AI Bot Team Template: Run Life Admin With a Small Team of AI Assistants
Disclosure: We make BotRoster (and SwingSheet) under the Autofold name, and we sell them. Drafted with AI assistance and fact-checked by us.
Most people's first try with an AI assistant goes the same way. One chat, one long prompt, and a request to "handle my email, calendar, bills and reminders". It works for a day, then drifts. It forgets what it was told, mixes up jobs, and nobody checks its work.
An AI bot team template fixes that with a structure that's been in use for a long time: small roles, clear briefs, and a reviewer. You don't need to code. You need a few assistants (or a few saved instruction sets in one tool) and a page of rules for each.
Why a team beats one super-bot
- Focus: an assistant with one job and a short brief stays on task better than one juggling ten.
- Limits: you can give each role narrow permissions. The bills bot never sends email, for example.
- Checking: when one role reviews another, mistakes get caught before they reach you.
- Easy fixes: if something goes wrong, you change one brief, not a giant prompt.
The core roles
Start small. Five roles cover most life admin:
| Role | Job | Never does |
|---|---|---|
| Chief of staff | Takes your requests, splits them into jobs, sends you one daily summary | Act externally without your OK |
| Inbox manager | Sorts and summarises email, drafts replies | Send anything without approval |
| Calendar & deadlines | Tracks dates, renewals and reminders | Accept invites on your behalf |
| Bills & subscriptions | Lists what's due, flags price rises and unused subscriptions | Pay or cancel anything itself |
| Auditor | Checks the others' work against evidence before it reaches you | Do the work it's checking |
The auditor is the one people skip, and it's the one that matters most. The checker should be a different role from the doer.
The one-page brief
Each role gets a brief. Keep it to one page:
- Job: one sentence.
- Inputs: what it reads (an inbox label, a calendar, a notes file).
- Outputs: what it produces, and in what format.
- Never: a short list of hard limits (no sending, no spending, no deleting).
- Reports to: who it hands work to, usually the chief of staff or the auditor.
- Done means: how you'll know the job is finished.
Example brief for an inbox manager:
Job: Each morning, sort new email into Action, Read later and Archive, and draft replies for Action items. Inputs: Inbox only. Outputs: A list of Action items with a draft reply under each. Never: Send, delete or unsubscribe without my approval. Reports to: Auditor, then me. Done means: The inbox is down to Action items, each with a draft.
The handoff format
Bots working together need one shared way to pass work along. A simple handoff:
- What I did
- Evidence (links, quotes, file names)
- What I'm unsure about
- What I need from you
When every role uses the same four lines, the auditor can check quickly and so can you.
A shared facts file
Give every role one short document of standing facts: your time zone, names of family members, regular bills, preferences. Each bot reads it, so you're not repeating yourself in every prompt.
Run a 14-day test
Don't go all in on day one:
- Days 1–3: chief of staff plus one role (inbox is a good start).
- Days 4–7: add the auditor and check what it catches.
- Days 8–14: add calendar and bills. Note every time you had to step in.
- At the end, rewrite the briefs where you stepped in most.
Keep the human in the loop
A rule that works: the human approves anything external, meaning anything sent, spent, posted or deleted. Everything else can flow between the bots and the auditor. Your review queue stays short, and nothing leaves without you.
Common mistakes
- Too many roles too soon. Five is plenty to start.
- No checker. The doer marking its own work misses the same errors twice.
- Vague "never" lists. "Be careful" isn't a limit. "Never send email" is.
- No evidence. If a bot can't show where a fact came from, treat it as unverified.
Get the template
You can copy the structure above for free. If you'd rather start from ready-made briefs, BotRoster (A$39) is our guide plus 7 instruction sets for this kind of setup, with a 14-day test checklist. It works with any AI assistant that accepts custom instructions. BotRoster on Gumroad.
If you also want our FIFO budget spreadsheet, the Autofold Starter Pack (A$45) bundles BotRoster with SwingSheet: Starter Pack. We make SwingSheet too.
General information only, not financial advice.
FAQ
Do I need to code? No. The template is plain-English instructions.
Which AI tool should I use? Any assistant that lets you save custom instructions or multiple chats. The structure matters more than the tool.
Is it safe to let bots handle email? Keep sending, spending and deleting behind your approval. Let the bots draft and sort.
Made by Autofold.