Welcome
ELARA is your private assistant for your personal life. She runs 24/7 on your own Mac Mini, keeps your information on that machine, and helps with your calendar, finances, health, travel and anything else you hand her.
This playbook is a living guide. It shows how to use ELARA, what's been set up, and what's still to do. Scott updates it as ELARA learns new jobs. Anything you're unsure about, ask ELARA first, then text Scott.
Ways to reach ELARA
Telegram and the Elios Life site are the same conversation, so start in one and pick up in the other.
| Where | Best for | How |
|---|---|---|
| Elios Life site | Seeing everything at once, longer conversations | my.elioslife.com, log in with the code sent to your email |
| ELARA app on your phone | Quick questions anywhere | The site saved to your home screen (see below) |
| Telegram | Quick messages on the go | Message the ELARA bot |
| Voice | Driving or hands busy | Tap the mic in the chat, talk, tap again. Turn on the speaker to hear her reply |
| Files | Statements, receipts, health reports, photos | Paperclip in the chat, or drag and drop |
Save ELARA to your iPhone home screen
- Open my.elioslife.com in Safari and log in
- Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen
- Make sure Open as Web App is on, name it ELARA, and tap Add
On your computer, open the site in Chrome or Edge and click the install icon at the right end of the address bar.
Where ELARA lives
ELARA's permanent home is your house. Right now the Mac Mini is at Scott's house, and Scott will bring it over and hook it up once a day is set.
- Why not the office: the Carson network's security filter (Cisco Umbrella) blocks Tailscale, which is how Scott supports ELARA remotely. It also blocked Google Drive. ELARA is personal, so she belongs on your own internet anyway.
- The site works from anywhere: my.elioslife.com reaches ELARA through a secure tunnel, wherever the Mac Mini is plugged in.
- At your house: a wired connection to your router is best. Keep the Mac Mini plugged in and powered on.
- After a power outage or restart: the Mac Mini waits at the login screen. Someone needs to log in, and everything starts back up on its own within a couple of minutes.
What's connected today
ELARA's core is running. Your personal accounts get connected one at a time, with you signing in yourself.
| System | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| ELARA (OpenClaw) | Your assistant, running on the Mac Mini | Running |
| Anthropic API | The AI behind ELARA, billed to your elioslife.com account | Connected |
| Elios Life site | my.elioslife.com with chat, voice and file uploads | Live |
| Cloudflare | Secure tunnel and email code login for the site | Live |
| Telegram | Chat with ELARA on your phone | Confirm setup |
| Apple ID | Signed in on the Mac Mini | Signed in |
| Claude Pro | Your own Claude account for big projects and planning | Active |
| Tailscale | Scott's remote support | Works at your house |
| Google Drive | Moving your ChatGPT export over | Installed |
| Banking (Plaid) | Spending, bills and balances, read only | Not yet |
| MyChart, Apple Health, Dexafit | Health trends and appointments | Not yet |
| Travel and rewards | Trips, points and status | Not yet |
Rules: what ELARA will and won't do
ELARA is for your personal life only. Work stays at Carson.
✓ ELARA will
- Answer questions, plan, remind you and keep track of your life
- Read the files you send her and the accounts you connect
- Draft messages, summaries and plans for you to review
- Keep your information on your Mac Mini
✗ ELARA won't
- Handle anything about Carson or your clients — if something looks like work, she'll flag it and leave it alone
- Move money, pay bills or send anything on your behalf without your OK
- Put passwords, account numbers or card numbers on the site, even if a document contains them
Keeping it safe
- Never paste passwords, card numbers or bank logins into a chat. Sign in to accounts yourself.
- Never send API keys or tokens by text, email or chat
- If something ELARA says looks wrong, tell her. She'll check instead of guessing.
Costs and settings
Day-to-day chatting with ELARA costs little. Big building jobs cost the most, so those go to Claude Pro or Scott instead.
| Setting | Set to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Main model | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Strong everyday assistant at a lower cost than Opus |
| Utility and fallback | Claude Haiku 5.5 | Cheapest model for background chores, and keeps ELARA answering if the main model is down |
| Thinking | Low | Plenty for daily use, fewer tokens |
| Fast mode | Off | Speed costs extra and isn't needed |
| Monthly spend cap | $500, set in your Claude Console, with an email alert before you hit it | No surprise bills |
Where the money goes: ELARA bills to your Anthropic account at platform.claude.com. Check Usage there after the first few weeks to see what normal looks like.
Using Claude Pro alongside ELARA: Claude Pro is a flat monthly plan. Use it for thinking, writing and big projects. ELARA handles anything that touches your accounts and runs your day.
Best practices for asking ELARA
Talk to ELARA like a sharp personal assistant: be specific, and say what you want back.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| "What's going on?" | "What's on my calendar tomorrow, and anything I need to prep for?" |
| "How am I doing?" | "How did I sleep this week compared to last week?" |
| "Help with my trip" | "I'm in Boston Thursday to Saturday. Find dinner spots near my hotel and remind me to check in." |
| "Check my spending" | "What did I spend on dining out this month, and how does it compare to last month?" |
Other tips
- Correct her in plain words, like "no, that moved to Friday." She remembers.
- Ask for a list, a table or one line, whatever fits your screen
- When you send a file, ask "what can you do with this?"
- For anything big or new, ask her to show a plan before she starts
Done so far
ELARA was delivered on Nov 5, 2026, and works today through the Elios Life site.
| Date | What was done |
|---|---|
| Nov 9, 2026 | Monthly spend cap set at $500. ChatGPT import started |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Mac Mini moved to Scott's house until it goes to Jim's house, because the office network blocks remote support |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Delivery day: new Anthropic account under elioslife.com, model set to Sonnet 5.5 with lower cost settings, Claude Pro set up |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Voice and file uploads added to the site chat |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Mac Mini renamed ELARA with her moon icon on the login screen, plus a custom ELARA case |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Elios Life site built, with chat that shares the same conversation as Telegram, published at my.elioslife.com behind an email code login |
| Nov 5, 2026 | Remote support set up through Tailscale, shared with Scott |
| Oct 26, 2026 | ELARA and Elios Life logos designed |
| Oct 25, 2026 | elioslife.com purchased |
| Oct 22, 2026 | Mac Mini picked up from Jim's office for setup |
| Oct 16, 2026 | Jim approved the ELARA plan |
Still open / coming next
The next step is getting ELARA set up at Jim's house. Everything else follows from there.
Needs Jim
- Pick a day for Scott to bring the Mac Mini over and hook it up
- Export ChatGPT history (Settings, Data Controls, Export Data) and copy saved memories (Settings, Personalization, Manage Memories)
- Choose a monthly spend cap amount ($500)
- Confirm the fresh Telegram setup works on his phone
- Sign in to banking, MyChart, Dexafit and travel accounts when each one gets connected
- Save the ELARA app to his iPhone home screen
Setup at Jim's house (Scott)
- Plug ELARA into Jim's router with a cable
- Confirm Tailscale connects, then test remote screen sharing from a phone on cellular
- Check sleep is off and "start up after power failure" is on
- Confirm the site, Telegram and chat all work from the new location
Being built
- ChatGPT import: started. Finish before delivery, on the cheaper model, skipping anything about Carson or clients
- Better voice: hands-free talking and a more natural voice for ELARA, without adding much cost
- Proper app icon so ELARA looks right on the home screen
- Longer login on the site, so Jim enters the email code about once a month
- Banking connection through Plaid, read only, in Jim's name
- Health connections: Apple Health, MyChart, Dexafit
- Daily brief tuned to what Jim wants each morning
Housekeeping
- Delete any old or exposed API keys in the Claude Console
- Set up a Time Machine backup on an external drive
- Confirm jim@elioslife.com email and the domain settings in Cloudflare
- Remove Google Drive from the Mac Mini after the ChatGPT import, if it's not needed
To figure out: using Claude Pro with ELARA
Jim's Claude Pro account and ELARA don't talk to each other directly. The plan is to split the work: ELARA handles anything that touches his accounts and runs his day, and Claude Pro is for thinking, planning, writing and big projects.
- Brief Claude first. Set up a Project in Jim's Claude called "ELARA" with instructions that explain what ELARA is, her rules, and how to hand work off. Scott writes those instructions.
- Teach ELARA with skills. When Jim works out a routine with Claude, like how his daily brief should read, he asks Claude to write it up as a skill file. Scott or ELARA adds it to ELARA's skills, and she follows it from then on.
- Hand off through files. Jim saves finished work from Claude, like a trip plan or a budget, into a folder called "ELARA Inbox." ELARA checks it each morning and picks it up.
Claude won't send live commands to ELARA. One clear owner for actions keeps work from being done twice.
- Write the instructions for Jim's ELARA project in Claude
- Create the ELARA Inbox folder and have ELARA check it daily
- Test one skill handoff from Claude to ELARA
Getting help
Scott Sherman at KeelPoint is your direct contact, with same-day replies during reasonable hours.
If ELARA stops answering
- Check that the Mac Mini is on and plugged in
- If it's sitting at the login screen, log in. Everything restarts on its own within a couple of minutes.
- Still down? Text Scott. Once ELARA is at your house, he can usually fix it remotely.
Change log
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| Nov 9, 2026 | Spend cap set at $500. ChatGPT import started. Claude Pro plan and voice upgrade added |
| Nov 9, 2026 | Playbook created |