ChatGPT dots

A dot uses the ChatGPT plugins a user has installed and enabled, with their connected accounts and existing permissions, for example Gmail to find email, Google Drive to work with documents and GitHub to investigate code and prepare changes. Each plugin must be connected and permitted for the action requested, and admins set app access and action restrictions in plugin controls. When a website needs a login, the dot sends a private sign in request and then works in that session.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

A dot runs background agents to work on several things in parallel while the user keeps talking to it, starts new cloud threads, and creates ChatGPT Work or Codex tasks on a connected computer or in a Codex cloud environment. It checks the results of tasks it created and sends them follow up instructions, and the Activity view lists each delegated task with its progress, results and requests for input.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

A dot works from the source material a user shares, the files on its cloud computer and a connected computer, and connected apps such as Google Drive, and it researches that connected information read only to suggest next steps. The context for any interaction is a selection of this material. No indexed knowledge base that a team maintains for its dot is part of the product.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

Before an action affects the user's accounts or shares information, an automatic review checks it against the user's instructions, permissions, custom rules and built in safety requirements, then lets it proceed, asks for approval or hands the step to the user.

Custom rules come in four kinds, take action without asking, take action only when told, ask before taking action, and hand off to the user, so a team can require a check before messages go to customers or keep file deletions in human hands.

Workspace admins decide who may add rules, a dot checks privately before sharing anything from a private conversation in Slack, and Pause stops its current main task.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controlsread 2026-10-12

Workspace owners grant dots through workspace defaults and custom roles assigned to groups, with group membership synced by SCIM, and separately allow Slack participation, custom rules, password manager use and cloud browser, network and computer use. Business and Enterprise data is encrypted in transit and at rest and is not used to train OpenAI models by default. OpenAI keeps its attestations in a separate trust portal.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/enterprise/dots-admin-guideread 2026-10-12

In the desktop app, a dot's Activity view opens each task, including background work and the Work and Codex tasks it delegated, to show progress, files, results and any pending decision, sign in or approval, and the Scheduled view lists recurring work that can be disabled or deleted there. Workspace audit records cover some capabilities, depending on data category, storage location and product configuration. A per step trace of the dot's own actions for an admin to export is not part of the product.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/controlsread 2026-10-12

Each dot starts with relevant ChatGPT memory and keeps its own notes on preferences, decisions and ongoing work, separate from ChatGPT's saved memory, which it updates as priorities change and carries across ChatGPT, Slack, Teams and calls. Switching channels never resets those notes, and deleting a dot covers its conversations, memories and scheduled tasks, with the details shown at confirmation. A user gets no retention period for the notes, and changing a ChatGPT memory setting does not necessarily change notes already made.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

A dot's cloud computer runs on shared, OpenAI managed infrastructure in VM backed sandboxes tied to the signed in user, and it can also work with one personal computer the user connects. No region choice for the dot's computer and no private deployment come with the product.

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Each user has one dot that takes on whatever responsibility it is given, from keeping a sales proposal current to drafting show notes from interviews or following up on software feedback. Those examples come as guidance on how to brief it, and there is no catalog of ready made dots or task templates to adopt.

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Between conversations a dot decides on its own when to pause and wake up to continue work, and saved schedules cover work that repeats at fixed times. Where a connected service supports event monitoring it responds to specific events, such as new bug reports in a Slack channel, once it is told which channels to watch, what to look for and when to notify, since adding it to a channel alone sets up no monitoring. Users reach the same dot in ChatGPT on mobile, desktop and web, in Slack by direct message or mention, in Microsoft Teams, and by phone call.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dots/tasks-and-memoryread 2026-10-12

Dots run on GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI's own model. The user has no choice of another maker's model for a dot.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Dots are reached through ChatGPT, Slack, Microsoft Teams and calls, and they reach out through plugins and a connected computer. Outside software has no API or MCP server for creating a dot, sending it work or reading its results.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Users start a dot on one responsibility, review its first result and correct missing details before widening the job, and because a dot can make mistakes its important results come back with their sources for checking. That checking is manual, with no test cases, quality checks or comparison of a dot's output across changes.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12

Each dot has its own computer and browser in the cloud for research, files and running software, with browser sessions of its own and optional saved logins. The user opens the dot's computer and selects Take over to inspect a page or do a step, then Return control. A connected personal computer lets the dot work with its local files and apps while the ChatGPT app is open, and admins switch cloud browser use and cloud computer use on per role.

Sourcelearn.chatgpt.com/docs/dotsread 2026-10-12