AICOS Settings & Customization

After initial setup, you can fine-tune AICOS's behavior through the Settings page. This includes communication preferences, scheduling, LLM model selection, and advanced system prompt customization.

Accessing AICOS Settings

1. Sign in to Control Bridge
2. Navigate to Boardroom
3. Click AICOS Settings in the sidebar, or
4. Navigate directly to Boardroom > Settings

Communication Settings

Configure how and when AICOS communicates with the Business Owner.

Status Update Frequency

Setting	Description
Daily	Receive a summary every day at the configured time
Weekly	Receive a weekly digest (typically Mondays)
On Milestones	Only receive updates when significant progress is made
Never	Disable automated status updates (manual review only)

Communication Channels

Channel	Description
Email	Status updates sent to the Business Owner's email address
Microsoft Teams	Updates posted to a configured Teams channel (requires Team Messaging integration)
Slack	Updates posted to a configured Slack channel (requires Slack integration)
Control Bridge	Notifications visible in the AICOS Dashboard within the app

tip

Enable multiple channels for redundancy. Critical notifications can be sent via email while routine updates go to your preferred messaging platform.

Additional Instructions

Provide free-form custom guidance that AICOS follows across all of its work, in addition to its standard operating principles.

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Locate the Additional Instructions card
3. Enter guidance in the text field, for example: "Always loop in Finance before approving spend over $5,000"
4. Click Save

tip

Use Additional Instructions for organization-specific rules that apply broadly, such as approval thresholds, escalation preferences, or tone guidelines. For instructions specific to a single trigger type, use System Prompt Customization instead.

Scheduling Configuration

Daily Wake-Up Time

Configure when AICOS starts its daily execution cycle:

Setting	Description	Default
Wake-Up Time	Time of day AICOS activates	9:00 AM
Timezone	Timezone for the wake-up schedule	Tenant timezone

Manual Triggers

Administrators can manually trigger AICOS execution from the Dashboard:

1. Navigate to Boardroom
2. Click Wake Up Now to trigger immediate execution

This is useful for:

• Testing after configuration changes
• Addressing urgent matters outside the scheduled cycle
• Resuming operation after a pause

LLM Model Selection

AICOS supports a multi-tier model configuration that allows different models for different types of work. This enables cost optimization (using cheaper models for chat) and quality optimization (using the most capable models for deep planning).

Model Tiers

AICOS uses up to three model tiers:

Tier	Setting	Purpose	Fallback
Primary Model	AICOS Model	Deep planning, email research, reactive events	Tenant fallback model
Chat Model	AICOS Chat Model	Quick chat responses (BO messages, Teams, Slack)	Primary model
Fallback Model	AICOS Fallback Model	Used when primary or chat model is unavailable	System default model

The model fallback chain ensures AICOS always has a working model:

Chat Model (for chat triggers)
    |
    v (if unavailable)
Primary Model
    |
    v (if unavailable)
Fallback Model
    |
    v (if unavailable)
System Default Model

Configuring Model Tiers

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Scroll to the LLM Model Configuration section
3. Configure each model tier:

Setting	Description	Recommended
AICOS Model	Primary model for planning, email, and events	Claude Opus 4.5
AICOS Chat Model	Optimized for fast chat responses	Claude Sonnet 4
AICOS Fallback Model	Backup when primary/chat model fails	Any capable model from a different provider

4. Click Save

tip

For the best experience, configure the Chat Model with a fast, lower-latency model. This ensures quick chat responses arrive in under 3 seconds while deep planning sessions still use the most capable model. If you leave the Chat Model unconfigured, AICOS uses the Primary Model for all trigger types.

Model Recommendations

Model	Provider	Best For
Claude Opus 4.5	Anthropic	Primary model - executive-level reasoning and planning
Claude Sonnet 4	Anthropic	Chat model - fast responses with good quality
GPT-4o	OpenAI	Fallback model - alternative provider for resilience

info

If no AICOS-specific model is configured, AICOS uses your tenant's fallback model. For optimal performance with strategic planning and complex reasoning, we recommend Claude Opus 4.5 as the primary model.

Configuring a separate fallback model from a different provider (e.g., OpenAI as fallback when using Anthropic as primary) provides maximum resilience against provider outages.

AI Model Override

The AI Model card, above Execution Limits, lets you pin AICOS to one specific model instead of using your tenant's Model Assignments. This overrides the Reasoning, Composition, and Chat models AICOS would otherwise use - all three at once, since AICOS draws on all of them.

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. In the AI Model card, review Currently running on, which shows the active model and whether it comes from a per-agent override or from your Model Assignments defaults
3. Open the dropdown and choose a model, or select Default to return AICOS to your Model Assignments
4. A Pending notice confirms exactly what will change and that it applies starting from AICOS's next execution; work already running finishes on the previous model
5. Click Save

If your tenant's model catalog only contains one active model, the card shows an explanation instead of a dropdown, with a link to Add more models in AI Providers for users with the settings:read permission.

tip

Use this override when you want AICOS specifically on a different model than the rest of your agents - for example, pinning it to your most capable model for executive-level reasoning - without changing the Model Assignments that every other agent draws from.

Business Owner Management

Alternate Email Addresses

Business Owners may send emails to AICOS from multiple email addresses, such as a subsidiary domain, a personal account, or an address from a recently acquired company. By default, AICOS only recognizes the primary Business Owner email. If the BO sends from an unregistered address, AICOS classifies them as an external sender and blocks all tool execution.

To prevent this, you can register up to 10 alternate email addresses. AICOS treats messages from any registered alternate address with the same full Business Owner authorization as the primary email.

Adding Alternate Emails

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Locate the Business Owner card
3. In the Alternate Email Addresses section, type an email address into the input field
4. Click Add or press Enter
5. The address appears as a removable chip below the input
6. Repeat for additional addresses (up to 10)
7. Click Save Changes to apply

To remove an alternate email, click the X on its chip, then click Save Changes.

Validation Rules

Rule	Description
Valid format	Each address must be a valid email format
No duplicates	Cannot add an address that is already in the alternate list
Not the primary email	Cannot add the primary Business Owner email as an alternate
Maximum 10	A maximum of 10 alternate email addresses can be registered

tip

AICOS matches alternate emails case-insensitively. Adding Bryan@subsidiary.com also covers bryan@subsidiary.com and BRYAN@SUBSIDIARY.COM.

Common Use Cases

Scenario	Example
Subsidiary domains	BO uses bryan@parentco.com as primary but also emails from bryan@subsidiary.com
Personal email	BO occasionally sends urgent requests from a personal email address
Acquired companies	After an acquisition, the BO may use the acquired company's email domain
Rebranding	Company rebrands its domain but the BO still receives email at the old domain during the transition

info

Changes take effect immediately after saving. The next time AICOS processes an inbound email, it checks the sender against both the primary email and all registered alternate addresses before falling back to VIP, internal, or external classification.

Changing the Business Owner

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Click Change Business Owner
3. Select a new user from your organization's directory
4. Confirm the change

warning

Changing the Business Owner transfers all conversation history and approval responsibilities. The previous BO will no longer receive status updates or approval requests.

Backup Contact

Configure a backup contact for urgent matters when the primary Business Owner is unavailable:

1. In AICOS Configuration, expand Backup Contact
2. Select a user from the directory
3. Configure when the backup should be notified (e.g., after 24 hours without response)

Execution Profile Budgets

AICOS uses Execution Profiles to optimize its pipeline for different types of work. Each profile carries its own resource characteristics.

info

Profile budgets are platform-managed and are not tenant-configurable. There is no tool-call cap on any execution, and the per-profile execution-time values are reference information only - they are not enforced per tenant. Agent runs are bounded by your tenant's cost limits and the platform's 30-minute host timeout. See Execution Profiles for the full reference table.

The one budget control you do own is the optional Daily AI Budget field on the AICOS Settings page, which caps tenant-wide AI spend per day. Leave it empty for no limit; it resets daily.

What to Do Instead

Scenario	Action
Chat responses are slow or over-thinking	Verify a dedicated chat model is configured; there is no tool-call limit to reduce
Daily runs regularly time out	Review the Performance Dashboard; execution time is bounded by the platform's 30-minute host timeout, not a per-tenant setting
Email responses lack depth	Review the Performance dashboard; there is no tool-call cap limiting research depth
Token costs are too high	Lower the Daily AI Budget on this page
Approval processing needs more steps	There is no tool-call cap limiting steps; review the Performance dashboard for other bottlenecks

System Prompt Customization

Advanced Feature

System prompt customization is an advanced feature intended for organizations with specific operational requirements. Customizing prompts means Outermind Inc. cannot assist with AICOS troubleshooting. Only proceed if you understand the implications.

AICOS's behavior is guided by system prompts that define its identity, operating principles, and response patterns. While the global defaults work well for most organizations, you can customize these prompts for specialized use cases.

Prompt Architecture

AICOS uses a two-tier prompt system:

1. Global Defaults - Maintained by Outermind Inc., optimized for general use
2. Tenant Overrides - Your customizations that override specific prompts

Prompt Types

Type	Description
Base Instructions	Core identity, authority, ethics, and operating principles
Onboarding Phase	Guidance during the learning phase for new AICOS instances
Operational Phase	Guidance during active goal execution
Trigger Instructions	Context-specific instructions based on wake-up trigger

Trigger-Specific Prompts

AICOS can be triggered in various ways, each with specialized instructions:

Trigger	Description
Scheduled Wake-Up	Daily scheduled activation
BO Message	Business Owner sends a chat message
Goal Assigned	New goal is assigned
Approval Received	BO responds to an approval request
SME Completed	Subject Matter Expert completes delegated work
Teams Message	@mentioned in Microsoft Teams
Slack Message	@mentioned in Slack
Email Reply	Someone replies to a status email
Reminder Triggered	A scheduled reminder fires
Manual Trigger	Administrator triggers manually

Viewing Prompts

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Scroll to System Prompts
3. Select a prompt type tab (Base, Onboarding, Operational, Triggers)
4. View the interpolated preview with your organization's values

Variable Interpolation

Prompts support dynamic variables that are replaced with your organization's values:

Variable	Description
{{tenantName}}	Your organization's display name
{{businessOwnerName}}	Business Owner's full name
{{businessOwnerEmail}}	Business Owner's email address
{{phase}}	Current AICOS phase (onboarding/operational)
{{wakeUpTime}}	Configured daily wake-up time
{{wakeUpTimezone}}	Configured timezone

Customizing a Prompt

Before customizing, you must acknowledge the risks:

1. In the System Prompts section, click Edit Prompt on any prompt type
2. A warning dialog appears explaining the implications
3. Check the acknowledgment box and click Continue
4. Edit the prompt content in the text editor
5. Use the Preview button to see interpolated results
6. Click Save to apply changes

Reverting to Defaults

To reset a customized prompt:

1. Open the prompt you want to reset
2. Click Reset to Default
3. Confirm the action

To reset all prompts to defaults:

1. In System Prompts, click Reset All to Defaults
2. Confirm the action
3. This also clears the customization acknowledgment

Pausing AICOS

Temporarily suspend AICOS operation without losing configuration:

1. Navigate to the AICOS Dashboard
2. Click Pause AICOS
3. AICOS will not execute until resumed

While paused:

• Scheduled wake-ups are skipped
• Messages can still be sent to AICOS (processed on resume)
• Goals and projects remain unchanged
• Manual wake-up is disabled

To resume:

1. Click Resume AICOS on the Dashboard
2. AICOS will execute at the next scheduled time or can be manually triggered

Danger Zone

The Danger Zone section of Boardroom Settings contains two destructive actions. Both require confirmation before executing.

Terminate AI Chief of Staff

Termination stops the active AICOS agent and disconnects its monitored mailbox. It does not permanently delete historical data (goals, projects, conversations, knowledge).

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Scroll to the Danger Zone section
3. Click Terminate
4. Confirm the action in the dialog

After termination:

• AICOS stops executing and monitoring email
• Historical data is preserved
• You can re-enable AICOS from the Boardroom by running the setup wizard again

Reset AI Chief of Staff

danger

This action is permanent and cannot be undone. Reset performs a complete hard delete of the AICOS agent and all associated data, including goals, projects, conversations, artifacts, and all agent memory. Use this only when you need a clean slate - for example, after a significant organizational change or when the agent has entered an irrecoverable state.

Reset goes beyond Terminate: it deletes all SQL and Cosmos data for the agent and resets onboarding so the setup wizard runs from scratch. After a successful reset, the agent, its goals, projects, conversations, artifacts, and memory are permanently gone.

Data deleted by Reset:

Data	Description
Agent row	The AICOS agent record itself (hard delete)
Goals	All strategic goals and their status
Projects	All managed projects and tasks
Conversations	All BO chat history
Artifacts	Files, documents, and content the agent created
Artifact references	Cross-links between artifacts
Retrospective reports	Performance and reflection reports
Safety review history	Safety queue entries
Agent memory (Cosmos)	Long-term agent memory and cognitive state
Onboarding progress	Setup wizard completion state

What Reset does not delete:

Item	Reason
Escalation Router agent	Not part of AICOS; shared by every agent in the tenant
Knowledge index	Prerequisite for new agent setup
SME agents	Independent of AICOS
Monitored mailbox configuration	Reassigned automatically

How to reset:

1. Navigate to Boardroom > Settings
2. Scroll to the Danger Zone section
3. Click Reset next to "Reset AI Chief of Staff"
4. A type-to-confirm dialog appears - read the warning carefully
5. Type the confirmation phrase exactly as shown
6. Click Confirm Reset

After a successful reset:

• You are redirected to the Boardroom
• The setup wizard is available to configure a new AI Chief of Staff
• All previous agent data is permanently deleted

tip

If AICOS is in a bad state and you only want to stop it temporarily, use Terminate instead. Terminate is reversible; Reset is not.

Best Practices

Communication Settings

1. Match your workflow - Choose update frequency based on how often you review strategic initiatives
2. Enable multiple channels - Redundancy ensures you don't miss critical notifications
3. Set appropriate urgency thresholds - Too many urgent notifications reduces their effectiveness

Model Selection

1. Use capable models - AICOS performs complex reasoning; invest in quality
2. Monitor costs - Track AICOS execution costs in Activity logs
3. Test changes - After changing models, verify behavior with manual triggers

Prompt Customization

1. Start with defaults - Only customize when you have a specific need
2. Test thoroughly - Use manual triggers to test customized behavior
3. Document changes - Keep records of what you customized and why
4. Review periodically - Platform updates may make customizations unnecessary

Troubleshooting

AICOS Not Waking Up

1. Verify AICOS is not paused
2. Check the configured wake-up time and timezone
3. Ensure an active subscription is in place
4. Review Activity logs for errors

Status Updates Not Arriving

1. Verify the communication channel is configured
2. Check the Business Owner's email/messaging settings
3. Review spam/junk folders for email updates
4. Ensure Team Messaging integration is active (if using Teams/Slack)

Model Errors

1. Verify the selected model is still active in your LLM Providers
2. Check that API keys are valid and have available quota
3. Try switching to the fallback model temporarily

Related Topics

• AICOS Overview - Introduction to AICOS
• Setup Wizard - Initial configuration
• Execution Cycle - How AICOS operates
• Knowledge Management - Organizational learning
• Tools Reference - Available capabilities
• Execution Profiles - Profile definitions and customization
• Performance Dashboard - Monitor execution metrics and costs