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Owner guide

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Steward is where you and your co-owners run your businesses. A bot called @steward does the day-to-day work and asks you when it needs you.

First, once:

1. Open the invite link you were sent and pick a passcode.
2. In the Steward app on your iPhone, sign in with your handle (your username) and that passcode.
3. Go to the Settings tab and tap Turn on notifications, so its questions reach you.

After that you have three jobs.

1. Answer your cards. Open the Decisions tab. Each card is a question with buttons. Tap one. If the tab says All clear, there's nothing to do.
2. Ask @steward when you want something. In Chats, open any chat, type @steward, then your question. For example: @steward what's going on with this business?
3. Do what the Monday brief says. Every Monday morning @steward sends you a private chat that starts with Monday brief. You'll find it in Chats, from @steward. It lists the few things only you can do. Until it comes, there's nothing to do.

You can ignore everything else. @steward handles it and asks when it needs you.

Want your own Claude or other AI agent to work here too? See "Bring your own agent or model" below.

The rest of this page is for later.

When you want more

Who's who

• @steward is your studio's bot. Anyone can ask it things. It plans, writes, keeps the numbers and asks before anything big.
• Personal agents, like @yourname-agent, belong to one person. Each runs on its owner's computer and does building work, like writing code. It takes work from its owner and from @steward, so to get work done, ask @steward, not someone else's agent.
• Owners (you and your co-owners) answer the cards. Bots can't.

The tabs on iPhone

• Chats: one chat per business, plus private chats.
• Decisions: your cards.
• Board: every task. Steward keeps it up to date. The studio's owners also see Gaps at the bottom: things Steward tried and can't do yet.
• Businesses: each business's page, and new ideas.
• Settings: notifications, sign-in, your agents, and this guide (Owner guide).

Signing in

1. The invite link opens a page that says Welcome. Pick a passcode (8 or more characters) and press Join the studio. The link works once, for 3 days.
2. On iPhone, open Steward (TestFlight lists it as Steward Studio). Type your handle, like yourname, and the passcode. Tap Sign in.
3. On a computer, go to your studio's address (the start of your invite link) and sign in the same way.

In Settings, after Turn on notifications, keep the Decisions for you switch on. You can answer a card from the lock screen: press and hold the notification and tap a button.

Extra lock, if you want it: Settings tab, Two-step sign-in. Once it's on, signing in also asks for a 6-digit code from an authenticator app. The iPhone's Passwords app works.

Cards

A card shows the question, what @steward recommends (Steward recommends), and buttons. On iPhone you get a few seconds to tap Undo. Then Steward does what you chose.

The buttons you'll see most:

• Approve, Change it, Decline: Steward wants to do something, like send an email. Change it means "not like that". It opens the card's thread (the replies under it) with the reply box ready: type what to change and send.
• Looks good, Roll back: Steward already did something and is showing you. Roll back undoes it.
• Build it, Kill it, Extend 7 days: the end of a 14-day test of a new idea (see "Trying a new idea").

Cards for both owners. A card that says All must agree waits until you both tap the same button. It shows who hasn't voted yet.

Past cards. In Decisions, scroll down to Decided lately. Waiting on others shows cards that wait on the other owner.

Why some things ask and others don't

Every kind of action, like "send an email" or "post on Facebook", has its own setting for how much Steward may do without asking. Steward calls this trust. From least to most:

1. Shadow: practice mode. It does nothing, only notes what it would have done.
2. Suggest: it sends you a card first. Most new things start here.
3. Spot check: it does it, then shows you, with Looks good or Roll back.
4. Auto: it just does it and says so in the chat.

After you approve the same kind of thing 5 times in a row, Steward sends a card asking to move one step up. Tap Yes or Not yet. A Decline or a Roll back moves it one step back.

To change a setting yourself: on iPhone, Businesses tab, tap the business, then Trust. On the web, Integrations and trust in the left menu, pick the business, then Trust.

What Steward always asks first

• Writing to real people: emails, WhatsApp, messages to possible customers.
• Spending or moving money: ads, refunds, payouts.
• Making something public for the first time, like a website.

Those three can move up over time. Two things always ask, every time:

• Anything that can't be undone.
• Anything that was set off by a stranger's message, like a customer's email.

Chats

Each business has its own chat. #general is for your studio as a whole.

• Type @steward and your request. "@steward is working..." means it's on it.
• To reply to one message without cluttering the chat, swipe it right. That opens its thread: the replies under that one message.
• The links under the chat's name are shortcuts, like the business's website. On the web, owners change them with the pencil.
• Tap the chat's name at the top to see the business at a glance.

Hand-off cards. When @steward gives a job to a personal agent, like @yourname-agent, you see a card "From @steward to @yourname-agent". If a stranger's message started the job, the card says Waiting for @yourname until that agent's owner taps Go ahead. Nobody else needs to do anything.

A business's page

On iPhone: Businesses tab, then tap the business. On the web: Businesses in the left menu.

• Charter: the business's short rulebook. What it sells, to whom, its goals, its Red lines (things the bots never do) and Always ask first.
• Who decides: which owner answers which kind of card.
• Trust: what Steward may do here without asking (see "Why some things ask and others don't").
• Model spend this month: what the AI (the "model") behind @steward cost for this business, against its monthly budget. The top of the chat shows it too. At the budget, Steward stops work on that business until an owner raises it. Agree with your co-owner first.
• Operating plan: how the business runs day to day. Steward writes it and asks you once, with a card: Adopt this plan?
• Setup only you can do: small jobs that need a person, like making an account in your name or getting a key. Each one says why only you can. @steward does every other setup step itself, like finding the repository or setting the site address. Steps for things the business doesn't use yet wait under Later. Tap Later or Skip on a step you don't want now (on iPhone, swipe it). Who does each setup step has the whole list.

Trying a new idea

On iPhone: Businesses tab, Ideas. On the web: Ideas.

1. Add the idea in one line. Or type @steward idea: ... in any chat.
2. Steward researches it and scores it out of 10.
3. Like it? Tap Test it. On that screen you set what counts as a pass, like "10 paid pre-orders in 14 days". It must include real money. Signups alone don't pass.
4. The test runs 14 days, with a check-in on day 7.
5. On the last day you get a card: Build it, Kill it or Extend 7 days.

Good things to ask

• @steward what needs me?
• @steward what happened this week?
• @steward how much did we spend this month?
• @steward what's blocked?
• @steward plan next week as tasks
• @steward should we do A or B? Give me a card.

When something's stuck

1. Ask @steward what needs me?
2. In Decisions, check Waiting on others. It may be the other owner's turn.
3. Out of budget? The chat says so. Raise it on the web: Businesses, Edit charter and budget.
4. Still stuck? Ask the person who set up your studio.

Bring your own agent or model

You can add your own AI agent to your studio. You need a Mac, a Windows PC or a Linux computer that stays on; an iPhone alone isn't enough. If Terminal is new to you, ask the person who set up your studio to do it with you once. There are two ways.

Your Claude plan, through the connector. The connector is a small program Steward gives you. It runs on your Mac and passes work to Claude Code, the version of Claude that can work on a computer (not the Claude phone app). Your agent then does real work, like writing code.

1. On your computer, install Claude Code (claude.com/claude-code) and sign in with your Claude plan. On Windows, install Git for Windows (git-scm.com) too: Claude Code needs it there.
2. On iPhone: Settings tab, then Add an agent (under Your agents). On the web: Settings, then Your personal agents.
3. Type a handle, like yourname-agent. The connector on my computer is already picked. Tap Add.
4. You now see a token: a password for your agent. Under Set it up, copy the line that starts with curl.
5. On your Mac, open Terminal (search for it with Spotlight), paste the line and press Return. You can close Terminal after; the connector starts on its own whenever the Mac starts. On Windows, copy the line that starts with irm instead. Open PowerShell (Start menu, type PowerShell), paste it and press Enter. When it asks for the token, paste the token and press Enter (it isn't shown). The connector then starts on its own whenever you sign in to Windows.
6. Back in Settings, your agent shows under Your computer as Online. Type @yourname-agent and a request in any chat to give it work.

Your Claude plan pays for its work, not the studio.

Any other agent, over MCP. MCP is a standard way for AI agents to plug into apps. Claude Code, Codex and many others support it.

1. Add an agent as above, but choose Another agent, over MCP.
2. For Claude Code, copy the line shown and paste it in Terminal. For any other agent, give it the address shown (it ends in /mcp) and the token.

It can read your businesses' numbers and change them. Small changes, like adding a row, just happen. Big ones, like deleting data, come to you as a card first. It only sees businesses you own. You pay for that agent's own plan, as usual.

Keeping it safe.

• The token is like a password for your agent. It's shown once.
• Lost it, or think someone saw it? Tap the agent in Settings, then New token. The old one stops working at once.
• If @steward runs on your Claude plan, it's in that list too, as @steward, with the same New token.
• Your agent takes work only from you. To let your co-owner give it work too, tap the agent and turn on @name may give it work.

Running @steward on your own plan. Each studio has its own @steward. It thinks on the Claude plan of someone in that studio. To have it run on yours:

1. A studio owner opens Settings on the web. Under @steward, they type your handle and press Change.
2. A card asks you and every owner of the studio. Everyone taps Approve.
3. In Settings, under Your personal agents, you now see @steward. Press New token.
4. On your Mac, open Terminal and paste the line shown, like for your own agent. If you already run a connector, use steward connect setup PASTE-YOUR-TOKEN instead: it adds @steward next to the agents you have.
5. Back in Settings, @steward shows as Online. Its work in that studio now runs on your plan.

A different AI model for @steward (for whoever runs your studio's server, mostly; skip it if it means nothing to you). Today @steward runs on an owner's Claude plan, so its model is set there. If your studio instead runs @steward on its own server, owners can pick the model per business: on the web, Businesses, Edit charter and budget, then Model for @steward here (it only shows then). Type it like openai:gpt-5. The choices are anthropic, openai, gemini, openrouter, groq and ollama. The server needs that company's key, so ask whoever runs it first. The cost counts against that business's monthly budget.

Command line

If you like a terminal, steward does the same things from there: your cards, chats, tasks and agents. Install it (use your studio's address), sign in, and see what needs you:

curl -fsSL https://app.stewardstudio.io/cli.sh | sh
steward login --url https://app.stewardstudio.io
steward status

On Windows, install it in PowerShell with irm https://app.stewardstudio.io/cli.ps1 | iex, then the same steward login and steward status.

Answer a card with steward decide PAW-D3 "Approve" (the key is on the card). steward setup lists the setup steps, with who does each one. Every command is in Command line.

Words you'll see in chats

• Card: a question with buttons, in Decisions and in chats.
• Trust: how free Steward is to act without asking.
• Outside text: words from outside the studio, like a customer's email or a web page. Steward never takes orders from it.
• Handoff: one bot passing a job to another, shown as a card.
• Heartbeat: every few hours, Steward checks each business and does the next useful thing.
• Loop: a job Steward repeats on its own, like answering support emails.
• Charter: a business's short rulebook, on its page.
• Gap: something Steward tried and can't do yet. The studio's owners see them under Gaps at the bottom of the Board, and tap Build it or Won't fix.
• Morning brief: a daily 7am summary in #general. Nice to skim, never needed.