥️ Desktop / app actions (input + screen capture)

📨 Email, calendar, tasks, Telegram

🐚 Files and shell commands

⏰ Scheduled tasks (the cron-style jobs you set up)

A scheduled task you wrote yourself is itself the authorization, Aethel won't re-confirm anything when running a scheduled task. A daily "transfer $50 to savings" job runs without asking each morning. If you want a confirmation step inside a scheduled task, write the prompt to send you a Telegram message and wait for your /approve.

When Aethel asks before something irreversible

She'll show you exactly what she's about to do, the recipient name, the dollar amount, the file path, the command, and wait for a yes/no in chat. One quick reply ("yes" / "go" / "do it") and she completes the action.

One thing she will never do

Refuse without trying. If Aethel says she can't do something, she should also tell you the specific blocker (wrong password, captcha she can't solve, network error, missing permission). "I'd rather not log in for you" is a bug, please report it.

The Aethel window (GUI)

Most of the time you won't open this; chatting on Telegram is enough. But when you do (click the menu-bar / tray icon → Open Aethel), here's what each tab is for. The sidebar on the left groups the tabs into three bands:

1. Things Aethel does for you — Dashboard, Tasks, Reminders, Watchers.
2. How the assistant is set up — AI, Plugins, Agent.
3. Settings — Vault, System, Integrations, Account, plus Support and Logs at the bottom.

Dashboard

The home screen. From top to bottom:

• Status banner, green when Aethel is running and connected, yellow if the tray heartbeat is stale, gray if it's not running.
• Three stat cards:
  • License, active / in-grace / locked, plus days until renewal.
  • Coming up, your next scheduled task. If you have several, the card cycles through them every 5 seconds.
  • AI engine, which engine is active, the model it's using, and whether you're signed in.
• Connections, Telegram, Google, Web chat, Browser status at a glance.
• Recent activity, your last few chats and task runs.
• Quick actions, three buttons: Open web chat, Telegram, Logs.
• Diagnostics (click ▾ Show diagnostics), Python / Node / Git / ffmpeg / Whisper versions, useful when something looks broken.

Tasks

The list of scheduled things Aethel does for you. From here you can:

• Add a new task (click ➕)
• Edit an existing one (pencil icon)
• Run a task now without waiting for its schedule (▶ button)
• Enable / disable a task without deleting it (toggle)
• Delete a task you no longer want (🗑 icon)
• Approve / reject a pending AI-proposed task (yellow badge, Approve / Reject buttons)

Reminders

Every reminder Aethel has set, either because you asked her to set one, or because a watcher fired. From here you can see the reminder text, when it fires, and delete it if you no longer want to be reminded.

When a reminder fires, Aethel sends you a Telegram message with the reminder text. Reminders that have fired are removed automatically.

Watchers

Aethel can watch:

• A web page for changes (e.g., "Tell me when this product is back in stock")
• Your inbox for a message from a specific sender (e.g., "Tell me when my landlord replies")

Active watchers appear in this tab. You can see what each one is watching, when it last checked, and delete any you don't want. Aethel checks every 30 seconds; when something changes, she sends you a Telegram message.

AI

Pick which AI engine drives Aethel: Gemini, Codex, or Claude. The page shows a "Currently using" hero card at the top with the live model (e.g. "Claude Opus 4.7") and sign-in state, plus a per-engine details card with the engine's tagline, CLI version, signed-in account, a Model dropdown to pick a specific model (or (Default) to let the CLI choose), and an action button (Install / Sign in / Open CLI).

This tab used to also manage MCP plugins; they live on their own tab now (next).

Picking an engine

Trying Aethel out? Pick Gemini — it's the only one of the three with a real free tier. Claude Code essentially needs a $20/mo subscription, and Codex normally needs ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo). You can switch later from this tab without losing anything.

Gemini

Best for: everyday tasks, anything that touches Gmail / Calendar / Docs, multimodal work (images, PDFs), and anyone testing Aethel without a paid AI plan.

Free tier: a personal Google account gives ~1,000 requests/day on Gemini Flash, no card required.

The "limit reached" trap. People often expect 1,000 messages and get blocked sooner. Two reasons: each tool call counts as a separate request (a single chat that touches calendar + weather + email is 5–10 requests), and the Gemini CLI auto-routes complex prompts to Gemini 3.1 Pro which has a much smaller free cap (~3–5 prompts/day). Setting the Model dropdown to Gemini 3 Flash (instead of (Default)) keeps every call on Flash and avoids the silent Pro-cap trip.

Codex

Best for: code generation, repo-wide refactors, running tests in a loop. Made by OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT).

Free tier: as of May 2026, Codex CLI is included on ChatGPT Free + Go plans as a temporary promo — verify on OpenAI's pricing page since this changes. Otherwise needs ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo), Pro ($100 / $200), Business, Edu, or Enterprise. You can also use a pay-per-token OpenAI API key without any subscription (preferred_auth_method = "apikey" in ~/.codex/config.toml).

ChatGPT Plus 5-hour caps roughly: 160 GPT-5.5 messages every 3 hours on the chat surface; CLI usage shares the budget. Pro $100 = 5x Plus, Pro $200 = 20x Plus.

Claude

Best for: long-context reasoning over a whole codebase, careful explanations, nuanced writing. Opus 4.7 (1M context) is the strongest single model in Aethel for "read everything, then think hard" tasks.

Free tier: none for Claude Code. The free claude.ai chat (~40 short messages/day) does not unlock the agent Aethel uses. Testers need either Claude Pro ($20/mo), Max ($100 / $200), Team / Enterprise, or Anthropic Console API credits (prepaid, ~$5 minimum).

On Pro ($20/mo) you get roughly 10–40 Claude Code prompts every 5 hours on Opus, plus a separate weekly Opus-only cap on top of the overall budget. Heavy users typically need Max.

Plugins

Third-party MCP servers are how the AI gets new tools. The Aethel ecosystem has hundreds of them — Slack, GitHub, Postgres, your own internal services, anything someone's published. Each one runs locally on your machine and adds new abilities the AI can use the moment they're installed.

The Plugins tab shows what you have:

• Allow AI to install plugins for itself toggle at the top. When on, the AI can install plugins without you opening this tab — but it always describes what it found and asks for a yes before each install. When off, only manual installs through this tab work.
• Per row: type icon (🔌 stdio / 🌐 sse), name, the command or URL it runs, environment-variable keys (no values shown), and an Uninstall button.
• + Add Plugin in the header for manual install — fill in the command and args, click Save.

To install via chat: just ask, "find me an MCP for Slack". Aethel searches the marketplace, describes what it does, and asks before installing. Plugins are added to your local config and become available on the next AI turn — no restart.

Trust caveat. Plugins run locally with the same privileges as Aethel. Only install from sources you trust. The "Allow AI to install plugins for itself" toggle is off by default for that reason.

Agent

A scratchpad for testing what Aethel can do without scheduling it. Type a prompt, pick which engine to use, click Run, and watch the response stream in. Useful for trying out a prompt before you turn it into a scheduled task.

Settings (Vault, System, Integrations, Account)

Four sidebar pages grouped under a small SETTINGS header. All four autosave as you type; there's no Save button. A small "Saved at HH:MM:SS" badge in the bottom-right confirms each save.

Vault

Aethel's encrypted credential store. When the AI helps you log in to a site, it can offer to save the username + password so the next time it just types them in for you, no asking required. Saved entries are AES-GCM-256 encrypted on disk; the master key lives in your OS keychain (Mac Keychain / Windows Credential Manager), so the file alone is useless without the keychain.

Per row you get:

• Show: confirms first ("auto-hides in 10 seconds"), then reveals the password inline. Auto-hides after 10s.
• Copy: writes the password to your clipboard with a 30-second auto-clear (so a colleague borrowing your laptop later won't paste it accidentally).
• Delete: confirm + remove.

The header has + Add Credential to seed an entry manually (domain / username / password / notes). The AI can also add entries when you ask it to ("save this login").

Heads-up. The master key is per-machine. If you reinstall the OS, swap to a new computer, or your keychain database is wiped, your saved logins can't be recovered — there's no server-side backup. Treat the vault as a convenience, not a safety net for irreplaceable credentials.

System

Timezone, log level, auto-start at login, language and TTS voice, plus macOS permission status. The bottom of this page has the Open config.yaml and Re-run Setup Wizard buttons.

Integrations

Telegram bot token + authorized users, Web Chat enable / port / URL + reset-password, Browser Automation token, Google sign-in status with a Switch account button.

Account

Just your license: status, plan, renewal date, full key with Show / Copy buttons, and four actions: Manage billing, Refresh license check, Change license key, and Deactivate this computer.

Support

Health checks, diagnostics, and troubleshooting tools:

• Run all health checks: pings every connection (Telegram, Google, AI engine, web chat) and reports status.
• Open data folder: opens the folder where Aethel stores config, credentials, and logs.
• Tailscale bridge (Windows): for remote support, lets us connect to your machine if you're stuck. Off by default; only enable if support asks you to.
• Re-run Setup Wizard: runs the wizard again, useful if switching engines or Google accounts.

At the bottom of this page: About & Legal — vendor info, app version, and links to Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and EULA. (These used to live on the Account tab; we moved them here so the same place users go when they need help also has the docs they might be referencing.)

Logs

Live tail of Aethel's activity log. Useful when something looks off and you want to share what happened with support. The textbox auto scrolls to the bottom; click into it to pause. Filter by [mcp] to see just the tool calls, or [error] to see only failures.

Keeping Aethel running

Aethel only works when your computer is powered on and not sleeping. The display can be off, that's fine, but if the whole machine sleeps, scheduled tasks won't fire and the bot stops responding until you wake it.

On Mac

1. Open System Settings → Battery
2. Click Power Adapter at the top
3. Set "Turn display off after" to whatever you like (15 min is fine)
4. Check the box that says "Prevent your Mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off."
5. Plug your laptop in when you go to bed; sleep behavior on battery is different and can pause Aethel.

On Windows

1. Open Settings → System → Power & battery
2. Click Screen and sleep
3. Set "When plugged in, put my device to sleep after" to Never
4. On a laptop, consider also setting "On battery power" to Never if you want Aethel to keep running unplugged.

If Aethel ever seems unresponsive, the first thing to check is whether your computer dozed off.

Permissions reference

On Mac

You'll find these under System Settings → Privacy & Security.

• Screen Recording, needed for screenshot tools and the "What's on my screen?" type questions. Without it, captures return the wallpaper only.
• Accessibility, needed if you want Aethel to control your keyboard or mouse for browser automation. Without it, those tools silently do nothing.
• Microphone, Aethel does NOT use your microphone directly. Voice messages come in through Telegram or your browser. macOS sometimes asks anyway; granting it is fine.

If you ever update Aethel, macOS asks for these permissions again, flip the toggles a second time. Apple resets trust on every binary change.

On Windows

Aethel doesn't need any special permissions on Windows. The first-launch SmartScreen warning is the only friction. If your antivirus quarantines Aethel, add C:\Aethel\ to the exclusions list in your antivirus settings.

Managing your license

Open the Account sidebar page to:

• Check status, active, expiring soon, or in grace
• Refresh, force a check against Lemon Squeezy (rarely needed)
• Change key, paste a different license key (e.g., after upgrading)
• Deactivate, release this machine's slot so you can install on a different computer
• Manage subscription, opens the billing portal in your browser where you can update your card, cancel, see invoices

If your license expires, Aethel pauses scheduled tasks, the bot, and the web chat, but it doesn't delete anything. As soon as you renew, it picks up where it left off.

Troubleshooting

"Aethel didn't run my morning task!"

Most likely your computer was asleep. See Keeping Aethel running above. To confirm: open the GUI → Logs and look for activity around the scheduled time. No log entries means the machine wasn't awake.

"My Telegram bot isn't replying."

1. Open the GUI → Dashboard. Is the Tray status banner green? If not, click Start tray and try again.
2. Check Connections → Telegram, does it show a green dot?
3. Open Logs and send a test message; you should see [telegram] Received message... within a few seconds. If you don't, the bot token may be wrong or revoked. Re-paste it in Settings → Integrations.

"Google says my session expired."

Open Settings → Integrations → Google and click Switch account (or Sign in with Google if you're signed out). The OAuth refresh token can expire if you've gone weeks without using Aethel; signing back in fixes it.

"I closed the menu-bar / tray icon by accident."

• Mac: open Spotlight (Cmd+Space), type Aethel, press Enter.
• Windows: Start menu → search Aethel → press Enter.

"Settings I changed don't seem to take effect."

All four settings pages autosave 500ms after your last edit. Wait two seconds, then watch for the green "Saved at HH:MM:SS" badge in the bottom-right of whichever settings page you're on. If the badge says "Save failed", check Logs for details.

"I want to start over from scratch."

Open the System sidebar page, scroll to the bottom, click Re-run Setup Wizard. Your existing config is kept until you change something.

"I'm getting too many notifications."

Open Tasks, find the chatty task, click the toggle to Disable it without deleting. You can re-enable any time.

"macOS reset my permissions after updating Aethel."

This is normal. Open Settings → System in Aethel; the Permissions section shows the current state. Click each red X to re-grant. Or open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording / Accessibility, and re-flip the toggles next to Aethel.

"The web chat shows 'Not Secure' in my browser."

That's the self-signed HTTPS certificate warning. Click Advanced → Proceed anyway once per device, your browser caches the trust. We can't avoid this without buying a certificate for every user's local network, which isn't practical.

"My AI engine won't sign in."

Open Settings → AI → click Re-sign in. A Terminal window opens with the engine's flow. If the Terminal hangs, close it, then click Re-sign in again. If sign-in keeps failing, the underlying CLI may need updating: open Terminal yourself and run gemini --version (or codex --version / claude --version); if it errors, run npm install -g @google/gemini-cli (or the equivalent) to update.

Getting help

• 📧 Reply to your welcome email, we read every message
• 🐛 If something's clearly broken, open the GUI → Logs, take a screenshot of the last few lines, and include it in your email.
• 🔍 Quick Start guide if you want a shorter walkthrough.

We're a small team and we genuinely want your feedback. Tell us what's confusing, what's missing, what surprised you. The more honest, the better.

Thanks for being one of our first users. 🙏

The Lucin Solutions LLC team