Dex / Guide
Make Dex your own.
A plain-English guide to installing Dex, understanding how it works, and getting a useful first week underway.
On this guide
Start here
Getting set up
Installing DexOne pasted line takes you from zero to your first Dex conversation in about ten minutes — no programming experience needed.Your first conversationWhat Dex asks when you first meet, why each question matters, and what gets built when you finish.Your first week with DexA realistic day-by-day path from "just installed" to "this is part of how I work."Connecting your toolsCalendar, Granola, Google Workspace, Todoist, Things, Trello and more — what each connection gives you and what it takes to set up.Connecting apps with /connectName any of 775 apps and Dex works out how that one wants to be connected — what each path actually costs you in time, and an honest account of where your sign-ins live.
Using Dex every day
The daily and weekly rhythmDaily plans, evening reviews, weekly priorities, quarterly goals — the planning loop that holds everything together.Meetings — prep, capture, follow-throughWalk into every meeting prepared and walk out with nothing dropped — with or without a recorder.Tasks that don't fall through cracksHow Dex creates, tracks, syncs, and completes tasks — and why it pushes back when you overcommit.People, companies, and projectsOne page per person, aggregated company context, and projects that flag themselves when they stall.Search and memoryHow Dex remembers across sessions, and how to switch on search that finds things by meaning, not just keywords.
Make it yours
Make Dex your ownTune Dex's voice, teach it your priorities, add your own commands, connect any tool — four levels of personalization, none requiring code.Prompts to stealA field guide of copy-paste prompts that use Dex differently — flip the script, mine your own data, and make the AI earn its keep.Give Dex new powersDex can absorb other open-source tools — new eyes, ears, and hands. The repositories Dave actually runs, in the order worth meeting them, and two prompts that keep you current as the list grows.Using Dex LensGive the AI system you built an honest, read-only second opinion and see which ideas from Dex are genuinely worth borrowing.
Going deeper
Understanding Claude Code (the engine)A plain-English education in the AI assistant underneath Dex — and why using Dex quietly makes you fluent in working with AI agents anywhere.Automations that actually runHow to schedule work on Mac and Windows, verify that it really ran, and understand the quiet session-start health summary for the jobs that matter.Look inside the machineOne word — /xray — turns any answer Dex gave you into a lesson on how it works, using your own conversation as the material.Report a bug without doing homeworkHow /feedback investigates a problem, writes the report for you, keeps your private notes out of it, and tells you when the fix ships — plus exactly what a report and an answer can contain.Proactive Health: when something quietly stops workingHow Dex notices when meetings, search, planning, or contacts need attention — before the problem costs you time.Updating, health, and troubleshootingHow updates work without touching your data, the doctor that keeps everything honest, and answers to the questions everyone asks.