All notable changes to Dex will be documented in this file.
For users: Each entry explains what was frustrating before, what's different now, and why you'll care.
install-automation.sh failed because it referenced two files that no longer exist: granola-auth.cjs (deprecated — Granola now stores credentials in supabase.json automatically) and sync-from-granola-v2.cjs (never shipped — v1 works fine).
What changed:
- Plist template now points to
sync-from-granola.cjs(the script that actually exists) - Install script checks for
supabase.jsoninstead of calling the removedgranola-auth.cjs - No more interactive browser auth step — Granola handles credentials automatically
--authflag now checks credential status instead of launching a dead script
What you need to do: Run ./install-automation.sh again — it should complete without errors now.
In v1.17.0, we switched background meeting sync to use Granola's official MCP server — thinking the "official" route would be more reliable. Turns out, the MCP server sends meeting data back in a format designed for AI to read in conversation, not for code to process in the background. The sync script expected structured data, got free-form text, couldn't make sense of it, and quietly fell back to old cached data. Meetings were going missing with no error message.
We've switched to using Granola's direct API instead. It returns clean structured data, includes mobile recordings, and uses the same credentials Granola already stores on your machine — no separate sign-in needed.
What this means for you:
- Meeting sync is reliable again — no more silent failures
- Mobile recordings still sync (that wasn't the problem — the data source was)
- One fewer thing to authenticate: no separate Granola MCP sign-in step
- If you previously ran through the MCP OAuth setup, you don't need to do anything — the new approach uses your existing Granola sign-in automatically
What changed under the hood:
- Background sync now uses Granola's direct API (
api.granola.ai) instead of the MCP server - Removed
granola-mcp-client.cjs,granola-auth.cjs, andcheck-granola-migration.cjs— no longer needed - Local cache remains as fallback for offline scenarios
Dex skills now carry explicit model-routing metadata so cheap/fast models can be used for simple work while higher-tier models stay reserved for heavier thinking.
What this means for you:
- Many built-in skills now declare
model_hintormodel_routinginSKILL.md - Routing metadata is now standardized across the core skill catalog
- Update flow now has a skill-aware conflict resolver for routing metadata
Conflict handling improvement:
- During
/dex-update, conflicted skill files can now be auto-resolved by:- keeping your local skill instructions/custom edits
- merging upstream routing metadata (
model_hint,model_routing) - skipping
*-customskills completely
This reduces update friction for users who customize built-in skills while still letting new model-routing behavior land safely.
If you record meetings on your phone with Granola, those recordings now appear in Dex alongside your desktop meetings. No manual import, no extra steps — they just show up.
This is powered by Granola's official integration, which means it's more reliable and officially supported. Dex will prompt you to sign in to Granola in your browser (takes about 10 seconds), and after that, mobile recordings sync automatically in the background.
What this means for you:
- Meetings recorded on your phone now appear in Dex alongside desktop recordings
- One-time sign-in: Dex prompts you when it's time, and walks you through it
- Everything keeps working while you set up — your existing meetings aren't affected
Behind the scenes:
- Background sync now uses Granola's official MCP server instead of a custom integration
- Automatic fallback to local data if the cloud connection is temporarily unavailable
- Migration detection tells you when the upgrade is available — no guesswork
If you set up Dex before this update: Run /dex-update and Dex will detect the upgrade opportunity. When you next run /process-meetings, it'll offer to connect you to Granola's official API.
When you share a URL with Dex — an article, a blog post, a page you want summarized — it now uses Scrapling every time. Scrapling is free, runs on your machine, and handles sites that block other tools (including Cloudflare-protected pages).
What this means for you:
- Share a URL, get the content. No API keys, no credits, no limits.
- Sites that used to come back empty (anti-bot protection) now work out of the box.
- Your data never leaves your machine — Scrapling fetches locally, not through a cloud service.
What changed under the hood: Dex now has a safety guard that enforces Scrapling as the default. If the AI ever tries to use a different scraper, the guard catches it and redirects to Scrapling automatically. You don't need to do anything — it just works.
If you set up Dex before this update: Run /dex-update and Scrapling will be added to your tools automatically. If it asks you to install it, just run: pip install "scrapling[ai]" && scrapling install
This is a big one. Dex now connects to 8 tools where your real work happens — and it goes both ways. Complete a task in Dex and it's done in Todoist. Get an email flagged in your morning plan because someone hasn't replied in 3 days. See your Jira sprint status right next to your weekly priorities.
Some of you have already been building your own integrations using /create-mcp and /integrate-mcp — and honestly, that's impressive. But Dave kept hearing the same thing: "I just want to get up and running without figuring out the plumbing." So it's built in now.
Each one takes a few minutes to set up. Run the command, answer a couple of questions, and you're connected. Dex tells you exactly what changed — which skills got smarter, what new capabilities unlocked.
Communication:
- Slack (
/slack-setup) — Chat context in your daily plan and meeting prep. Unread DMs, mentions, active threads. No admin approval needed — just Slack open in Chrome. 2-minute setup. - Google Workspace (
/google-workspace-setup) — Gmail, Google Calendar, and Docs in one connection. Email digest in your morning plan. Follow-up detection flags emails waiting for replies: "Sarah hasn't replied to your pricing email from Monday." Meeting prep shows recent email exchanges with attendees. 3-minute setup. - Microsoft Teams (
/ms-teams-setup) — Same as Slack but for Teams users. Works alongside Slack — both digests appear, clearly labeled. If your company uses both, Dex handles both.
Task Management:
- Todoist (
/todoist-setup) — Two-way task sync. Create in Dex, appears in Todoist. Complete on your phone, done in Dex. Your pillars map to Todoist projects. 1-minute setup. - Things 3 (
/things-setup) — Two-way sync for Mac users. No account needed, works offline, pure local sync via AppleScript. Your pillars map to Things Areas, P0/P1 tasks go straight to Today. 30-second setup. - Trello (
/trello-setup) — Board sync. Cards become tasks. Move a card to "Done" and it's complete in Dex. Your Kanban board and your task list stay in sync.
Meetings & Knowledge:
- Zoom (
/zoom-setup) — Access recordings, schedule meetings. Smart enough to know if Granola already handles your meeting capture so they don't step on each other. - Jira + Confluence (
/atlassian-setup) — Sprint status in your daily plan. Project health from Jira. Confluence docs surfaced during meeting prep.
This is the headline feature. Connect Todoist, Things 3, Trello, or Jira and your tasks flow between systems automatically. One task in Todoist maps to one task in Dex — even though Dex shows it in meeting notes, person pages, and project pages. Complete anywhere, done everywhere.
The sync is safe by design — it creates, completes, and archives. It never deletes anything.
When new users set up Dex, Step 8 now asks what tools they use. Pick Gmail and Todoist? You'll be walked through connecting both, and at the end Dex shows you exactly what changed: "Your daily plan now includes an email digest. Meeting prep shows recent emails with attendees. Tasks sync both ways with Todoist." Each tool connection ends with a clear summary of what just got smarter.
Already using Dex? Just run the setup command for any tool:
/slack-setup— Slack/google-workspace-setup— Gmail + Calendar + Docs/ms-teams-setup— Microsoft Teams/todoist-setup— Todoist/things-setup— Things 3/trello-setup— Trello/zoom-setup— Zoom/atlassian-setup— Jira + Confluence
Or run /dex-level-up and Dex will suggest which integrations would make the biggest difference based on what you're already doing.
Some corporate IT policies restrict access for third-party tools. If you hit a wall during setup — a blocked consent screen, a missing permission — just ask Dex about it. There are often creative workarounds: personal API keys that don't need admin approval, local-only integrations like Things 3 that bypass corporate restrictions entirely. Dex generally finds a way if you give it a go.
Every skill that touches your day got more useful:
/daily-plannow includes email digest, Slack/Teams digest, external task status, Jira sprint progress, and Trello card updates — all in one view./meeting-preppulls in recent email exchanges, Slack/Teams messages, Zoom recordings, Confluence docs, and Jira/Trello context for every attendee./week-reviewshows email stats, Zoom meeting time, cross-system task completion, and Jira velocity alongside your existing review./project-healthsurfaces Trello board status and Jira sprint health for connected projects./dex-level-upspots unused integration capabilities — "You connected Gmail but haven't enabled email follow-up detection. Try it."
Dex checks whether your connected tools are healthy each time you start a session. If something's gone stale — an expired token, a disconnected service — you'll know right away with a friendly nudge to reconnect, instead of discovering it mid-meeting-prep.
This is the biggest single release since semantic search. Dex remembers things now. It gets smarter each day you use it. Sessions stay fast all day. And your skills take care of their own housekeeping instead of leaving it to you.
Cross-session memory. When you start a new chat, Dex now opens with context from previous sessions — what you decided, what's been escalating, what commitments are due. No more re-explaining where you left off. Your daily plan opens with "Based on previous sessions: you discussed Acme Corp 3 times last week, decided to move to negotiation, and Sarah committed to send pricing by Friday — that's today." That context was invisible before. Now it's automatic.
Critical decisions persist. When you make an important decision in a session — "decided to move Acme to negotiation by March" — it now survives across sessions. Critical decisions appear at every session start for 30 days, so you never lose track of what you committed to.
Meeting cache. Every meeting you process now gets stored as a compact summary instead of the full transcript. Meeting prep and daily planning are dramatically faster — same intelligence, fraction of the processing time.
Memory that compounds. The six agents that power your morning intelligence — deals, commitments, people, projects, focus, and pillar balance — now remember what they found in previous sessions. First run, they scan everything. Second run, they know what they already told you. Resolved items quietly drop off. New issues are clearly marked. And things you've been ignoring? Dex notices. "I've flagged this three sessions running. Still no action. This is a pattern, not a blip."
Faster people lookups. Dex now keeps a lightweight directory of everyone you know. Instead of scanning dozens of files every time you mention someone, it reads one small index. Looking up "Paul" instantly returns the right person with their role, company, and context. The index stays fresh automatically — it rebuilds during your daily plan and self-heals if it goes stale.
Memory ownership, clarified. With multiple memory layers now active, Dave has documented exactly what owns what. Claude's built-in memory handles your preferences and communication style. Dex's memory handles your work — who said what in which meeting, what you committed to, which deals need attention. They stack, not compete. See the new Memory Ownership guide in your Dex System docs.
Pattern detection. After 2+ weeks of use, Dex starts noticing your patterns. "You've prepped for deal calls 8 times this month but checked MEDDPICC gaps only twice." Recurring mistakes get surfaced before you make them. Emerging workflows get noticed so you can turn them into skills.
Identity snapshot. Dex now automatically builds a living profile of how you actually work — your goals, priorities, task patterns, learnings, and skill ratings all feed into it. Not self-reported traits — observed patterns. What pillar gets neglected under pressure. Which skills you rate highest. Where your blind spots are. It refreshes during weekly reviews and Dex reads it when making prioritization suggestions. You can also run /identity-snapshot anytime to see it on demand.
Skill quality signals. After key workflows like daily plans, meeting prep, and reviews, Dex asks one optional question: "Quick rating, 1-5?" Your ratings accumulate over time. During weekly reviews, if a skill has been trending down, Dex surfaces it with context — "Your meeting prep averaged 2.8 this week, common note: missing context from last meeting." If everything's fine, you hear nothing. Ratings also feed into anonymous product analytics so Dave knows which skills to invest in.
Sessions that last all day. Your heaviest skills — daily plan, weekly review, meeting prep, and seven others — now run in their own space instead of loading everything into your main conversation. Previously, running /daily-plan then staying in that chat all day meant things got slower and muddier by the afternoon. Now each skill does its work separately and hands back just the result. Stay in one chat from morning planning through end-of-day review without penalty.
Command safety guard. A protective layer that silently watches every terminal command and blocks catastrophic ones before they execute. Disk wipes, force pushes to main, repo deletions — all stopped instantly. Normal commands pass through with zero overhead. You never notice it until the one time it saves you.
Faster startup and routing. Background services start faster and use less memory. Quick operations like /triage and inbox processing are tuned for speed — routing decisions that used to take 8 seconds now feel instant.
- Meeting processing — whenever meetings are processed, every person mentioned gets the meeting added to their page. Their history stays current without you lifting a finger.
- Career coaching — when
/career-coachsurfaces achievements with real metrics, it automatically logs them to your Career Evidence file. Come review season, the evidence is already collected. - Daily planning — after your plan generates, a condensed quickref appears with just your top focus items, key meetings, and time blocks. Glanceable during the day.
Named Sessions (resume project conversations with full history), Background Processing (which skills support it and how), Memory Ownership (how Dex's four memory layers work together), and Vault Maintenance (scan for stale files, broken links, orphaned pages).
This is the first time Dex has received contributions from the community, and I'm genuinely humbled. Three people independently found things to improve, built the fixes, and shared them back. All four contributions are now live.
@fonto — Calendar setup now works. Previously, running /calendar-setup didn't do anything — Dex couldn't find it. On top of that, when it tried to ask your Mac for permission to read your calendar, it would fail silently. Both issues are fixed. If you had trouble connecting your calendar before, try /calendar-setup again — it should just work now.
@fonto — Tasks no longer get mixed up. Every task in Dex gets a short reference number (like the 003 at the end of a task). Previously, that number could accidentally be the same for tasks created on different days — so when you said "mark 003 as done", Dex might match the wrong one. Now every task gets a number that's unique across your entire vault. No more mix-ups.
@acottrell — "How do I connect my Google Calendar?" answered. If you use Google Calendar on a Mac, you probably wondered how to get your meetings into Dex. The answer turns out to be surprisingly simple — add your Google account to Apple's Calendar app (the one already on your Mac), then let Cursor access it. Two steps, no accounts to create, no passwords to enter anywhere. @acottrell wrote this up as a clear guide so nobody else has to figure it out from scratch. Even better — your calendar now asks for permission automatically the first time you need it, instead of requiring a separate setup step.
@mekuhl — Capture tasks from your phone with Siri. This is the big one. You're in a meeting, someone asks you to do something, and you don't want to open your laptop. Now you can just say:
"Hey Siri, add to Dex Inbox: follow up with Sarah about pricing"
That's it. Siri adds it to a Reminders list on your phone called "Dex Inbox." Next morning when you run /daily-plan, Dex finds it and asks you to triage it — assign a pillar, set the priority, and it becomes a proper task in your vault. The Reminder disappears from your phone automatically.
It works the other direction too. After your daily plan generates, your most important focus tasks appear on your phone as Reminders with notifications. Complete something on your phone? Dex picks that up during your evening review. Complete it in Dex? The phone notification clears itself.
Your phone and your vault stay in sync — without opening a laptop, without any new apps, without any setup beyond saying "Hey Siri" for the first time.
If you've made improvements to your Dex setup that could help others, Dave would love to see them. See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to share — no technical background required.
Before: When something failed — your calendar couldn't connect, a task couldn't be created, meeting processing hit an error — you'd get a vague message in the conversation and then... nothing. The error disappeared when the chat ended. If something was quietly broken for days, you wouldn't know until you needed it and wondered why it stopped working.
Now: Dex watches its own health. Every tool across all 12 background services captures failures the moment they happen — in plain language, not technical jargon. The next time you start a conversation, you'll see anything that went wrong:
--- ⚠️ Recent Errors (2) ---
[Task Manager] Feb 17 09:30 — Task creation failed (×3)
[Calendar] Feb 16 14:00 — Calendar couldn't connect
Say: 'health check' to investigate
---
If everything is fine? Complete silence. No "all systems go" noise.
Say /health-check anytime to get a full diagnostic: which services are running, what's failed recently, and — for most issues — a suggested fix. Missing something? It tells you the exact command. Config issue? It offers to repair it.
What this means for you: Instead of discovering something's been broken for a week, you find out at your next conversation. Instead of a cryptic error, you get "Calendar couldn't connect" with a clear next step. Dex is becoming the kind of system that takes care of itself — and tells you when it needs your help.
Platform note: Automatic startup checks work in Claude Code. In Cursor, the error capture still works behind the scenes — just run /health-check manually to see the same diagnostic.
Previously, you had to remember to run /dex-update to check for new versions. Now Dex checks once a day automatically and lets you know if there's something new — a quiet one-liner at the end of your first chat, once per day. No nagging, no blocking. Run /dex-update when you're ready, or ignore it.
One catch: You need to run /dex-update manually one time to get this feature. That update pulls in the automatic checking. From that point on, you'll be notified whenever something new is available — no more remembering to check.
You might be thinking: "Dex already uses AI — doesn't it search intelligently?" Good question. Here's what's actually happening under the hood.
When you ask Dex something like "what do I know about customer retention?", two things happen:
- Finding the files — Dex searches your vault for relevant notes
- Making sense of them — Claude reads those notes and gives you a smart answer
Step 2 has always been intelligent — that's Claude doing what it does best. But Step 1? Until now, that's been basic keyword matching. Dex literally searches for the word "retention" in your files. If you wrote about the same topic using different words — "churn", "users leaving", "cancellation patterns" — those notes never made it to Claude's desk. It can't reason about things it never sees.
That's what semantic search fixes. It upgrades Step 1 — the finding — so the right notes reach Claude even when the words don't match.
It's also significantly faster and lighter. Instead of Claude reading entire files to find what's relevant (thousands of tokens each), the search engine returns just the relevant snippets. One developer measured a 96% reduction in the amount of context needed per search.
When does this matter? Honestly, if your vault has fewer than 50 notes, keyword matching works fine. As your vault grows into the hundreds of files, keyword search starts missing things — and that's where this upgrade earns its keep.
This is powered by QMD, an open-source local search engine created by Tobi Lütke (founder and CEO of Shopify). Everything runs on your machine — no data leaves your computer.
"I think QMD is one of my finest tools. I use it every day because it's the foundation of all the other tools I build for myself. A local search engine that lives and executes entirely on your computer. Both for you and agents." — Tobi Lütke
This is optional. It requires downloading AI models (~2GB) that run locally on your machine. No API keys, no cloud services. Run /enable-semantic-search when you're ready — or skip it entirely.
What gets better when you enable it:
-
Planning & Reviews —
/daily-plan,/week-plan,/daily-review,/week-review, and/quarter-reviewall become meaning-aware. Your morning plan surfaces notes related to today's meetings by theme ("onboarding" pulls in "activation rates"). Your weekly review detects which tasks contributed to which goals — even when they weren't explicitly linked. Stale goals get flagged with hidden activity you didn't know about. -
Meeting Intelligence —
/meeting-prepfinds past discussions related to the meeting topic, not just meetings with the same people./process-meetingscatches implicit commitments like "we should circle back on pricing" — soft language that keyword extraction would miss. -
Search & People — All vault searches become meaning-aware. Person lookup finds references by role ("the VP of Sales asked about..."), not just by name.
-
Smarter Dedup — Task creation detects semantic duplicates ("Review Q1 metrics" matches "Check quarterly pipeline numbers"). Same for improvement ideas in your backlog.
-
Natural Task Completion — Say "I finished the pricing thing" and Dex matches it to the right task, even when your words don't match the title exactly.
-
Career Tracking — If you use the career system, skill demonstration is now detected without explicit
# Career:tags. "Designed the API migration strategy" automatically matches your "System Design" competency.
If you don't enable it, nothing changes — everything continues to work with keyword matching, just as it always has.
Part of the philosophy with Dex is to stay on top of the best open-source tools so you don't have to. When something like QMD comes along that genuinely makes the experience better, Dave integrates it — you run one command and your existing workflows get smarter.
Smart setup, not generic indexing. When you run /enable-semantic-search, Dex scans your vault and recommends purpose-built search collections based on what you've actually built — people pages, meeting notes, projects, goals. Each collection gets semantic context that tells the search engine what the content IS, dramatically improving result relevance. Generic tools dump everything into one index. Dex gives your search engine a mental model of your information architecture.
As your vault grows, Dex notices. Created your first few company pages? Next time you run /daily-plan, it'll suggest: "You've got enough accounts for a dedicated collection now — want me to create one?" Your search setup evolves with your vault.
To enable: /enable-semantic-search (one-time setup, ~5 minutes)
Before: If you opted in to help improve Dex, your anonymous usage data wasn't being captured consistently across all features. Some areas were tracked, others weren't — so the picture of which features people find most valuable was incomplete.
Now: Every Dex feature — all 30 skills and 6 background services — now reports usage when you've opted in. You'll also notice the opt-in prompt appears at the start of each session (instead of only during planning), so you won't miss it. Say "yes" or "no" once and it's settled — if you're not ready to decide, it'll gently ask again next time.
When you run /dex-update, any new features automatically appear in your usage log without losing your existing data. And as new capabilities ship in the future, they'll always include tracking from day one.
Result: If you've opted in, you're directly influencing which features get priority. The most-used capabilities get more investment — your usage data is the signal.
Before: During setup, picking your role meant scrolling through a wall of 31 numbered options and typing a number. If your Mac's Calendar app was running in the background (but not in the foreground), Dex couldn't detect your calendars — silently skipping calendar optimization. And if you onboarded in Cursor vs Claude Code, the question prompts might not work because each platform has a different tool for presenting clickable options.
Now: Role selection, company size, and other choices are presented as clickable lists — just pick from the menu. Dex detects your platform once at the start (Cursor vs Claude Code vs terminal) and uses the right question tool throughout. Calendar detection works regardless of whether Calendar.app is in the foreground or background. QA testing uses dry-run mode so nothing gets overwritten.
Result: Onboarding feels polished — fewer things to type, fewer silent failures, works correctly whether you're in Cursor or Claude Code.
Before: When new Claude Code features shipped or you had ideas for how Dex could work better, it was up to you to remember them and add them to your backlog. Keeping track of what could be improved meant extra manual work.
Now: Dex watches for opportunities to get better and weaves them into your existing routines:
/dex-whats-newspots relevant Claude Code releases and turns them into improvement ideas in your backlog/daily-planhighlights the most timely idea as an "Innovation Spotlight" when something new is relevant (e.g., "Claude just shipped native memory — here's how that could help")/daily-reviewconnects today's frustrations to ideas already in your backlog/week-reviewshows your top 3 highest-scored improvement ideas- Say "I wish Dex could..." in conversation and it's captured automatically — no duplicates
Result: Your improvement backlog fills itself. Ideas arrive from AI discoveries and your own conversations, get ranked by impact, and surface at the right moment during planning and reviews.
Before: Some meetings recorded on mobile or edited in Granola's built-in editor wouldn't appear in Dex — they'd be invisible during meeting prep and search.
Now: Dex handles all the ways Granola stores your notes, so every meeting comes through — regardless of how or where you recorded it.
Result: If Granola has your notes, Dex will find them. No meetings slip through the cracks.
Before: Dex relied entirely on the host platform (Cursor, Claude Code) to tell Claude the current date. If the platform didn't surface it prominently, Claude could lose track of what day it was — especially frustrating during daily planning or scheduling conversations.
Now: The session-start hook explicitly outputs today's date at the very top of every session context injection, so it's front-and-center regardless of platform behavior.
Result: No more "what day is it?" confusion. Dex always knows the date, every session, every platform.
What was frustrating: Every time you asked to create a task ("Remind me to prep for the Acme demo"), Dex would stop and ask: "Which pillar is this for?" This added friction to quick captures and broke your flow.
What's different now: Dex analyzes your request and infers the most likely pillar based on keywords:
- "Prep demo for Acme Corp" → Deal Support (demo + customer keywords)
- "Write blog post about AI" → Thought Leadership (content keywords)
- "Review beta feedback" → Product Feedback (feedback keywords)
Then confirms with a quick one-liner:
"Creating under Product Feedback pillar (looks like data gathering). Sound right, or should it be Deal Support / Thought Leadership?"
Why you'll care: Fast task capture with data quality. No more back-and-forth just to add a reminder. But your tasks still have proper strategic alignment.
Customization options: Want different behavior? You can customize this in your CLAUDE.md:
- Less strict: Remove the pillar requirement entirely and use a default pillar
- Triage flow: Route quick captures to
00-Inbox/Quick_Captures.md, then sort them during/triage(skill you can build yourself or request) - Your own keywords: Edit
System/pillars.yamlto add custom keywords for better inference
Technical: Updated task creation behavior in .claude/CLAUDE.md to include pillar inference logic. The work-mcp validation still requires a pillar (maintains data integrity), but Dex now handles the inference and confirmation before calling the MCP.
Before: Asking "what meetings do I have today?" meant waiting up to 30 seconds for a response. Old events from weeks ago sometimes appeared in today's results too.
Now: Calendar queries respond in under a second and only show events for the dates you asked about. No more waiting, no more ghost events.
One-time setup: After updating, run /calendar-setup to grant calendar access. This unlocks the faster queries. If you skip this step, everything still works — just slower.
Before: A few features — Obsidian integration and background automations — didn't work correctly on some setups.
Now: All paths resolve dynamically based on where your vault lives. Everything works regardless of your username or folder structure.
How to update: In Cursor, just type /dex-update — that's it!
Thank you to the community members who reported this. Your feedback makes Dex better for everyone.
What was frustrating: Dex felt like a black box. You knew it was helping, but you had no idea what was actually happening — which tools were firing, how context was loaded, or how you could customize the system. Learning AI concepts felt abstract and disconnected from your actual experience.
What's new: Run /xray anytime to understand what just happened in your conversation.
Default mode (just /xray): Shows the work from THIS conversation:
- What files were read and why
- What tools/MCPs were used
- What context was loaded at session start (and how)
- How each action connects to underlying AI concepts
Deep-dive modes:
/xray ai— First principles: context windows, tokens, statelessness, tools/xray dex— The architecture: CLAUDE.md, hooks, MCPs, skills, vault structure/xray boot— The session startup sequence in detail/xray today— ScreenPipe-powered analysis of your day/xray extend— How to customize: edit CLAUDE.md, create skills, write hooks, build MCPs
The philosophy: The best way to learn AI is by examining what just happened, not reading abstract explanations. Every /xray session connects specific actions (I read this file because...) to general concepts (...CLAUDE.md tells me where files live).
Where you'll see it:
- Run
/xrayafter any conversation to see "behind the scenes" - Educational concepts are tied to YOUR vault and YOUR actions
- End with practical customization opportunities
The goal: You're not just a user — you're empowered to extend and personalize your AI system because you understand the underlying mechanics.
What was frustrating: Your work context is scattered across Notion, Slack, and Gmail. When prepping for meetings, you manually search each tool. When looking up a person, you don't see your communication history with them.
What's new: Connect your productivity tools to Dex for richer context everywhere:
-
Notion Integration (
/integrate-notion)- Search your Notion workspace from Dex
- Meeting prep pulls relevant Notion docs
- Person pages link to shared Notion content
- Uses official Notion MCP (
@notionhq/notion-mcp-server)
-
Slack Integration (
/integrate-slack)- "What did Sarah say about the Q1 budget?" → Searches Slack
- Meeting prep includes recent Slack context with attendees
- Person pages show communication history
- Easy cookie auth (no bot setup required) or traditional bot tokens
-
Google Workspace Integration (
/integrate-google)- Gmail thread context in person pages
- Email threads with meeting attendees during prep
- Calendar event enrichment
- One-time OAuth setup (~5 min)
Where you'll see it:
/meeting-prep— Pulls context from all enabled integrations- Person pages — Integration Context section with Slack/Notion/Email history
- New users — Onboarding Step 9 offers integration setup
- Existing users —
/dex-updateannounces new integrations, detects your existing MCPs
Smart detection for existing users: If you already have Notion/Slack/Google MCPs configured, Dex detects them and offers to:
- Keep your existing setup (it works!)
- Upgrade to Dex recommended packages (better maintained, more features)
- Skip and configure later
Setup commands:
/integrate-notion— 2 min setup (just needs a token)/integrate-slack— 3 min setup (cookie auth or bot token)/integrate-google— 5 min setup (OAuth through Google Cloud)
What was frustrating: You say "I'll send that over" in Slack or get asked "Can you review this?" in email. These micro-commitments don't become tasks — they fall through the cracks until someone follows up (awkward) or they're forgotten (worse).
What's new: Dex now detects uncommitted asks and promises from your screen activity:
-
Commitment Detection — Scans apps like Slack, Email, Teams for commitment patterns
- Inbound asks: "Can you review...", "Need your input...", "@you"
- Outbound promises: "I'll send...", "Let me follow up...", "Sure, I'll..."
- Deadline extraction: "by Friday", "by EOD", "ASAP", "tomorrow"
-
Smart Matching — Connects commitments to your existing context
- Matches people mentioned to your People pages
- Matches topics to your Projects
- Matches keywords to your Goals
-
Review Integration — Surfaces during your rituals
/daily-reviewshows today's uncommitted items/week-reviewshows commitment health stats/commitment-scanfor standalone scanning anytime
Example during daily review:
🔔 Uncommitted Items Detected
1. Sarah Chen (Slack, 2:34 PM)
> "Can you review the pricing proposal by Friday?"
📎 Matches: Q1 Pricing Project
→ [Create task] [Already handled] [Ignore]
Privacy-first:
- Requires ScreenPipe running locally (all data stays on your machine)
- Sensitive apps excluded by default (1Password, banking, etc.)
- You decide what becomes a task — nothing auto-created
Beta activation required:
- Run
/beta-activate DEXSCREENPIPE2026to unlock ScreenPipe features - Then asked once during
/daily-planor/daily-reviewto enable - Must explicitly enable before any screen data is accessed
- New users can also run
/screenpipe-setupafter beta activation
New skills:
/commitment-scan— Scan for uncommitted items anytime/screenpipe-setup— Enable/disable ScreenPipe with privacy configuration
Why you'll care: Never forget a promise or miss an ask again. The things you commit to in chat apps now surface in your task system automatically.
Requirements: ScreenPipe must be installed and opted-in. See 06-Resources/Dex_System/ScreenPipe_Setup.md for setup.
What was frustrating: Dex only worked with Claude, which costs money and requires internet. Heavy users faced high API bills, and travelers couldn't use Dex on planes or trains.
What's new: Two new ways to use Dex:
-
Budget Cloud Mode — Use cheaper AI models like Kimi K2.5 or DeepSeek when online
- Save 80-97% on API costs for routine tasks
- Requires ~$5-10 upfront via OpenRouter
- Quality is great for daily tasks (summaries, planning, task management)
-
Offline Mode — Download an AI to run locally on your computer
- Works on planes, trains, anywhere without internet
- Completely free forever
- Requires 8GB+ RAM (16GB+ recommended)
-
Smart Routing — Let Dex automatically pick the best model
- Claude for complex tasks
- Budget models for simple tasks
- Local model when offline
New skills:
/ai-setup— Guided setup for budget cloud and offline mode/ai-status— Check your AI configuration and credits
Why you'll care: Reduce your AI costs by 80%+ for everyday tasks, or work completely offline during travel — your choice.
User-friendly: The setup is fully guided with plain-language explanations. Dex handles the technical parts (starting services, downloading models) automatically.
What's this about?
Dave could use your help making Dex better. This release adds optional, privacy-first analytics that lets you share which Dex features you use — not what you do with them, just that you used them.
What gets tracked (if you opt in):
- Which Dex built-in features you use (e.g., "ran /daily-plan")
- Nothing about what you DO with features
- No content, names, notes, or conversations — ever
What's NOT tracked:
- Custom skills or MCPs you create
- Any content you write or manage
- Who you meet with or what you discuss
The ask:
During onboarding (new users) or your next planning session (existing users), Dex will ask once:
"Dave could use your help improving Dex. Help improve Dex? [Yes, happy to help] / [No thanks]"
Say yes, and you help Dave understand which features work and which need improvement. Say no, and nothing changes — Dex works exactly the same.
Technical:
- Added
analytics_helper.pyincore/mcp/ - Consent tracked in
System/usage_log.md - Events only fire if
analytics.enabled: truein user-profile.yaml - 20+ skills now have analytics hooks
Beta only: This feature is currently in beta testing.
What's this about?
Until now, daily and weekly planning showed you information — your tasks, calendar, priorities. But you had to connect the dots yourself.
Now Dex actively thinks ahead and surfaces things you might have missed.
This is the biggest upgrade to Dex's intelligence since launch. Based on feedback from early users, Dave rebuilt the planning skills to be proactive rather than passive. Dex now does the mental work of connecting your calendar to your tasks, tracking your commitments, and warning you when things are slipping — so you can focus on actually doing the work.
Midweek Awareness
Before: You'd set weekly priorities on Monday, then forget about them until Friday's review. By then it's too late — Priority 3 never got touched.
Now: When you run /daily-plan midweek, Dex knows where you stand:
"It's Wednesday. You've completed 1 of 3 weekly priorities. Priority 2 is in progress (2 of 5 tasks done). Priority 3 hasn't been touched yet — you have 2 days left."
Result: Course-correct while there's still time. No more end-of-week surprises.
Meeting Intelligence
Before: You'd see "Acme call" on your calendar and have to manually check: what's the status of that project? Any outstanding tasks? What did you discuss last time?
Now: For each meeting, Dex automatically connects the dots:
"You have the Acme call Thursday. Looking at that project: the proposal is still in draft, and you owe Sarah the pricing section. Want to block time for prep?"
Result: Walk into every meeting prepared. Related tasks and project status surface automatically.
Commitment Tracking
Before: You'd say "I'll get back to you Wednesday" in a meeting, write it in your notes... and forget. It lived in a meeting note you never looked at again.
Now: Dex scans your meeting notes for things you said you'd do:
"You told Mike you'd get back to him by Wednesday. That's today."
Result: Keep your promises. Nothing slips through because it was buried in notes.
Smart Scheduling
Before: All tasks were equal. A 3-hour strategy doc and a 5-minute email sat on the same list with no guidance on when to tackle them.
Now: Dex classifies tasks by effort and matches them to your calendar:
"You have a 3-hour block Wednesday morning — perfect for 'Write Q1 strategy doc' (deep work). Thursday is stacked with meetings — good for quick tasks only."
It even warns you when you have more deep work than available focus time.
Result: Stop fighting your calendar. Know which tasks fit which days.
Intelligent Priority Suggestions
Before: /week-plan asked "What are your priorities?" and waited. You had to figure it out yourself.
Now: Dex suggests priorities based on your goals, task backlog, and calendar shape:
"Based on your goals, tasks, and calendar, I suggest:
- Complete pricing proposal — Goal 1 needs this for milestone 3
- Customer interviews — Goal 2 hasn't had activity in 3 weeks
- Follow up on Acme — You committed to Sarah by Friday"
You still decide. But now you have a thinking partner who's done the analysis.
Result: Start each week with intelligent suggestions, not a blank page.
Concrete Progress (Not Fake Percentages)
Before: "Goal X is at 55%." What does that even mean? Percentages feel precise but communicate nothing.
Now: "Goal X: 3 of 5 milestones complete. This week you finished the pricing page and scheduled the customer interviews."
Result: Weekly reviews that actually show what you accomplished and what's left.
How it works (under the hood):
Six new capabilities power the intelligence:
| What Dex can now do | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Check your week's progress | Knows which priorities are on track vs slipping |
| Understand meeting context | Connects each meeting to related projects and people |
| Find your commitments | Scans notes for promises you made and when they're due |
| Judge task effort | Knows a strategy doc needs focus time, an email doesn't |
| Read your calendar shape | Sees which days have deep work time vs meeting chaos |
| Match tasks to time | Suggests what to work on based on available blocks |
What to try:
- Run
/daily-planon a Wednesday — see midweek awareness in action - Check
/week-plan— get intelligent priority suggestions instead of a blank page - Before a big meeting, run
/meeting-prep— watch it pull together everything relevant
What's this about?
Many of you have been making Dex your own — adding personal instructions, connecting your own tools like Gmail or Notion, tweaking how things work. That's exactly what Dex is designed for.
But until now, there was a tension: when I release updates to Dex with new features and improvements, your personal changes could get overwritten. Some people avoided updating to protect their setup. Others updated and had to redo their customizations.
This release fixes that. Your personalizations and my updates now work together.
What stays protected:
Your personal instructions
If you've added notes to yourself in the CLAUDE.md file — reminders about how you like things done, specific workflows, preferences — those are now protected. Put them between the clearly marked USER_EXTENSIONS section, and they'll never be touched by updates.
Your connected tools
If you've connected Dex to other apps (like your email, calendar, or note-taking tools), those connections are now protected too. When you add a tool, Dex automatically names it in a way that keeps it safe from updates.
New command: /dex-add-mcp — When you want to connect a new tool, just run this command. It handles the technical bits and makes sure your connection is protected. No config files to edit.
What happens when there's a conflict?
Sometimes my updates will change a file that you've also changed. When that happens, Dex now guides you through it with simple choices:
- "Keep my version" — Your changes stay, skip this part of the update
- "Use the new version" — Take the update, replace your changes
- "Keep both" — Dex will keep both versions so nothing is lost
No technical knowledge needed. Dex explains what changed and why, then you decide.
Why this matters
I want you to make Dex truly yours. And I want to keep improving it with new features you'll find useful. Now both can happen. Update whenever you like, knowing your personal setup is safe.
Before: To get your Granola meetings into Dex, you had to manually run /process-meetings. Each time, you'd wait for it to process, then continue your work. Easy to forget, tedious when you remembered.
Now: A background job syncs your meetings from Granola every 30 minutes automatically. One-time setup, then it just runs.
To enable: Run .scripts/meeting-intel/install-automation.sh
Result: Your meeting notes are always current. When you run /daily-plan or look up a person, their recent meetings are already there — no manual step needed.
Before: The /prompt-improver command required extra configuration. In some setups, it just didn't work.
Now: It automatically uses whatever AI is available — no special configuration needed.
Result: Prompt improvement just works, regardless of your setup.
Before: New users sometimes hit confusing error messages during setup, with no clear guidance on what to do next.
Now:
- Clear error messages explain exactly what's wrong and how to fix it
- Requirements are checked upfront with step-by-step instructions
- Fewer manual steps to get everything working
Result: New users get up and running faster with less frustration.
Dex is your AI-powered personal knowledge system. It helps you organize your professional life — meetings, projects, people, ideas, and tasks — with an AI assistant that learns how you work.
Core features:
- Daily planning (
/daily-plan) — Start each day with clear priorities - Meeting capture — Extract action items, update person pages automatically
- Task management — Track what matters with smart prioritization
- Person pages — Remember context about everyone you work with
- Project tracking — Keep initiatives moving forward
- Weekly and quarterly reviews — Reflect and improve systematically
Requires: Cursor IDE with Claude, Python 3.10+, Node.js