FAQ

What is River?#

River is an AI workspace and operating environment. It combines the file system, communication tools, and AI of the modern stack into one persistent, agentic, collaborative system. See How River Works.

How is this different from Notion / Slack / ChatGPT?#

Each of those solves one piece of work — documents, conversation, AI prompts. River is the substrate that connects all three into a single world model the AI can reason over and act on.

The crisp differences:

• vs. Notion: River entities aren't just docs. Tasks, mail, contacts, agents, workflows are all first-class — and the AI is in the substrate, not a sidebar.
• vs. Slack: River doesn't replace your chat. It connects to it (via integrations) and treats messages as part of the same world model as everything else.
• vs. ChatGPT: ChatGPT forgets after the conversation. River remembers your whole workspace. And it acts — agents wake up on events, schedules fire jobs, work happens whether you're online or not.

Is River only a chat interface?#

No. SpaceChat is one surface — the most-used one. River is a full workspace with Apps, Spaces, Windows, Agents, Workflows, Schedules, integrations, custom views, and custom apps. Chat is the natural-language layer on top of all of it.

What's the difference between a Group and a Space?#

Groups organize where entities live (the structure of your work). Spaces are where you actively work, with open Windows and an AI thread (the room you step into).

A Space can show entities from many Groups. A Group can be visible in many Spaces. They're orthogonal.

Do I need Workflows to use River?#

No. Many teams use only manual work plus selective Agents and never build a Workflow. Workflows shine when you need deterministic, auditable repeatability — but you can ignore them until that need arrives.

Why are there Docs, Learn, and Help sections?#

• Docs — definitions and reference
• Learn — guided walkthroughs of how things connect in practice
• Help — quick answers and troubleshooting

Start with Docs → Welcome, read Learn → How River Fits Together, and come back to Help as questions arise.

Where should I start?#

If you have 10 minutes: Quickstart.

If you have 30 minutes: read Welcome, How River Works, and How River Fits Together.

If you have an afternoon: connect Gmail and Calendar, build your first Agent, and try a Custom View.

Can I use River with my team?#

Yes. Every workspace supports multiplayer. Create a team Dataspace, invite teammates, share Spaces, edit live with cursor presence and zero conflicts (Y.js CRDTs). See Teams Overview.

What can I connect?#

100+ services through integrations: Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Slack, Stripe, GitHub, Plaid, Notion, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Crisp, and more. Plus custom MCP servers and the Browser Extension for the open web. See Senses & Connections.

How much does it cost?#

Free to start with a generous AI budget. Paid plans from $14/mo include AI usage; Pay As You Go for usage-based billing; self-hosted as a one-time purchase ($299). See Pricing & Plans.

Is my data safe?#

Encrypted at rest and in transit. Never used to train models. You own your data and can export or delete it any time. For the full picture, including what stays local and what flows to River's cloud, read How Privacy Works.

Can I run River without the cloud?#

Yes. Self-Hosted River runs the full stack on your own machine or server. Pair with local Ollama and you have a workspace where nothing leaves your network unless you say so.

Does River work offline?#

Yes. Every entity is stored locally first (IndexedDB on web, on-disk on desktop). Edits made offline merge automatically when you reconnect, with no conflicts (CRDTs).

Can the AI build me a custom dashboard or app?#

Yes. Ask SpaceChat for a Custom View and you'll have one in seconds. For something you'll use daily with its own entity types, build a Custom App.