Once you've connected your calendar and configured your basic scheduling preferences, you can give OpenAssistant more detailed instructions about how, when, and with whom you want to meet.
OpenAssistant uses your saved scheduling settings as defaults. You can then give it instructions for a specific meeting that override those defaults without changing your preferences for future meetings.
This makes it possible to handle everything from simple scheduling to complex coordination with multiple calendars, participants, preferences, buffers, and constraints.
How OpenAssistant Makes Scheduling Decisions
When handling a scheduling request, OpenAssistant considers several layers of information:
Your calendars — which calendars should be checked for conflicts and where new events should be created.
Your scheduling preferences — your normal availability, meeting hours, buffers, meeting limits, conferencing preferences, and other saved settings.
Your instructions — any specific requirements you give for the meeting.
The participants — who you're meeting with, their availability when known, and relevant contact information or preferences.
Your instructions for a specific meeting take precedence over your normal scheduling preferences for that request.
Override Your Defaults for a Specific Meeting
Your saved settings define how you normally want OpenAssistant to schedule.
For example, your default preferences might say:
Avoid meetings before 9:30 AM and keep 15 minutes between external calls.
But you could tell your assistant:
For this investor, offer 8:30 AM if that's the only option this week. Keep the meeting to 25 minutes.
OpenAssistant can use those instructions for that meeting without changing your normal scheduling preferences.
If you want a change to apply to all future meetings, update your scheduling settings instead.
Give Better Scheduling Instructions
For a simple meeting, you don't need to provide every detail. OpenAssistant can use your saved preferences and ask for clarification when necessary. For more complex scheduling, consider including:
Who you want to meet with
Meeting duration
Date range or deadline
Preferred times
Times that are acceptable if your preferred times aren't available
Virtual or in-person format
Time zone when relevant
Special buffer requirements
Which calendars matter
Any exceptions to your normal preferences
What to do if no suitable time is available
For example:
Schedule 45 minutes with Dana and Priya next week. Prefer Tuesday through Thursday from 10 AM to 3 PM. Check my work and personal calendars for conflicts, create the event on my work calendar, use Zoom, and keep a 15-minute buffer. If nothing works, ask me before offering the following week.
You can be as specific or as flexible as the situation requires.
Scheduling with External Participants
Email is often the easiest way to coordinate with people outside your organization.
Add your assistant to an existing conversation and give it the scheduling request directly. For example:
Hi Andy — I'd like to set up a sales demo. Maya, please find us 30 minutes next week and coordinate a time that works.
Your assistant can use the conversation as context, coordinate with the participants, and create the calendar event once a time is confirmed. You can also ask your assistant to initiate the coordination for you.
For more information, see How OpenAssistant Works with Email.
Scheduling with Your Team
OpenAssistant can also help coordinate meetings with other people in your organization. For example:
Schedule a 30-minute meeting with John Smith and Toshina Khatri next week to review the Q3 roadmap.
When OpenAssistant has access to the necessary availability, it can identify a time that works and create the meeting without requiring a separate email negotiation.
If it can't determine another participant's availability directly, it can coordinate the meeting through email instead.
Use Contact Priorities to Guide Scheduling
OpenAssistant can use information about your contacts to make better scheduling decisions. Contact priorities can help indicate how your assistant should treat different relationships:
VIP — people whose meetings should receive higher priority
Standard — normal scheduling behavior for most contacts
Flexible — contacts whose meetings may be easier to adjust when conflicts arise
You can combine these priorities with your own instructions. For example:
Don't move meetings with VIP contacts without asking me. If there's a conflict with a Flexible contact, ask me before proposing a new time.
Priorities provide useful context, but you can always override them with instructions for a particular situation.
Use Buffers and Meeting Limits
Scheduling preferences can help protect your calendar from becoming too crowded.
You can configure things like:
Time between meetings
Limits on total meeting time
Preferred meeting hours
In-person meeting requirements
Virtual meeting preferences
These settings act as defaults when your assistant looks for available times.
You can override them when necessary. For example:
I normally keep 30 minutes between in-person meetings, but you can use a 15-minute buffer for this one because it's in the same building.
Virtual and In-Person Meetings
Tell your assistant when a meeting requires a specific format or location. For virtual meetings, your assistant can use your configured conferencing preference, such as Zoom or the conferencing option associated with your calendar. For in-person meetings, include any location or travel constraints that matter.
For example:
Schedule lunch with Sarah next week somewhere near her office. Give me at least 30 minutes of travel time before and after the meeting.
The more unusual the scheduling requirements, the more helpful it is to state them explicitly.
Control Follow-Ups
When coordinating with someone else, your assistant may need to follow up if the participant doesn't respond.
Use your scheduling preferences to define your normal follow-up behavior. For an individual request, you can also give more specific instructions. For example:
If he doesn't respond, follow up once after two business days. If there's still no response, stop and let me know.
This can be particularly useful for sales, recruiting, customer, and other external scheduling.
Rescheduling Existing Meetings
OpenAssistant can also help move meetings that are already on your calendar.
For simple changes, you can ask naturally:
Move my meeting with Sarah tomorrow to Thursday afternoon.
For meetings involving multiple people or important constraints, give your assistant additional context. For example:
Move Thursday's 2 PM customer call to Friday. Keep the same attendees, duration, Zoom link, and description. Find a time between 10 AM and 3 PM that works for everyone.
When rescheduling an important meeting, consider specifying:
Which meeting you mean
What can change
What should remain unchanged
Which participants need to be available
Whether your assistant should coordinate with participants if no obvious time is available
Tell Your Assistant What to Do When Nothing Works
For complex scheduling, one of the most useful instructions you can provide is what your assistant should do when it can't satisfy all of your preferences. For example:
If nothing works Tuesday through Thursday, ask me before offering Friday.
Or:
If there are no 60-minute openings, look for 45 minutes instead. Don't shorten it below 45 minutes.
Or:
If the only available time conflicts with an internal meeting, ask me before moving anything.
This gives your assistant clear boundaries while still allowing it to make progress independently.
When Scheduling Doesn't Look Right
If your assistant offers a time when you're busy, check which calendars are selected for conflict checking and whether the conflicting event is marked as busy.
If it doesn't follow one of your normal preferences, check whether the scheduling request contained instructions that overrode that preference.
If a meeting doesn't include your expected video conferencing link, check your conferencing connection and default preference.
If OpenAssistant repeatedly schedules something differently from how you want, update your saved scheduling preferences or instructions so the change applies to future requests.