--- title: "Gems: installing and using them" description: Install a Gem from the store, set it up on its page, see what it did, and uninstall it. section: guide order: 50 updated: 2026-11-09 translation_of: zh source_sha: 6fb33fa07438 --- # Gems: installing and using them A Gem is a small app that installs into Notochord. It brings its own tools and automated workflows (SOPs), and some also bring an AI assistant. Once it is installed, you can ask the AI to use it in a chat, and its workflows run on their own rules (for example, once for every new email). ## Where your installed gems are Open "Home". Your projects are at the top, and below them the "Gems" row shows every gem you have installed; the first icon is the "Store". Click a gem to open its page. ## Installing On Home, click "Store", find the gem you want, and click **Install**. That's it, with no confirmation prompt: who made it and what it can do are already stated in its store listing. Once it is installed, open the gem's page and do the setup there (see the next section). Before installing, Notochord checks the package: packages from the store must carry the official signature, their contents must be unmodified, and the permissions they declare must be validly written. If any check fails, the gem is not installed. **A freshly installed gem can't touch anything yet.** The mailboxes it wants to read, the knowledge it wants to use, and the external accounts it wants to use only become available after you turn them on on its page; until then its requests are refused. ## A gem's page The page you see when you open a gem contains, from top to bottom: - **Setup still needed**: appears only when something still needs your attention, for example an account it needs isn't connected yet, you haven't chosen which mailboxes it may read or which knowledge it may use, or the model you picked for it may not be able to do what it needs. - **Settings**: all the settings after installation are here. You can come back and change them at any time, and changes take effect immediately. - **AI model**: which model its AI assistant uses. The dropdown lists your roles first (pick a role and it follows whatever model you configured for that role under "Settings › AI Settings › Roles"), then every model you have added. If nothing is selected, the `chat` role is used. This item is hidden until you have added a model. - **Accounts**: the external accounts it needs to use (for example an API key for some service). Pick an existing account or create a new one, then click **Save**. Until it is connected, features that use this account fail. - **Mailboxes it can read**: which mailboxes it can read. When the gem is installed there are none; only the ones you check can be read. You can also check "All accounts, including ones added later". Its email triggers only work for the mailboxes you allow. - **Knowledge**: which parts of the knowledge base it can use. Every item is off by default and only the ones you turn on can be used. Where you need to pick folders, check them here; checking a folder includes all its subfolders. If you later move other folders or documents into that folder, it can read them too; once they are moved out, it can't. Below that are the facts about you that it uses, with your current values (for example the city you live in, the food you like). You can edit or fill them in directly; the items the gem adds itself come with a description written by its author. What you write here, the gem can't change. - **Run log**: a record of each run of its automated workflows, newest at the top. Click one to see what each step of that run did and what the result was. Only gems that come with automated workflows have this section. The runs of all gems can also be viewed together under "Run log" on Home, where you can also retry failed runs and cancel runs in progress. - **What it can do**: what the gem can do: which websites it will visit, whether it will read email and the knowledge base, which automated workflows it contains, and when they run. **Contents** below it lists the tools, AI assistants, and skills it includes. - **Problems**: how many times this gem's own code has failed (only where it failed and how many times, not the content). You can copy it and send it to the gem's developer. ## Uninstalling Click **Delete** at the top right of the gem's page. Its tools, workflows, scheduled tasks, and the data it stored itself are deleted and can't be recovered. What it wrote into your knowledge base is kept by default; you can also choose to delete it too. ## Making sure the model can do what a gem needs Some gems require the model to be able to look at images, listen to audio, and so on. When you pick a model for a gem and the model might not be able to do that, a line of notice appears under the dropdown. For details, see [Configuring models](/en/guide/models.md#choosing-a-model-for-a-gem).

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