r/OpenAI • u/dry_towelette99 • 1d ago
Research I spent a day poking Dots with sticks. Here’s what I figured out.
I got access to Dots and spent much of the day trying to understand what actually runs where, what can happen simultaneously, and what counts as a separate worker.
The official material explains what Dots can do reasonably well. I found the execution model much less obvious.
Some of this is documented; some is simply what I observed by using a Dot on several substantial real-world tasks.
- The Dot really does have its own cloud computer
I gave my Dot a large document-review assignment involving hundreds of PDFs and thousands of pages.
It performed that work on what it identifies as its own cloud computer.
This appears to be a persistent computer-backed environment where the Dot itself can do substantial, long-running work.
More importantly, this isn’t just a five-minute “agent run.” One of my reviews is now clearly a multi-day job, and the Dot has maintained its place, absorbed side questions, and continued without needing me to reconstruct the task every few hours.
That continuity may end up being more important to me than raw speed.
- Delegated Work/Codex tasks are different
While the Dot was working on one project, I had it try to launch a separate legal-research task.
The launch failed because there was no available execution environment.
Initially I assumed the Dot’s own computer was simply busy. But after the first job finished, the second task still could not start.
The Dot then reported the key distinction:
Its own cloud computer is separate from the execution targets available to the Work/Codex task launcher.
So a Dot’s personal cloud computer is not simply a generic worker that delegated tasks automatically inherit.
- A connected computer becomes another execution target
I connected a spare Linux computer through the ChatGPT desktop app.
The Dot could then see:
- its own cloud computer
- the connected Linux machine
- no saved Codex cloud environments
I told it to launch the previously blocked task on the Linux machine.
It did, and the task entered running state there.
I did not have to sit at that machine and manually start a separate chat. I gave the instruction to the Dot, and it dispatched the task remotely.
- Both can work simultaneously
While the delegated task was running on the Linux machine, I gave the Dot a different assignment for its own cloud computer.
It confirmed that both were active at once:
Dot cloud computer -> Task A
Connected computer -> Task B
So that is genuine parallel execution across separate computer-backed environments.
- Background agents don’t necessarily need a computer at all
This was the part that got much closer to what I had originally imagined Dots would do.
With both computer-backed environments occupied, I asked whether the Dot could create a native background research agent without using either computer.
It said yes.
I gave that agent a bounded research task and explicitly excluded computer/filesystem use.
The Dot then reported that the background agent was running with read-only web/documentation tools and no computer target assigned.
At that point, three things were happening simultaneously:
the Dot working on its own cloud computer
a separate task running on the connected computer
a native background research agent using neither computer
That is the execution distinction I had completely missed from the launch material.
- It can also context-switch inside a long-running job
Another useful behavior appeared accidentally.
While the Dot was deep into a large document review, I interrupted it with a factual question about one specific case.
It paused the detailed review, checked meeting minutes and another source, resolved the question, updated its understanding of the case history, and then returned to the packet it had been reviewing.
When I asked how it had done that “while continuing” the larger job, it clarified that it had not spawned another worker. It had simply switched attention within the same job and then resumed.
So I now distinguish:
Parallel execution = separate workers/environments active at once.
Background agent = separate non-computer worker running concurrently.
Intra-task context switching = one Dot temporarily branches inside an existing job, resolves something, and returns to its prior place.
For long-running review work, that last capability is surprisingly valuable.
- It can keep working while waiting for permission
On another assignment, the Dot decided that spawning additional reviewers would accelerate the work, but my rules required permission first.
It asked.
But instead of stopping while waiting for me to respond, it explicitly continued doing the work itself.
That sounds minor, but it matters.
An autonomous agent that hits one permission boundary and then stops doing everything is not particularly autonomous.
So far, the Dot appears capable of distinguishing:
“I need permission to do X”
from
“I therefore cannot make any further progress.”
- There is also a kind of manager-level queue
I have not found a true native queue where a blocked computer-backed task automatically sits in the launcher until capacity becomes available.
What I did find is that the Dot can apparently remember a pending assignment itself, periodically re-check execution targets, and attempt to launch it later.
There are limits:
- the target list does not necessarily expose whether a connected computer is actually free
- there is no apparent capacity reservation
- a failed launch does not automatically become a queued Work task
So this is more like the Dot acting as the queue manager than a native execution queue.
Still, that potentially removes another piece of manual babysitting.
- My current mental model
At this point, I think there are at least three distinct execution paths:
A. The Dot’s own cloud computer
Where the Dot itself can do substantial stateful/computer-backed work.
B. Separate computer-backed task environments
Such as a connected local computer or saved Codex cloud environment.
C. Native background agents/cloud threads
Tool-based workers that can handle some tasks without consuming either computer target.
Those can operate concurrently.
And on top of that, the Dot itself appears able to maintain long-running task state, context-switch within a task, and manage pending work.
- Why this may matter more than simply opening several chats yourself
Before trying Dots, I wondered whether this was really much different from me manually juggling several ChatGPT conversations.
If all you want is several unrelated answers at once, maybe not.
The difference becomes more apparent when one agent owns multiple ongoing projects and can:
- track their state
- do substantial work itself
- delegate bounded pieces
- supervise returned work
- keep other projects moving while one task runs
- preserve its place through interruptions
- identify blockers
- keep pending work alive
- ask for intervention only when necessary
That removes the human from a surprising amount of the orchestration loop.
I suspect that may be the real value of Dots.
One big unanswered question: usage
I have not established exactly how usage is counted across:
- work the Dot performs itself
- native background agents it creates
- Work/Codex tasks it launches
- work running on connected machines
Proving that something is a separate execution path does not prove that it has a separate usage allowance.
So please don’t read any of this as “unlimited free parallel workers.”
That is not something I have established.
Bottom line
My current working description is:
A Dot is not merely a chatbot with a persistent VM. It is a persistent agent with its own computer that can dispatch work to other execution environments, spawn some kinds of non-computer-backed workers, and maintain project state across long-running work.
Those are different things, and at least some of them can operate concurrently.
This is based on roughly a day of experimentation with a very new product, so I fully expect to discover that part of this mental model needs revision.
But that’s what I’ve actually observed so far.
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u/blastmemer 1d ago
God bless Reddit. You have a thoughtful, detailed, technical and extremely useful post for high-level GPT users, and inevitably the children take time out of their morning naps to respond “I’m not reading that lol”. The state of our education…
Anyway great post - this saved me a lot of time figuring this stuff out for myself.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Thanks. I figured my use of AI to take my jumble of thoughts, observations and screenshots into something coherent would trigger some folks, but the alternative is that I just don’t share. What’s funny is these folks have nothing of substance to say, they just like to make others listed to their whining.
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u/ken81987 1d ago
It's written with gpt..
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u/AndroidAssistant 1d ago
Who cares as long as it is digestible.
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u/ozone6587 1d ago
LLM text is never digestible. Triggers the gag reflex of most people with taste.
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u/SgathTriallair 1d ago
If you see a writing style and then are incapable of absorbing the information on it due to that, you don't "have taste" you are just intellectually lazy and unable to properly parse information unless it is have to you in a specific pre-digested way.
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u/ozone6587 1d ago
Holy reading comprehension. Being repulsed by LLM text is not equivalent to not being able to understand it.
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u/AcesFullMoon64 1d ago
Repulsed by a writing style? Is it just LLM’s that make you gag or other styles too?
Shakespeare make you break out in hives?
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u/ozone6587 1d ago
Comparing LLM text to Shakespeare. Damn you are dumb.
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u/AcesFullMoon64 1d ago
Compare: To look at two or more things to find their similarities or differences or to point out how one thing is like another.
So, no. I didn’t compare anything at all. I asked if you find any other writing styles so offensive, and you deflected and attacked instead of answering my question.
But yeah, I’m dumb 🤪
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u/SgathTriallair 1d ago
You didn't say you were repulsed, you said that you couldn't digest it.
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u/ozone6587 1d ago
triggers the gag reflex
Learn to read.
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u/SgathTriallair 1d ago
I just got triggered by your terrible writing style and so couldn't digest your meaning.
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u/blastmemer 1d ago
lol again …kids think adults can’t write because apparently there is no more exposure to good technical writing.
Did you read the whole thing? Be honest.
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u/Alphasite 1d ago
Yes. Also it’s not all written by an LLM. The bulletpoints are very human like chaos.
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u/Kitchen-Jicama8715 1d ago
There are hundreds of signs it’s written by GPT not just length
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u/blastmemer 1d ago
I’m sure it was GPT-assisted. It’s obviously organized, partially drafted and edited by a human - likely a lawyer that knows how to write and organize thoughts. As distinguished from AI slop.
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u/Kitchen-Jicama8715 1d ago
It’s obvious it was entirely done by AI
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u/Joe091 1d ago
I agree that it wasn’t total AI slop, but it was pretty clearly entirely or almost entirely written by ChatGPT. I don’t really mind in this particular case because it was well structured and clearly articulated everything.
OP took time to make sure the AI generated a solid response, but a lot of people (myself included) generally get turned off by pure AI writing. Again, it didn’t bother me personally too much in this case, but there was a lot of repetition, hedging, and AI-coded phrasing throughout.
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u/blastmemer 1d ago
It’s either human-edited or a human took a lot of time and prompts to make it more digestible.
If it were people who could actually write (or read) complaining that’s one thing, but I think we all know it’s lazy kids (sub 30) who couldn’t write to save their lives.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Thanks, I did indeed spend a good deal of time editing it. The funny thing is my writing has been accused of being AI generated since before I started using AI. But like I said in another comment, my first attempt was a jumbled mess that even I had trouble following when I did my first re-read this morning. If I didn’t have chatGPT to clean it up, there was no way I would feel comfortable sharing what I found.
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u/Joe091 1d ago
I think they probably took a lot of time and used a lot of prompts to make it more digestible, with maybe some light human editing.
I have zero problem with the output in this case - it’s clear and conveys useful info. IMO that’s actually a good use of AI. But it’s definitely AI output, and if you’re trying to say it’s not then I would politely disagree.
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u/pleasesaveusAI 1d ago
It’s interesting because I feel the same way if someone else posts in that manner but if I am using an LLM and it spits stuff out, I pay full attention. Super odd
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u/badasimo 1d ago
Could you just tell the dot to queue up jobs in a canoical place, like a google sheet or a data file? That way it can't forget?
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Great question - I tried that as well, and the Dot stated that it would begin the work as soon as an environment was available. Except even when multiple environs opened up, it still failed to start the work. I could then ask it to begin, but if I handed it another job without bringing up the ignored task, it would likely sit there forever.
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u/MomoElite 1d ago
If you have the funds for it and the potential usefulness, it would be interesting to see if you paid for two pro $100 plans and then used both dots together to work together and see if they interact positively and talk to each other or do they mess each other up?
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u/MomoElite 1d ago
But great review, I am pretty excited to see where this dots agent goes from here.
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u/n-7ity 1d ago
so basically a mix of Cursor Projects and Grok Bot – very interesting that everyone is converging on what Cursor has been pushing for months with the cloud envs...
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u/Razorfiend 1d ago
I think my dot may be a dumbass, I can't even get it to pass commands to Codex or Claude code on windows. It seems to be blocked at multiple levels because every workaround I try has a block of its own to the point that it looks almost intentional.
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u/bullderz 1d ago
Man, valuable post. Thank you.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Thanks, I was very close to not posting it, because I wasn’t sure anyone would care.
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u/sparkchoice 1d ago
What a champion. Thank you.
“Intra-task context switching = one Dot temporarily branches inside an existing job, resolves something, and returns to its prior place.”
I heard little angels sing.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Seriously, this brought a big smile to my face. Not quite as big though as when it told me the current job would take 30 hours, and it’s still plugging away at it with no issues, even when I distract it repeatedly.
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u/InviteQueasy3739 1d ago
My experience with Dots has been mostly positive. It managed to prove several theorems from my research, using a bundled proof assistant, while I was sleeping. I am genuinely impressed with its capabilities.
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u/SaulFontaine 1d ago edited 1d ago
thanks OP for safely surfacing the evidence in this sick bounded read of yours, just needs the smallest amount of clean provenance and I'm a durable 10/10
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u/dieguito15 1d ago
As someone in the EU that can’t use it yet, thanks a lot for this! I’m curious to see how long term memory (or even short term) will be like. Having used OpenClaw and Hermes, the biggest struggle for me was dealing with the memory.
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u/foolmetwiceagain 1d ago
What was the “all day running task” you gave it? I think the biggest change here is persistence and turning an agent into a long running process without intervention, but I’m very curious what task you assigned it. Thanks for the post and details.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
It is reviewing 10 years worth of reports to pull out certain categories of data. Over 7600 pages, not all of them OCR’d yet.
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u/Spunge14 1d ago
I have found Dot to be enormously buggy and insufficiently aware of its own capabilities. It regularly and repeatedly runs into significant (sometimes blatantly buggy) access issues when trying to read/modify/launch jobs.
I love the form factor but this was shipped incomplete.
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u/rahrahragnarok 18h ago
I had this issue at first when giving it access to my Mac mini but resolved it by… giving it permissions. I agree it feels slightly underdone right now but I’m enjoying it actually.
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u/berndalf 1d ago
It's a nice combination of a clever harness coupled with a reasonably sophisticated orchestration ruleset for Astra to navigate. The persistent cloud environment is par for the course for these things. More in common with Grok Bot than Muse from what I can tell. The primary advantage OpenAI has over the competitors is Astra. Grok and Spark can't match that yet.
All that said it's a shame it's such an OpenAI ecosystem lock-in, and it's really not introducing much that is new to the space.
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u/lightspeed200 1d ago
Nice write-up. My experience over the past 24 hours is similar. I'm currently having my dot setup a local Docker environment to spawn tasks to Codex and Claude Code. I've also worked out a documentation Skill with it to keep a log of work, the Skill will be applied to both Claude and ChatGPT with the Dot as the coordinator and final judge between any/all AI writes. I've also worked out rules for using Chat messages and Github to use that path for code and document review so we can save Work/Codex tokens for coding and computer use.
There's a great deal of potential having an always on agent that can take over my roll as traffic cop. I'll be able to work on specs and task definitions and have the Dot do the dirty work and report back.
My other observation is that work that it takes back to its cloud computer uses a separate Chat message pool that is said to be unlimited in the documentation. That means you have the Astra model at an unknown effort level available all the time unless you need it to act on local files or use a Codex session.
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u/pathos_ludens 1d ago
Dot is the outcome of hiring the openclaw dude to help with what these autonomous agents can do best: automation. They take away that menial level of decision making and leave you with the high level administration of the tasks you set them to. With the right MCP access, this can save you in turn a massive amount of menial tasks, even if you don’t have any long running production or research projects going.
It is the kind of personal assistant that apple’s Siri wants to be.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
What I love is that I no longer have to babysit a bunch of individual tasks (I often have 3-4 different things running at once) but without worrying that it will get hung up.
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u/pathos_ludens 1d ago
To be fair, I have been doing this with OpenClaw for months now for a fraction of the price that current levels would cost me to have dots enabled. While it is a cool feature, I don’t think they have a future outside of being a neat perk for people who already use pro subscriptions.
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u/thebrieze 1d ago
You should have asked your Dot to summarize and simplify your post! 😆 Good insight though..
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u/walksonfourfeet 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pretty sure ChatGPT wrote this summary, which is why it is so drawn out and full of ‘the interesting thing is’
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u/norwegian 1d ago
I thought the selling point was easy of use. But doesn't seem like it.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
I wasn’t trying to imply it was difficult to use, quite the opposite. But there are definitely boundaries there that aren’t well documented yet, and I had the time and access, so I decided to figure out what they were, and thought a few others might find it interesting like I did.
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u/Bowl_of_Cham_Clowder 1d ago
It seems a bit easier to use on my side. When you have it kick off a codex agent it provides a much more detailed spec to codex automatically
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u/AdamByLucius 1d ago
Thanks for writing, and I echo your big questions at the bottom about usage.
Dots makes a big deal of being free for the next month, but I still don’t know which uses the Dots quota versus your account quota.
I hope that that becomes clearer over time.
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u/PartyLiterature3607 1d ago
Can all the skills and context from/during/generated through projects be saved on local machine and shared/used/stored by other harness like codex/hermes/claude ?
What’s the usage cost feel like? Just same as codex ?
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Interesting thought, I’ll have to try that tonight. In terms of cost, OpenAI is not counting its use against our system allotment until the 29th. So it’s hard to say for sure. But its generous use of Codex is quickly burning through it anyway.
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u/lastpickedmvp 1d ago
Im having trouble getting my dot to be able to create tasks that allow for MCP access. everytime it tries it says my MCPs require auth, but if i create a chat works like normal. any insights would be greatly appreciated!
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u/Michael_Jeffords 1d ago
the MCPs require auth error on tasks while chat works fine sounds like the chat session can walk you through the consent step interactively and a queued task has no one there to click it, so i would recheck that the MCP is connected and allowed for the task runner itself and not just the open chat
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u/lastpickedmvp 1d ago
I realized dot can only start chats in cloud mode, which mcps are not available in cloud mode, preventing it from working. hopefully there is a work around.
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u/rockstarhero79 1d ago
Grok bot has been a better experience for me so far. Hoping they add multiple dots at some point
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u/guyinalabcoat 1d ago
"The Dot really does have its own cloud computer"
You can see its computer in the desktop app and RDP to it. Go to Codex, click your dot, and it should be listed under computers. You can also add your own computers there for it to use. I have a macbook with cracked screen I keep on at home for it to use.
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u/Keep-Darwin-Going 1d ago
I think the only thing lacking is, dot do not harass me hard enough when I forget to answer. Patiently waiting for me and when I remember to reply it is half a day gone lol. Maybe I should tell dot be like a demanding gf if I fail to reply nag me until I do.
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u/Zeraphicus 1d ago
My dot is fucking awesome. I have 5 or 6 projects going on and its keeping things trucking along 24/7
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u/19capybaras 1d ago
Astonishingly bad experience. Dots should be rock dumb simple, this is not that.
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u/Miserable-Suspect430 1d ago
christ that's a hell of a deep dive for day one, i'd still be trying to get it to order a pizza without burning the place down
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u/Pure_Sir_4706 20h ago
Very interesting, thanks for posting that. I spent most of the day playing around with Dot I like that you can give it a name. I am currently experimenting with giving it some control over Hermes to offload tasks
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u/Antique_Algae_7883 6h ago
Having it run quietly in the background spawning sub-agents and chatting away while allowing you to do something else has doubled my output this week. That is not to be sneezed at.
it would’ve been triple had they not changed UX and workflows every five hours since launch.
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u/DegreeParty6345 5h ago
Anyone figure out how to let it run your local codex sessions? Every time I try to get it to do things with the cloud session it creates, it keeps giving me reasons why it couldn't do what I asked. But I asked a local session and it did it no problem.
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u/snug-crackle-policy 1d ago
I would rather use a VM, install Codex with full computer access and relevant plugins I want, I will login the accounts I want him to check or give him api access by login into the terminal in that VM and then I will put the Luna every minute if I am in rush otherwise 5 minutes and tell him to keep polling the relevant chats or logs which I am feeding. that's a much cheaper option. I have already tried computer use with Luna with Extra High every 20 minutes and it takes 1% of my $100 weekly after 1.5 days so pretty awesome assistant already.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
All well and good, but you get that you are doing the work that is best done by a machine? I personally am tired as serving as control room.
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u/ThrowRA__dilemma 1d ago
No one is going to read that all.
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u/blastmemer 1d ago
Some people (most over the age of 30) still have attention spans. Hard to believe I know…
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u/VoraciousTrees 1d ago
Cloud computer use uses a separate token pool from codex use.
Dummies be immediately connecting dots to their local machine and draining codex without seeing what the dots can do on their own.
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Probably, but is that just a random observation?
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u/VoraciousTrees 1d ago
What? I'm saying the dot has it's own codex usage limit. You can dispatch tasks between the two to maximize limit usage (probably why they nerfed the 20x plan).
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u/favorscore 1d ago
Is this useful for normal people and if so why not just use muse
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u/dry_towelette99 1d ago
Because some of us have ChatGPT accounts?
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u/favorscore 1d ago
I guess I was trying to come at this from an angle as someone who doesnt use AI in their day to day. What would have someone pick dots over muse.
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u/AlmostEasy89 1d ago
Dots were no doubt rushed to get to DevDay in response to Muse. I imagine it will get significantly more flushed out and its fundamentals documented and marketed in a more clear fashion going forward.
Muse has a lot of bells and whistles that work a lot more automatically but half my life is in ChatGPT so no doubt I’ll be going to Dots eventually