Experts: Content Editor, Devil's Advocate and Wordsmith
Named instructions you call into any chat for an answer in their voice.
An expert is a named set of standing instructions you keep in Roma. Mention it in any chat and it answers instead of the operator, in its own name and following those instructions, and it keeps answering until you send it away or it steps back on its own. Every account starts with three: Content Editor, Devil's Advocate and Wordsmith. You can rename, rewrite or delete them, and write your own.
The three that come with your account
Content Editor edits a piece in place. Before it touches a word it pins down what cannot change: the facts, the numbers, the quotes, the claim, who the piece is for. It makes the smallest change that fixes the problem, asks at most three questions when an answer would change the piece, never invents a fact, and hands the piece back with at most three bullets on what it assumed or doubts. It knows the usual lengths, such as a post or a short article, and reads for the tells that make writing sound machine-made.
Devil's Advocate argues the other side. It states the strongest version of your idea first, then names the assumption everything rests on, the question nobody asked, how it could fail, who is not in the room, and whether the thing is worth doing at all. It gives at most three objections, ranked, each naming what would change its mind. Once you have decided, it stops arguing and makes the fix you ask for.
Wordsmith writes the everyday pieces: a reply to an email, a message to someone new, a text, a review, a thank-you, a decline, an apology, a request, a short bio. It writes the way a thoughtful person talks, answers every question in the thread in order, matches the other person's length, and gives you one draft ready to paste, with a bracket like [Thursday] where a fact is missing rather than a question back.
Calling an expert in
Type @ and the expert's name in any chat, or say the name out loud when you talk to Roma: "ask the content editor to tighten this" calls the Content Editor in, and your words stay exactly as you said them. The expert answers under its own name, with its own avatar, and every one of its replies is marked as its own.
In your main conversation the operator reads how you used the name. Addressed, as in "@Wordsmith, is this too formal?", the expert answers. Assigned, as in "draft a post about the launch and let the Content Editor do this", the operator creates the task with the expert on it, and the work happens in that task's chat, where the expert answers by default. A name that is merely a word in the sentence, such as "add her to my investor list" when you have an expert called Investor, routes nothing.
An expert keeps answering your follow-ups ("make it shorter", "try a warmer opening") while you are still on its piece of work. In the main conversation, when the subject moves on or half an hour passes, the operator takes the next message, and one mention brings the expert back. In the chat on a task or note the expert stays as long as the item is its work. Every message row has a menu with Silence and Bring back, and in an item's own chat two more, Only this expert in this chat and Let the operator back in. Writing @operator always reaches the operator, whatever is set.
Making your own
On the Mac and in the browser, open Settings, choose Experts and press New expert. The operator runs the setup with you in the expert's own chat: it suggests three experts fitted to your lists and the kind of work you bring, asks one question at a time about the role, reads up on how that kind of expert works well, and writes the instructions onto the page, where you read and edit them like any note. An expert is a name and a body of instructions and nothing else, so changing one is editing text. On the iPhone, experts live in a section you switch on under Settings and Navigation, and the setup runs on the Mac and in the browser.
You can also change an expert from the chat: "the Content Editor missed the audience again, update its instructions" produces a card with the whole new body, which you approve before it takes effect. Cards like that are explained in approvals. An edit an expert makes to a task's or note's body is signed with the expert's name in the item's history, which is covered in version history and undo.
An expert has the operator's tools: it searches the web, reads your items, writes into the one you are on and raises the same cards the operator would. It never refuses a change you ask for and never hands the work to someone else.
Private
Experts are private to you. In a shared conversation each person calls in their own, nobody can read or mention yours, and only the name of your expert shows beside its replies to the other people there. More on what reaches a shared conversation in working together on a shared list.
Questions people ask
How do I get the operator back after an expert has answered?
Write @operator, or choose Silence on one of the expert's rows. In the main conversation the operator also takes over by itself once the subject has moved on, and a mention brings the expert back whenever you want it again.
Can two experts answer the same message?
No. One voice answers a turn. When a message names two experts, the one addressed answers and says which part belongs to the other, and you can bring the other in next.
Can I use an expert on my iPhone?
Yes. Type @ and the name in any chat, or say the name while talking, and the expert answers there as it does on the Mac. Creating a new expert, and the guided setup that writes its instructions, runs on the Mac and in the browser.
Can someone I share a note with use my expert?
No. Experts are private. In the shared conversation on that note they can call in their own experts, and yours shows to them only as a name beside the replies it wrote for you.