How tuning works.

AetherTime comes with working examples and clear documentation. What it does not come with is someone else writing your prompts. Here is the honest line, and how to cross it if you want help.

The short version

AetherTime's engine is the product. The rules, prompts, watch terms, and event definitions that make it smart about your particular practice are your content — and we give you the structure, the examples, and the instructions to write them, not a finished set tailored to your firm.

This is deliberate. If we gave away a tuned configuration for every buyer, the work would not scale, the advice would be shallow, and the price would have to cover labor we never quoted. The engine is yours; the tuning is a skill, or a service.

What you actually configure

None of this requires a programmer. It is all in AetherPilot → AI Settings, and every field is documented in the app and in the User Guide.

• The Watch List. Senders, phrases, and matter names that mean "this matters." Matching happens in code, deterministically, never guessed by a model. This is the single biggest lever on accuracy — a good list is most of the difference between a noisy and a clean result. You can seed it in one click from your existing clients and projects, then refine it.
• Disregard terms. Closed matters, wrong-firm cases, and spam senders you want suppressed. A Disregard term wins over a Watch term, so a case you no longer work stays quiet.
• Triage Mode. Off, Merge, or Code only. Merge is the recommended setting: code handles the routine items deterministically, and the model covers the rest.
• Your model. Point AetherPilot at a local model on your own network, or bring your own cloud key. Or run Code only and use no model at all.
• The backfill window. How far back the admin-time measurement looks while it is being validated.
• Classification review. See how each message was classified, fix the Watch List, and re-run classification over your history. The ledger corrects itself in place.

The loop that tunes it

Tuning is not a one-time setup; it is a short loop you run until the results are clean, and then occasionally after.

1. Add what matters: seed the Watch List from your clients and projects, then add the specific senders and phrases you know are important.
2. Scan and run a backfill over a period that has already passed.
3. Open Review, filter to Not My Matter, and look for anything that should have matched.
4. Add the misses, mark the closed matters as Disregard, and re-run classification.
5. Repeat two or three times. Most practices reach a clean list quickly, because the terms that matter are few and you know them better than anyone.

Why we do not write your prompts for free

A configuration tuned to a practice is expertise: knowing which notices arrive, which deadlines follow, what a "new matter" looks like for this firm, and how a vendor's report should be filed. That knowledge is the hard part, and it is the same knowledge you already have. We give you the engine and the manual; you bring the practice.

It is also what keeps the price what it is. A one-time price for a complete software engine is only possible because we are not also selling an engagement with every copy.

If you do want help

Three legitimate paths, and we will be honest about each:

• Do it yourself with the examples. For a solo practitioner or a small firm, this is usually a few hours of work and no cost beyond the license. It is what most customers will do.
• Ask questions. Documentation, the in-app guide, and support email exist to get you unstuck. Answering "where is this setting" and "why did this land here" is support, and it is included.
• Paid setup. If you would rather not spend the time, we can discuss a paid engagement to tune AetherTime for your practice. That is a scope-and-quote conversation, not part of the license.

What we will not do is quietly absorb that work into a purchase. If you want it, it should be clear, quoted, and deliberate — for your protection and ours.

What you get out of it

A configuration you understand and own, that improves as you use it, and that you can change the moment your practice changes. No locked-in service dependency, no "contact your account manager" to adjust a rule, and no annual fee to keep your own watch list working. That is the point of local-first software: the tuning lives with you.

Common questions

Does AetherTime come pre-configured for my practice?

No. It ships with working examples you can read, copy, and modify, plus documentation of every setting. A configuration tuned to your specific practice — which notices you receive, which deadlines follow, how you file a vendor report — is yours to build, using the Watch List, Disregard terms, and Triage Mode.

Do I need to know how to program to tune it?

No. All tuning happens in AetherPilot's AI Settings: the Watch List, Disregard terms, Triage Mode, the model choice, and the backfill window. It is configuration, not code.

How long does tuning take?

For most solo practitioners and small firms, a few hours across two or three review cycles. You seed the Watch List from your existing clients and projects, run a backfill and a scan, review the misclassifications, and add the terms that fix them. The list is small because you already know which names matter.

Will you write my prompts or configure it for me?

Not as part of the license. Answering questions and helping you get unstuck is included support. If you would rather not do the tuning yourself, a paid setup engagement is available — that is a scoped, quoted conversation rather than something folded into the purchase price.

Will my configuration break if I stop paying?

No. Solo and Pro are perpetual licenses. Your Watch List, Disregard terms, and settings are yours and keep working. Updates are the only thing that lapses, and renewing them is optional.

Why is tuning not included?

Because a configuration tuned to a practice is real expertise, and giving it away with every copy would mean shallow advice and a price that had to cover unbounded labor. The engine is the product; the tuning is your knowledge or a service you choose to buy.

Ready to stop renting your time tracker?

Private beta is open. Email us for a free copy before launch — no account, no credit card, no data sent anywhere.

Request Beta Access

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