Your companion
Your companion is the recognizable face of a saved Locus agent. It uses the normal conversations, tools, permissions, and activity controls. You can personalize it before connecting a model or choosing a project.
Meet and personalize your companion
- On first launch, choose Make it yours. New drafts start with Pitou as the character and editable name.
- Choose an appearance. Characters contains Pitou, Scout, Ninja, Clover, Shadow, and Pirate. All six choices work offline. Surprise me selects one of those same six without calling a model or incurring provider charges.
- Keep your chosen character or use the separate picture picker to import or create your own. The Originals collection and accent/accessory controls are no longer offered. Previously saved Gon and procedural appearances still render, and saved custom pictures remain selected until you explicitly change them.
- Review its suggested name and personality, then edit either to suit you. Unicode names are supported; surrounding whitespace is trimmed, and names must be 1–64 characters without control characters.
- Choose Start with [Name] to save the identity and open its normal conversation in the main composer when the runtime is available. Explore Locus saves it and opens the document, coding, and recurring-agent Getting Started paths.
Without a usable model, the companion still saves. Locus explains: Your companion is ready. Connect a model to start chatting. Connect through the existing model/account controls when you want to work.
Starting personalities
Each character offers a suggested name, role, and style for a new companion:
| Character / suggested name | Starting role | Style |
|---|---|---|
| Pitou | Thoughtful companion | Warm, curious, attentive |
| Scout | Curious explorer | Upbeat, observant, inquisitive |
| Ninja | Focused problem-solver | Precise, composed, methodical |
| Clover | Resourceful builder | Optimistic, inventive, persistent |
| Shadow | Calm strategist | Analytical, patient, deliberate |
| Pirate | Adventurous collaborator | Playful, bold, adaptable |
New-companion setup uses the selected personality as editable starting instructions. Untouched suggestions follow the character choice; a name or personality you edit stays yours. Linking an existing agent retains its saved name and instructions. Changing a saved agent's picture does not overwrite its personality; edit the instructions explicitly in its profile when you want to change them.
Showing, previewing, naming, and saving a companion do not submit a message, run a task, activate a schedule, grant permissions, scan project files, or make a paid request. Starting actual work uses the normal composer and controls.
Skip, resume, or use an existing agent
Not now, Escape, or closing setup retains your draft without creating an agent. The automatic introduction is offered once; unfinished setup does not interrupt each later launch. Resume through Help → Getting Started, the left Companion row when no companion is configured, or Set up your companion in the right-rail Companion panel.
Existing installations receive an opt-in entry. Explicitly choose an existing agent to link it with its current name, picture, instructions, model, permissions, and conversations, or create a new one. A display name is not the identity key. Repeated confirmation or recovery after an interrupted save reconciles the same saved agent.
Create or import your own picture
Choose Create your own to import a raster image or describe a character to a configured image-generation account. Import works offline. Locus validates and re-encodes approved images locally; SVG and HTML are not accepted as portraits.
Generation shows the receiving account and its usage or possible provider charges. Only Generate sends the description. A chat subscription does not automatically provide a compatible image API, and Locus does not silently switch to another provider. Transparency depends on the provider.
Review the preview and choose Use this character to adopt it. Cancellation or failure leaves the previous appearance intact. A cancelled request may already have incurred provider charges. Imported and generated pictures remain static artwork with whole-image presentation effects and status badges; they do not gain articulated faces or limbs.
Find the same agent again
The Companion row above Manage Accounts opens its normal conversation in the main composer. It reuses an eligible chat in the companion's chosen folder, or creates an empty conversation when none exists and the runtime is available. Opening it does not send a message. The left Agent and Work modes keep their existing roles.
The Companion button in the right rail opens a separate inspector panel beside your current work. Opening or closing it preserves the central conversation, draft, running work, and pending approvals. Its conversation and draft stay separate from the central composer. Send or queue a message explicitly to use the companion's saved model, instructions, and permissions.
If the same conversation is already open centrally, the panel is read-only and offers New conversation. Use Open full conversation for the advanced composer, attachments, approvals, interactive tool views, or image editing; this explicitly selects that conversation in the main workspace.
Click the panel's character or name, or choose Companion options → Profile and activity, to open the existing profile and Overview controls. The same name and appearance appear in the conversation header and agent picker. Change its name or picture, continue a conversation, create another, or inspect its actual activity, model, access, and automations there.
Appearance and animation changes preserve the agent's conversations, projects, memory, permissions, tasks, and model selection. Disabling animation affects presentation only. Deleting the agent remains a separate confirmed action. Conversations retain their existing project boundaries.
The character responds to real activity: queued or active work, approvals, completion, failure, pause, and availability. Decorative idle movement does not mean work is running. Outstanding approvals and failures remain visible even while another task runs. Open Overview or Activity for the actual decision or recovery action.
Animate characters and macOS Reduce Motion control playback. Hidden or closed views stop animation, and text/status information remains available with motion off.
Chat from the menu bar
The Locus menu-bar button opens Chat and Activity. Chat shares the right panel's selected conversation and saved draft. Showing the popover does not create a conversation or start work. Close or Escape dismisses it while preserving the draft for the next opening.
Activity shows the companion's requests and unread results in its chosen folder. Open a request to use the existing approval or recovery controls. Open Locus reveals the main window without switching its conversation or discarding either draft.
Choose the companion's folder
The companion uses its stable saved-agent home by default. The folder menu offers Companion home, linked projects, and Choose a folder…. An existing explicit default is respected. Choosing another folder leaves the central chat and draft in place; switching the central project does not change the companion's folder.
The choice affects which companion conversations appear and where new ones are created. It does not move existing chats, files, drafts, tasks, or queued work: each keeps its original folder. Choosing a folder starts no work and grants no additional tool permissions. A missing chosen folder produces an error instead of silently using another location.
File links use the conversation's actual execution folder, including an isolated task folder when applicable. Opening a companion output does not replace the central Files context.
Companion, memory, and runtime are separate
Choosing a character does not enable memory ingestion, computer control, remote access, mobile pairing, notifications, or monitoring. Use Workspace Knowledge & Memory for memory review and Permission Modes for access settings.
Ordinary local work needs Locus and the Mac to be available. Continued background or remote work requires explicit runtime configuration; a character does not create an always-on cloud agent.
Companion setup, chat, and artwork require no world plugin. Agent Worlds compatibility describes the separate plugin and the boundary between older packages and the current host.
See the artwork provenance for bundled assets and the release notes.