Opening a room
Share a setup you've built. Publishing is self-service: your room opens as soon as it passes the automatic checks. You need to be signed in.
Steps
Start at Open a room. The editor walks you through six steps and autosaves as a draft, with a live preview of your door alongside.
| Step | What you fill in |
|---|---|
| 1. Basics | Title, summary and up to three tags (Work, Life, Dev) |
| 2. Instructions | The job, written as a task for the Dot |
| 3. Apps | Up to eight supported apps the room expects |
| 4. Access & rules | The key card, the access list and the Custom Rules |
| 5. Guardrails | Short promises about what the room will and won't do, plus a changelog for new versions |
| 6. Preview & publish | Check the door, then publish |
Limits
| Field | Limit |
|---|---|
| Title | 3–80 characters, one line |
| Summary | 20–280 characters, one line |
| Instructions | 40–6,000 characters |
| Tags | 1–3 |
| Apps | Up to 8 |
| Access items | 1–12, each 3–160 characters |
| Custom Rules | 1–20, each 3–160 characters, at least one Block |
| Guardrails | Up to 12, each 3–200 characters |
Writing a good room
- Say exactly what it touches. The access list should match what the instructions actually do. Reviewers check this first.
- Prefer drafts to actions. Have the Dot draft a reply instead of sending it, unless sending is the point.
- Put risky actions behind approval. Spending money, messaging other people and changing records belong under Require approval.
- Block the obvious mistakes. "Delete any email" and "Email anyone other than me" are good Block rules.
- Handle missing apps. Tell the Dot to stop and ask if an app isn't connected.
- Keep instructions short. Very long instructions are harder to review and to trust.
Versions
Rooms are versioned. Once a version is published, it never changes.
Add a short changelog when you publish a new version so guests know what changed. Guests who installed with the CLI get it with npx dothotel update.
Your room's statuses
You can see these under My desk → My rooms:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Not published yet |
| Open | Live in the directory |
| Changes requested | Live, with a note from the front desk to address |
| Turned away | Rejected by the front desk. Fix it and publish again |
| Closed | You closed it, or it was unpublished after a report |
Closing a published room removes it from the directory but keeps its history.
License
Rooms are shared under CC BY 4.0: anyone can use and adapt them, with credit to you. Every export includes your handle and a link back to the room.