Joining a family

A shared agent is set up once, by one adult, and then everyone else joins by email invite. Each person comes in as their own account with their own private chat, and the powerful controls stay with the person who set it up.

The agent is ready right away

One adult — the owner — sets up the household (or the shop). There's no ceremony and nothing to author: Dustav is provisioned instantly, ready to use the moment it exists.

Everyone who joins after that just starts talking to it. The first time a new member opens their chat, the agent asks what to call them — a short, plain question, not a ritual — and it's set up from there. The agent already knows the group; this is just meeting a new person in it.

Joining by email invite

Whoever's joining — a co-parent, an older kid with their own email, an assistant at the shop — comes in as their own account:

1. The owner sends an invite to their email address.
2. They sign in with a normal email code (which creates their account if they don't have one yet).
3. They're added as their own member, linked to their own sign-in.

An invited member gets their own private layer that's genuinely private — see Shared facts & privacy for what that means. Everyone needs their own email address to join; there's no shared-device login.

Roles

Three roles decide who can do what:

• Owner — set up the group and holds the subscription. Full control over members and billing. Can't be removed.
• Admin — someone the owner promotes (a spouse, a co-owner). Manages members and settings.
• Member — an invited person. The management controls aren't theirs.

The everyday powers a household or shop needs — adding a member, managing the subscription — sit with the adults running it, kept out of reach by the architecture rather than by a checkbox. Our broader stance on building for kids and families is on the Kids & families page.