Help

What is Ruminate?

Ruminate is a way to meet real people through the AI assistant you already talk to. You tell your assistant who you are hoping to meet; it writes a short Profile with you, searches for people whose Profiles fit, and helps you get in touch.

Your assistant does the talking and writing. Ruminate keeps what you publish, decides who may see it, and runs the search.

How do I connect Claude?

In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors, and choose Add custom connector. Setup on the website shows the address to paste. Claude then asks you to sign in to Ruminate and approve what it may do.

Add it from Claude on the web (claude.ai) or the desktop app; once it is added, it works in the Claude phone app too. If setup keeps waiting after you press Allow, check that the connector is switched on in your conversation, then press I’ve connected, check again. Still stuck? Email hello@ruminate.so.

Once it is connected, start a new conversation and say something like “Get me started on Ruminate.” You can see and disconnect it from the Agents window on the website at any time.

What is a Profile?

A Profile is what you choose to publish about yourself: a few sentences and a photo if you like, shown with your name. Your assistant drafts it from your Wiki, in the third person by your name (“Maya runs a book club”); you can rewrite it in any voice. People are found by what their Profile says. Your Wiki is private and never published as it is; a Profile is the public part, written from it.

You can have several Profiles, each for a different part of your life, and every one is under your name: your first name to friends, dates and people who share an interest, your whole name to colleagues, recruiters and academics. A Profile can also be run by a few people together (a couple, a club, a band, a team), or be for one occasion and come down by itself.

Who can see my Profile?

Each Profile is published in one space, and it is seen only by people who have a live Profile in a space that pairs with it. A professional Profile never reaches someone looking for a date.

Personal: seen by people with a Personal Profile: people looking for friends and company, not dates.

Dating: seen by people with a Dating Profile: people looking for dates.

Professional: seen by people with a Professional, Recruiting or Academic Profile.

Recruiting: seen by people with a Professional Profile.

Academic: seen by people with an Academic or Professional Profile.

Interests: seen by people with an Interests Profile: people who share an interest.

Within a space you can narrow it further, for example to people nearby. Nothing you have not published is ever shown to anyone.

Where does my Profile say I am, and how precise is it?

Your Profile says where you would like to be found: a neighbourhood or a town, not an address. It does not have to be where you live. Near work, or where you will be next month, is fine.

Ruminate keeps the place's name as you wrote it, and a point on the map rounded to about a kilometre, so that someone searching for people nearby can find you. It is never precise enough to find a home.

If you would rather meet online, leave distance out: your Profile can still say a town or just a country.

How do I add or change photos?

Your pictures are in the Gallery of your Wiki on the website. Upload one there, or with Upload a picture in the card your assistant shows you when it proposes a Profile or an Artefact.

A picture dropped into your chat does not reach Ruminate: your assistant cannot upload for you. Once a picture is in your Gallery, your assistant can see it and suggest which one to use.

The first picture on a Profile is its face.

Can I be on Ruminate without my name?

No. Every Profile shows your name, so the people who find you know who they are talking to: your first name on a Personal, Dating or Interests Profile, your whole name on a Professional, Recruiting or Academic one. What you write on it is still yours to choose.

What is my Wiki?

Your Wiki is what your assistant has learned about you, filed in sections, private to you and the assistants you connect. Nothing in it is published unless you put it on a Profile: a Profile is public and drafted from your Wiki, each one saying only what that part of your life should; the Wiki itself stays yours.

The Vault is the part of your Wiki that is never used for a Profile, for things you want your assistant to know and nobody else.

You can correct or remove anything by telling your assistant, or on the website.

What is an Artefact?

An Artefact is something you leave: a post, an event with a time, an article, or a search left standing. Each belongs to one of your Profiles, and whoever can see that Profile can see it. They sit on the right of that Profile's page (Profile on the bar opens the one you have chosen); the Open in link there talks one over with your assistant, and Edit keeps one as a draft that only you see, or publishes it again.

A search left standing is checked against everyone who publishes after you; whoever turns up shows on Explore. Nobody is watching on your behalf in the meantime.

What is Explore?

Explore shows other people’s Profiles and Artefacts that your own have brought up. It fills by itself as you and others publish, looks back over everything you have published whenever you open it, and nobody is told you saw them. Connection settings, in Settings, decide where and when each space may bring people up, and whom to leave out.

How do connections work?

When you would like to meet someone Explore or your assistant found, press + on their Profile to connect, with a short note if you like. They see your Profile and your note at the top of their Connections, and accept, decline or snooze it; declining is private. Until they answer it waits under Pending on your Connections, where you can take it back. Once they accept you are connected: Ruminate emails you at once, they show as new under Connections until you open them, and you can write to each other in Messages. No contact details are swapped, and your account and Wiki are never shared. A connection is between the two of you: it stays if the Profile you met through is deleted, and either of you can remove it, which closes your messages too.

What is the circle at the top right?

It is the Profile you are looking through. Explore shows who that Profile brings up, Profile its page with what you left on it, Connections the people waiting or connected through it, Messages your conversations with them, and Calendar its events and the ones you answered as it. Press the circle to choose another of your live Profiles (a dot means one has news), to Manage your Profiles, or to open Settings.

What is Messages?

Messages is your conversations with the people you are connected with, one each, newest first. Search finds one by name, and New message starts writing to someone. Who would like to connect with you, and everyone you are connected with, are on Connections. Your assistant can read your messages and draft one for you, but only you send it. Ruminate emails you at once the first time someone writes to you, and at most once a day after that; Settings, under Emails, lets you choose at once, once a day or never for each kind of news, or turn them all off.

Delete a message of yours and it goes for both of you, leaving a line that says so in its place. Clearing a conversation clears your side only: the other person keeps their copy, and you stay connected. Removing the connection closes the conversation for both of you.

How do I invite someone?

In Settings, under Invite someone, give their email address. Ruminate emails them, and when they sign up with that address they are in: they write their Wiki with their assistant like everyone else, and skip the wait. Five of your invitations can be waiting at a time.

What if someone is wrong for Ruminate?

Ask your assistant to report or block them, or use Report or block on their Profile. A report goes to whoever reviews Profiles here, in your words. A block hides the two of you from each other and tells nobody; you can undo it in Settings.

How do I delete something, or delete my account?

Ask your assistant, or use the website: a Profile or an Artefact can be deleted from its page, and it stops being shown at once. It waits in Deleted for 30 days, a Profile in Profiles and an Artefact at the end of its Profile's page: restore it there, or delete it for good. After 30 days it goes by itself, and so does a Profile that has expired. The people you met through a Profile stay in your Messages; its Artefacts go with it.

In Settings you can download everything Ruminate holds about you, and delete your account, which erases your Wiki, Profiles, Artefacts and pictures.

How do I report a problem?

Email hello@ruminate.so — Report a problem in Settings starts the email for you. Say what happened in your own words, and if you were given a reference when something failed, include it: it lets us find exactly what happened.