backbend

Getting started

Sign up, get an agent running, and learn the handful of terms every other section uses.

Welcome to Backbend

Backbend is a hosted platform for building AI agents you actually use. You create an agent in one click, give it access to the apps you already use, and either chat with it from the web or wire it up to run on a schedule.

Unlike a chat app, agents on Backbend have persistent memory, scheduled tasks, browser access, and a programmable tool surface. Unlike a developer framework, you don’t spin up servers, manage containers, or write deployment code. The agent runs on our infrastructure from the moment you create it.

How this doc is organized

  • Getting started covers signup, the quickstart, and the handful of concepts you need to read everything else.
  • Using Backbend walks through the dashboard and the day-to-day actions: creating agents, chatting, scheduling work, editing memory.
  • Integrations covers LLM keys, OAuth connections, MCP servers, and persistent browser sessions.
  • Capabilities documents what an agent can actually do: tools, skills, browser use, sub-agents, document generation, voice and image.
  • Triggers and control covers every way to wake an agent up: web chat, iMessage, SMS, Telegram, email, phone calls, webhooks, and the HTTP API.
  • Account and billing covers identity, security, pricing, and data deletion.
  • Help has troubleshooting, FAQ, and how to reach a human.
New to Backbend? Skip ahead to Quickstart. It’s the only five-minute read in this doc.

Quickstart

From zero to a running agent in under a minute:

  1. Sign in. Hit Get early access and authenticate with GitHub or Google. Allowlisted accounts land directly on the dashboard.
  2. Add an LLM key. Open Dashboard → LLM and paste an Anthropic API key (the default model is Claude). OpenAI, Google, and OpenRouter are also supported.
  3. Create an agent. Click + New agent on the home dashboard. Give it a name, an optional system prompt, and pick a starter template if one fits.
  4. Chat with it. The home page has a chat input at the top. Send a message; the agent answers in real time and remembers everything for next time.
  5. Give it a job. Open the agent, switch to the Tasks tab, add a scheduled task with a cron expression (or use the picker). The agent now runs on its own.

That’s the loop: create, connect, schedule. Everything else in these docs is detail.

What you should set up next

  • Connections: link GitHub, Google, Slack, etc. so the agent can actually do useful things.
  • Memory: seed the agent with a few facts about you (role, preferences, projects).
  • Triggers: hook the agent up to iMessage or email so you can talk to it outside the web.

Core concepts

Six terms appear everywhere in the product. Learn these first; every other section assumes them.

Agent
A long-running AI worker. Has a name, a system prompt, a memory store, a set of connected tools, and a list of scheduled tasks. Lives in its own isolated container on our servers. The base unit of work in Backbend.
Main agent
The default agent your account gets at signup. It’s the one the home-page chat talks to, and the one external triggers (iMessage, SMS, phone) hit by default. You can rename, reconfigure, and pause it, but not delete it.
Sub-agent
A scoped agent created either manually or by the main agent for a specific job. Has its own memory and its own tool surface so its work doesn’t pollute the main agent’s context. Sub-agents are persistent: the one you create for “watch competitor X pricing” keeps running on its own schedule until you delete it.
Task
A unit of work the agent runs. Has a name, a prompt, and an optional cron expression. One-shot if no cron, scheduled if there is one. Each task records its own run history.
Connection
An authenticated link to an external service (GitHub, Google, Slack, etc.). One OAuth approval means the agent can read or write that account for as long as the connection lives.
Trigger
Anything that can wake an agent up: web chat, iMessage, SMS, Telegram, email, a phone call, a webhook, or a direct API call. Same agent under the hood; different ways to talk to it.

Signing in

Backbend supports two sign-in methods: GitHub OAuth and Google OAuth. Pick whichever account you’d rather link. Both create the same kind of user.

Allowlist (early access)

During early access, only allowlisted GitHub logins and Google emails can complete sign-in. If your OAuth approval succeeds but the dashboard rejects you, your account isn’t on the list yet. Email bradshaw.hyrum@gmail.com to get added, or schedule a call.

Sessions

Sessions live in an HttpOnlycookie. They’re opaque random tokens backed by a server-side row, so signing out (or revoking your session from another device) takes effect immediately. Sessions last 30 days by default; sign in again any time you want to refresh.

Signing out

Open the user menu in the bottom-left of the sidebar and click Sign out. The browser cookie is cleared, the server row is deleted, and the next page load redirects to the login screen. To revoke other sessions (e.g. you signed in on a shared computer), open Settings and use the “Revoke other sessions” button.