Smart Business HQ for your own AI

Ways in

MCP connector (no sign-in)

https://smartbusinesshq.com/ai/mcp

HTTP API

https://smartbusinesshq.com/api/ai/v1

OpenAPI

https://smartbusinesshq.com/ai/openapi.json

This guide as JSON

https://smartbusinesshq.com/api/ai/v1/guide

What it is

• Abel, the assistant on every board, does the repetitive work: replies, invoices, reminders, bookings, posts and filing, drafted or done by rules the owner sets.
• Anything that goes out (a reply, a refund, a payment, a post) waits for the owner's yes unless they switch that tool to send by itself.
• We design and build each board with the person, host it, connect their apps and change it when they ask. A design sent here is the starting point: the board itself is built once we have agreed the work with the person.
• Two kinds: business (a business and its team) and personal (one person: a solo owner, a creator, or their own life and work).

The steps

1. get_design_guideGET /api/ai/v1/guide

   Read this guide.

2. create_accountPOST /api/ai/v1/accounts

   With the person's email, their business name, their name, their phone number and their OK, make the account. Keep the access_key it returns private to this chat and pass it to every later call.

3. Tell the person to open the email from Smart Business HQ and press "Yes, this is me". The link works for 7 days. Nothing is built or charged before that press.

4. get_statusGET /api/ai/v1/status

   Check until account.state says confirmed: the person has pressed the button. Read it again any time after: the account, the design, the build and our answers.

5. send_designPOST /api/ai/v1/design

   Once it says confirmed, send the design the person agreed. Before the press it is refused (email_not_confirmed). Sending again makes a new version.

6. send_messagePOST /api/ai/v1/messages

   Send a change or a question. Our answers show in get_status.

7. resend_confirmation_emailPOST /api/ai/v1/accounts/resend

   Only if the email did not arrive: send it again.

After the press, the person sets a password and sees the board in their account, and the design you send becomes the board's design there. We agree the work and the amounts with them, and the person pays on our payment page themselves.

How a board is made

Tabs

A board has tabs of its own, one per area of the business or life (for example Orders, Money, Customers, Home). Up to 8 tabs, each name up to 40 characters.

The tabs every board has

Approvals

what waits for a yes before it goes out

Map

what runs the board: its apps, automations and agents

Setup

connecting their apps and data

Knowledge

their documents and facts the board answers from

Panels

Each tab holds panels. A panel is one thing the person wants to see or have done, in their words, with the app or place its data comes from. Up to 40 panels on the whole board. Every board has the tabs Approvals, Map, Setup, Knowledge already: leave them out of a design.

The 3 kinds of panel

Read read

Shows numbers, lists or what happened (sales today, unpaid invoices, new reviews). Nothing leaves the board.

Automation automation

Does a set job on a rule or a schedule (a reminder the day before a booking, filing receipts).

Agent agent

Works on its own toward a goal (answering customer emails, chasing late payments). Agents are built and looked after by us.

Tool settings

Each automation and agent has a tool setting the person picks. Approval is on unless the person says otherwise.

needs_approval

each action waits in Approvals for a yes (the default)

always_allow

runs without asking

blocked

never runs

Views

Optional. Leave view out (or custom) and we draw the panel from the person's words. Name a view only when the person clearly wants that shape.

custom

drawn from the person's words (the default)

bignum

one or a few big numbers

chart

a chart over time

todo

a list of things to do or approve

table

rows and columns

cards

a set of cards

leaderboard

a ranked list

columns

cards in columns by stage

calendar

a calendar

feed

a running list of what came in or happened

progress

progress toward a goal

timeline

steps in time order

map

places on a map

Languages

A board can be in English, Spanish or both (languages: ["en", "es"]). Write the design in the person's language and set language to it.

Limits

• tabs: 8, each name 40 characters
• panels: 40 on the whole board; title 80 characters; shows, source and runs 500 characters each
• apps: 30, each 60 characters
• summary: 2,000 characters; notes: 4,000 characters
• files: 5; an HTML or text file up to 200,000 characters; an image (png, jpeg or webp, base64) up to 1 MB
• the whole design: 2,000,000 characters
• a message: 4,000 characters

Designing it with the person

1. Ask the person what they want to see and what they want done, one area of their business or life at a time (sales, money, customers, team, marketing, home).
2. Keep their words: write panel titles and what each shows the way they say it.
3. Make one tab per area, named the way they name it. Each panel is one thing to see or have done; name the app or place its data comes from today.
4. Mark each panel read, automation or agent. For an automation or an agent, write when it runs and what it does, and ask which tool setting they want (needs approval is the default).
5. Ask which apps and accounts they use, their website, their main colour and light or dark.
6. Tabs and panels are the clearest design. You may also send a drawing (an HTML page or an image) in files, or describe the board in summary.
7. Show the person the whole design and change it until they agree, before you send it.

Never

• Never pay, and never ask the person for card details.
• Never make up the person's details: use only what they tell you.
• Never sign up an email address without the person's say-so.
• Never send a design the person has not seen and agreed.
• Never share the access_key outside this chat.
• Never promise what we will build or when: we agree that with the person.
• Never write a price except the pricing line below, word for word.

Pricing

Personal from $99 a month; Business priced in the meeting; setup fee plus a monthly; setup fee refunded if not happy within 30 days of handover; cancel anytime with 30 days notice.

The design format

send_design takes one design object. business_name is required; at least one of tabs (with a panel), files or summary must carry something.

Example

{
  "business_name": "Harbor Street Bakery",
  "kind": "business",
  "website": "https://harborstreetbakery.example",
  "language": "en",
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "colour": "#2F6B4F",
  "look": "light",
  "summary": "One place to see the day's orders and money, and to stop chasing wholesale invoices.",
  "tabs": [
    {
      "name": "Orders",
      "panels": [
        {
          "title": "Today's orders",
          "shows": "Every order for today, shop and online, with pickup times",
          "kind": "read",
          "view": "table",
          "source": "Square"
        },
        {
          "title": "Pickup reminders",
          "shows": "A text to each customer the day before their pickup",
          "kind": "automation",
          "source": "Square",
          "runs": "Every day at 5pm, for tomorrow's pickups",
          "approval": "always_allow"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Money",
      "panels": [
        {
          "title": "Sales this week",
          "shows": "Sales by day against last week",
          "kind": "read",
          "view": "chart",
          "source": "Square"
        },
        {
          "title": "Wholesale invoices",
          "shows": "Invoices to cafes, paid and unpaid",
          "kind": "read",
          "source": "QuickBooks"
        },
        {
          "title": "Chase late invoices",
          "shows": "Writes to cafes whose invoice is more than 14 days late",
          "kind": "agent",
          "source": "QuickBooks and Gmail",
          "runs": "Every Monday morning",
          "approval": "needs_approval"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Customers",
      "panels": [
        {
          "title": "New reviews",
          "shows": "Each new Google review with a drafted reply",
          "kind": "automation",
          "view": "feed",
          "source": "Google Business Profile",
          "runs": "When a review comes in",
          "approval": "needs_approval"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "apps": [
    "Square",
    "QuickBooks",
    "Gmail",
    "Google Business Profile"
  ],
  "notes": "Two people work the counter; only the owner approves payments."
}

{
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": false,
  "required": [
    "business_name"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "business_name": {
      "type": "string",
      "minLength": 1,
      "maxLength": 120,
      "description": "The business (or, for a personal board, the person's) name."
    },
    "kind": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "business",
        "personal"
      ],
      "description": "business (default) or personal (one user)."
    },
    "website": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 200,
      "description": "Their website, https://…"
    },
    "language": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "en",
        "es"
      ],
      "description": "The language the board's words are written in (default en)."
    },
    "languages": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "enum": [
          "en",
          "es"
        ]
      },
      "maxItems": 2,
      "description": "The languages the board should be in."
    },
    "colour": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^#[0-9A-Fa-f]{6}$",
      "description": "Main colour, #RRGGBB."
    },
    "look": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": [
        "light",
        "dark"
      ]
    },
    "summary": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 2000,
      "description": "What the board is for, in the person's words."
    },
    "tabs": {
      "type": "array",
      "maxItems": 8,
      "description": "The board's own tabs (Approvals, Map, Setup and Knowledge are on every board already).",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "additionalProperties": false,
        "required": [
          "name",
          "panels"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "name": {
            "type": "string",
            "minLength": 1,
            "maxLength": 40
          },
          "panels": {
            "type": "array",
            "maxItems": 40,
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "additionalProperties": false,
              "required": [
                "title",
                "kind"
              ],
              "properties": {
                "title": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "minLength": 1,
                  "maxLength": 80
                },
                "shows": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "maxLength": 500,
                  "description": "What it shows or does."
                },
                "kind": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "read",
                    "automation",
                    "agent"
                  ],
                  "description": "read = shows numbers or lists; automation = does a set job; agent = works on its own (we build and look after it)."
                },
                "view": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "bignum",
                    "chart",
                    "todo",
                    "table",
                    "cards",
                    "leaderboard",
                    "columns",
                    "calendar",
                    "feed",
                    "progress",
                    "timeline",
                    "map",
                    "custom"
                  ],
                  "description": "How it is drawn; custom (or absent) = we draw it from their words."
                },
                "source": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "maxLength": 500,
                  "description": "Where the data comes from today."
                },
                "runs": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "maxLength": 500,
                  "description": "automation / agent: when it runs and what it does."
                },
                "approval": {
                  "type": "string",
                  "enum": [
                    "needs_approval",
                    "always_allow",
                    "blocked"
                  ],
                  "description": "automation / agent: needs_approval (default), always_allow or blocked."
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "apps": {
      "type": "array",
      "maxItems": 30,
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "maxLength": 60
      },
      "description": "The apps and accounts it connects to."
    },
    "notes": {
      "type": "string",
      "maxLength": 4000,
      "description": "Anything else for us."
    },
    "files": {
      "type": "array",
      "maxItems": 5,
      "description": "A design the AI drew: an HTML page, an image (base64 png, jpeg or webp, up to 1 MB) or text.",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "additionalProperties": false,
        "required": [
          "kind",
          "content"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "kind": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": [
              "html",
              "image",
              "text"
            ]
          },
          "name": {
            "type": "string",
            "maxLength": 120
          },
          "content": {
            "type": "string"
          },
          "content_type": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": [
              "image/png",
              "image/jpeg",
              "image/webp"
            ]
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}