Rune is a workspace agent that learns how you work. It produces documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It sends emails in your voice, connects to your calendar and files, uses tools like web search and calculators, connects to any REST API or MCP server, supports voice input and output, runs scheduled tasks, and gets smarter every day. This guide covers everything you need to know.
Rune is your personal work agent. Unlike generic AI chatbots that give you text in a chat bubble, Rune produces finished files — Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, CSVs, and PDFs.
During a 10-minute onboarding process, Rune learns your work rules, communication style, and professional context. It uses this knowledge on every request, so output always matches your voice and standards.
Rune also gets smarter over time. When you share preferences during conversation, it offers to save them. When you edit generated documents in consistent patterns, it detects those patterns and adjusts. After weeks of use, Rune knows how you work better than any tool you've used.
Onboarding is a series of 15 questions about your work. Take your time — your answers directly shape how Rune works for you. The questions cover:
Each question includes a "Help me answer this" button if you need guidance.
Tip: If you close your browser mid-onboarding, your progress is saved. You'll resume where you left off next time you log in.
After onboarding, you enter the workspace. The left sidebar has these sections:
The sidebar also shows pinned favorites, your recent conversations (collapsible below Chat), a usage bar, and a help link (?). On the first visit, a brief tour highlights each section. You can install Rune as a native app from the "Install App" link in the sidebar.
Chat is where you talk to Rune. Type what you need in the input field at the bottom. Rune responds with text or generates a file — whichever is more appropriate.
Rune decides automatically. Requests that would be best served as a finished document (a proposal, a report, an invoice) produce a downloadable file. Requests that are better as text (an explanation, an email draft, brainstorming) get a text response.
When Rune generates a file, it appears as a card in the chat with a file icon, filename, type badge, and buttons to Download or Open in Editor.
You can upload files and images during a conversation using the attachment button or by pasting an image. Rune can see images (photos, screenshots, diagrams, scanned documents) and read uploaded PDFs and documents.
/ in the chat input to see available commands: /template, /search, /briefing, and more.The Documents page shows everything Rune has produced for you. Each document card displays the title, file type icon, creation date, which conversation it came from, and version number.
Click any document to open a preview. Text documents render as formatted content. Spreadsheets render as tables. Presentations show as slide cards.
Click Download to save the file to your computer. Documents are available as .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .csv, or .pdf depending on the type.
Click Edit to open the document in the in-app editor. For text documents, you get a full markdown editor with formatting toolbar. For spreadsheets, cells are editable inline. For presentations, click any slide title or bullet to edit.
In the editor, highlight a section and click "Rewrite with Rune." A modal asks for instructions (e.g., "make this more formal," "add a late fee clause"). Rune rewrites only the selected section.
Every edit or regeneration creates a new version. Click "History" on any document to see all versions with timestamps. You can preview any version and compare two versions side by side with diff highlighting.
Go to Chat and reference an existing document: "Update the deadline in that proposal to March 15th." Rune finds the document, applies targeted changes, shows a diff, and saves a new version.
Download a document, edit it in Word or Excel, then upload the revised version. Rune detects it matches an existing document, diffs the changes, and saves it as a new version.
Templates let you save document structures and reuse them with new data. Instead of building the same type of document from scratch every time, save it once and fill it in with one sentence.
There are two ways to create a template:
{{placeholders}}.Two options:
Click "Edit Template" to modify the boilerplate text, add or remove variables, and reorder sections. A variable panel shows all detected {{variables}} with their labels and types.
Team admins can mark templates as "shared." Shared templates appear for all employees in the organization, ensuring everyone uses the same document formats.
The Files page shows everything you've uploaded to Rune: reference documents, images, data files, past work. Each file shows its name, type, size, upload date, and indexing status.
When you upload a file, Rune extracts the text content and creates searchable vector embeddings. The indexing status shows whether this process is complete (Indexed), in progress (Pending), or encountered an error (Failed).
Once indexed, Rune can search and reference the file in conversations. You don't need to re-upload or mention the file — if its content is relevant to your request, Rune will find it.
Tip: You can upload files directly from the Files page — you don't have to go to Chat first.
Click Notifications in the sidebar to see alerts from your workspace — completed scheduled tasks, morning briefings, trial expiration warnings, and team invite acceptances. Unread notifications show a blue dot. The sidebar displays an unread badge count that updates automatically.
Use the toolbar to manage notifications: select individual items with checkboxes or use Select All. Bulk actions include Mark Read and Delete Selected. You can also Mark All Read or Delete All from the toolbar. Hover over any notification to see the × button for single deletion.
Organize your chat conversations with color-coded tags. On the Chat page, click Manage Tags below the conversation search to create tags — enter a name and pick from 8 preset colors. Right-click any conversation in the sidebar to assign or remove tags. Tag color dots appear next to conversation titles.
Click a tag chip above the conversation list to filter conversations by that tag. Click again to clear the filter. Tags are personal — only you see your tags.
Organize uploaded files into nested folders on the Files page. Click New Folder in the toolbar to create a folder. Click a folder to open it, and use the breadcrumb trail at the top to navigate back up. You can move files into folders and nest folders inside other folders.
Tip: Tags and folders help you stay organized as your workspace grows. Use tags for project-based grouping (e.g., "Client A", "Q2 Planning") and folders for file categories (e.g., "Contracts", "Proposals").
Rune can use tools during conversations to perform real actions — search the web, call APIs, do calculations, and more. The Tools page (accessible from the sidebar) manages all four tool types. From the model's perspective, all tool types work identically.
Rune comes with two categories of built-in tools:
AI Capabilities — code-level tools that work out of the box:
Integrations — connection-based tools tied to your email, calendar, drive, and other integrations. Each shows its connection status (Connected, Available, Not Configured) and a Configure link to the relevant settings page.
Toggle any built-in tool on or off from the Tools page. When enabled, Rune decides when to use a tool based on your request.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers extend Rune with custom capabilities. If your organization has internal APIs, databases, or services, an MCP server can give Rune access to them.
To connect an MCP server:
Connected server tools appear under Imported Tools and can be toggled on or off individually. Use Refresh to re-fetch tools if the server's capabilities change.
Connect any REST API by defining it manually. This is for APIs that don't have an MCP server or OpenAPI spec.
Use the Test button on any action to make a real API call and see the response before using it in chat.
Import an API automatically from an OpenAPI (Swagger) specification.
Use Refresh to re-fetch the spec and detect new or changed endpoints. All generated actions are callable from chat.
You don't have to use the form. Describe an API in chat and Rune will create the tool for you:
create_api_tool built-in tool to save it to your Tools page.All four tool types (built-in, MCP, API Manual, API Auto) appear as identical tool definitions to the AI. When you ask a question or give an instruction, Rune decides which tool to call based on its name and description. Tool calls execute server-side — the model sends parameters, the server makes the actual call, and the result is returned to the conversation.
Tip: API credentials are encrypted at rest and never sent to the AI model. Every tool call is logged for audit. Tools are rate-limited to 60 calls per hour by default.
Rune connects to your email, calendar, and cloud storage. Go to Settings → Integrations tab to manage connections.
Connect Gmail or Outlook with one click. For any other email server (work email, Fastmail, Zoho, etc.), use IMAP — enter your server, port, username, and password. Once connected, Rune syncs your inbox, searches your email, and can draft and send emails in your voice.
Connect Google Calendar with one click, or use CalDAV for any other calendar server (Fastmail, Zimbra, Radicale, etc.). Rune can reference upcoming meetings, check availability, and include calendar context in responses.
Connect your cloud storage. Rune indexes connected files so they're searchable in conversations — just like uploaded files. Dropbox and Nextcloud are also supported for self-hosted or alternative storage.
You can connect and disconnect integrations at any time. Each integration shows its connection status and sync time. All synced data is indexed for use in conversations.
Rune learns in three ways:
Your answers generate three personalization documents — Rules, Style, and Reference — that are loaded on every request. This is the baseline.
When you share information during a task that isn't in your docs — a formatting preference, a contact detail, a tool you use — Rune completes the task first, then asks: "Want me to save this for next time?" If you say yes, the information is added to the appropriate doc.
When you repeatedly make the same change to generated documents — always adding the same clause, always correcting the same phrasing — Rune detects the pattern and suggests updating your rules so it gets it right the first time.
In Settings, the "What Rune Has Learned" section shows your three personalization documents, how many times Rune has learned something new, and the total indexed content. You can view and edit these documents at any time.
With an email integration connected (Gmail, Outlook, or IMAP), you can draft and send emails directly from chat.
Tip: Connect your email in Settings → Integrations tab before trying to send. Rune will remind you if no email is connected.
Upload your brand assets so every generated document looks professional and on-brand.
Configure your brand kit in Settings → Agent tab, under "Brand Kit." Every document Rune generates (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) automatically uses your brand settings.
Rune supports voice interaction — speak your messages and hear responses read aloud.
Click the microphone button next to the chat input to start speaking. Rune transcribes your speech in real-time using Deepgram's Nova-3 speech recognition. Click again to stop recording. Your transcribed text appears in the input field for review before sending.
Click the speaker icon on any AI response to hear it read aloud. Rune uses Deepgram's Aura text-to-speech with 12 natural-sounding voice options. Choose your preferred voice in Settings → Agent tab.
Voice features require two things:
Set up tasks that run automatically on a schedule — daily briefings, weekly reports, recurring document generation.
Scheduled tasks run in the background. Results appear in your conversation history and any generated files appear in Documents.
Workflows chain multiple steps together into a reusable sequence. Each step passes its output to the next.
Run a workflow from chat: "Run my weekly report workflow." You can also schedule workflows to run automatically using scheduled tasks.
A daily summary delivered at your preferred time. The briefing includes:
Enable the morning briefing in Settings → Automation tab. Choose your preferred delivery time. The briefing appears as a conversation in your chat history.
Settings is organized into five tabs:
The Team plan is for small businesses with 5-15 people. One admin, multiple employees.
Rune is a Progressive Web App (PWA) — you can install it on your phone, tablet, or desktop for a native app experience.
Instead of "write a proposal," say "write a project proposal for Acme Corp covering the website redesign. Include timeline, cost breakdown, and payment terms. Use my standard proposal template."
The more context Rune has, the better the output. Upload past work, company guidelines, style guides, data files — anything relevant to what you produce.
If you create the same type of document more than once, save it as a template. Next time, just reference the template name and provide the variable data.
When Rune asks to save something for next time, say yes. The more it learns, the less you have to repeat yourself.
Instead of downloading, editing in Word, and re-uploading, use the in-app editor. It's faster, and Rune can help you rewrite specific sections.
Check the "What Rune Has Learned" section in Settings → Agent tab every few weeks. Make sure the information is current. Remove anything outdated.
For short instructions — "email John about tomorrow's meeting" or "what's on my calendar today" — voice input is faster than typing. Enable it in Settings.
Install Rune as a native app for faster access. It launches from your home screen or dock without opening a browser. Click "Install App" in the sidebar.