Core Concepts
Six ideas explain almost everything about how Zinley behaves. Once these click, the rest of the app reads itself.
1. Your agent lives in the cloud, 24/7
Zinley doesn't run on your laptop. It runs on our servers, all the time. That's the whole premise: your email keeps getting answered, your phone keeps getting answered, and your scheduled work keeps running with every one of your devices switched off.
You can close the app, shut the lid, and go to sleep. When you come back, the Brief tells you what happened.
2. Connected devices are Zinley's hands
The cloud is where your agent lives; your devices are where it can touch things.
Install the desktop app on a machine and sign in — it registers itself automatically. From then on Zinley can work on that computer: read and write files, run terminal commands, drive a browser, use your local apps, and run scheduled tasks there.
You decide which machines are reachable, per device. Turn a device's cross-device toggle off and it becomes invisible to the rest of your setup — you keep using it normally. And if you'd rather Zinley never touched your machines at all, it has a cloud computer of its own.
→ Devices
3. Memory: People, Topics, and what it knows about you
Zinley doesn't start from zero every conversation.
- People — one profile per real human, built automatically from calls, emails, and chats. Facts, open threads, what each of you owes the other, and how warm the relationship is. When Zinley isn't sure whether two profiles are the same person, it asks you rather than guessing.
- Topics — one file per matter you're pursuing, holding the related threads, a timeline, findings, and anything pending. Topics can be things other people brought to you, or your own plans for the day.
- What it remembers about you — your preferences, working style, and standing instructions. Some of this it picks up; the rest you can just tell it: "remember that I never take meetings before 10am." Nothing is stored unless it's saved deliberately, and you can wipe it all from Settings.
4. Credits are the fuel
Everything Zinley does costs credits, drawn from one shared pool. There's no separate allowance per channel — chat, Telegram, Discord, phone calls, and scheduled tasks all spend from the same balance. Heavier models cost more per request; phone calls bill by the minute.
There are three buckets, spent in this order:
| Bucket | Refills | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Every day | Use it or lose it — it doesn't roll over |
| Monthly | Each billing cycle | Comes with your plan; unused balance carries over |
| Wallet | Never expires | Credits you buy on top |
Ask Zinley "how many credits do I have left?" in chat any time — it reads your real balances and tells you when each one refills.
5. Plans set the ceiling
Four tiers: Free, Plus ($20/mo), Pro ($100/mo), and Max ($200/mo). Annual billing is available on the paid plans.
What your plan changes:
- Models — Free runs everything on Auto with no picker. Paid plans unlock the picker and the premium models.
- How far back you can see — 1 day on Free, 1 week on Plus, 1 month on Pro, 3 months on Max. This one window governs chat history, email threads, call reviews, and the activity feed together. It's a visibility limit, not deletion — upgrade and your older history reappears immediately.
- Caps — active phone lines, active scheduled tasks, how long a single call can run, and how many requests you can have going at once.
- Zinley's computer — Plus and above.
Every number lives in one table on Plans & Limits.
6. You approve outward-facing actions
This is the setting that shapes how Zinley feels day to day. Decision autonomy has two levels, and it applies account-wide — email, phone, chat, everything.
- Confirm (the default) — Zinley does all the thinking and the work, but anything aimed at the outside world stops and waits for you. Sending an email, placing a call, creating or changing a calendar event, sharing something: each comes back as a proposal you approve or reject.
- Auto — it goes ahead and acts.
Proposals collect in Inbox, on the relevant topic, and at the top of Home. Approve one and it executes immediately.
Start on Confirm while you're learning how your agent handles things, then loosen it once you trust it. Change it in Agent setup.
How it all fits
Your agent lives in the cloud with its own email address and phone number. People reach it there. It handles what it can, building up People and Topics as it goes, and reaches onto your devices when work needs to happen on a real machine. Every request spends credits; your plan sets the ceilings; and by default nothing goes out the door without your approval.
Related
- Interface Tour — where each of these lives in the app.
- Quick Start — set it up in fifteen minutes.
- Plans & Limits — every cap in one place.
- Brief — how Zinley reports back each morning.