What the sky can do — almanacs, settings & the rest
The rest of what you can ask ask the sky — the calendar's built-in AI assistant — to do, in plain words. Commitments have their own page: What the sky can do — commitments.
An almanac is a named, coloured layer of commitments, like one calendar. The binder is the page where your almanacs live — see The binder.
Some requests wait behind "allow destructive actions", a switch on settings › "ask the sky" that starts off. Below it is called "the switch". Even with it on, the sky asks "allow it?" every time. See What the sky can do — commitments for how it works.
What loosens a lock or sends something off the phone is asked first, switch or not. A card headed "the sky asks first" reads "‹name› wants to ‹what it would do› — allow it?", and you answer "allow" or "not this". Backing out counts as "not this". It asks with these words:
- "turn off “nothing leaves this phone”, which sends everything held"
- "read what is on your screen with each question"
- "unlock the almanac “‹name›”"
- "carry “‹name›” in your drive"
- "show “‹name›” to every app on this phone"
- "put a link anyone can open on your drive, for a card's material"
The safe way round — locking, holding back, hiding — is never asked. Another Zenith app's assistant can't do any of these in the calendar: it is refused and pointed to the calendar's own ask the sky, or to the setting's own page.
Your almanacs
The sky can:
- list every almanac with how many commitments it holds, what state it is in, and what feeds it;
- make a new one — three of your own are free, more with Zenith Gold (Gold);
- choose which almanac new commitments land in;
- eclipse one — hide it from the sky while keeping everything in it — and restore it again.
It can also rename, recolour, describe, lock or unlock, archive or bring back, reorder, mark, set the look, and set how an almanac rings. That is one change per ask.
Bringing back a holiday almanac. Ask it what holidays you have and it lists every almanac, lit or not; the ones marked archived are the ones you left off on "your starting sky". Every holiday almanac arrives locked, so to bring one back the sky unlocks it, takes it out of the archive, and then draws it — three changes, each one it says aloud. Unlocking it is asked first: "unlock the almanac “‹name›”". It comes back at the end of your binder.
The demo. The sky can say whether the demo almanacs are here, or add them — the same as "add demo content" on the binder's settings. They never count toward the three free almanacs. Removing the demo content waits behind the switch: it deletes every demo almanac and everything in it at once, not through the pyre, so it cannot be pulled back. See The binder's settings.
What feeds them
The sky can:
- list the phone's own calendars — google, outlook, work — and say which almanac each one feeds;
- feed an existing almanac from one of them, one calendar to one almanac;
- re-read all of them this moment, so what changed in them shows through.
It never makes an almanac in order to link one. Unplugging a calendar from an almanac waits behind the switch. Nothing is lost by it — the almanac keeps everything it has — but it is a decision somebody makes. See What comes in, what goes out.
Travelling, and your Drive
The sky can pause or resume listening to a source. It can send your edits back or keep them in Zenith, carry detail or go plain, carry an almanac in your Drive, show it to the rest of the phone, and look for almanacs waiting from your other devices. Carrying one in your Drive, and showing one to the rest of the phone, are asked first.
It can look, but it can't bring one down. Looking only lists what is waiting. Taking an almanac off your Drive, and stopping one travelling, both wait behind the switch. See Connected accounts & Drive sync.
Sending an almanac (Gold)
The sky can put one almanac on the shuttle, or open the door that saves it as a Zenith file or a plain calendar file. It opens that door rather than saving anything, because where a file goes is yours to pick. All three need Zenith Gold.
Backing up the whole calendar, and installing a backup again, are free. See Backup, restore & sending an almanac.
Material — the files a commitment or an almanac keeps
The sky can list the files with their sizes, open one, and attach a file riding the shuttle to a commitment. Picking a file off the phone is something only a person can finish, so for that it opens the sheet.
Removing a file waits behind the switch, and it means more than it sounds. The file belongs to the almanac, so it goes for every commitment pointing at it.
The shuttle, which every Zenith app shares
The shuttle is the suite's shared tray for passing things between Zenith apps. The sky can:
- hold words there;
- list what is riding;
- copy an item;
- turn words into a commitment — this opens the form already filled, for you to place;
- place words straight on a day;
- hand words to Zenith Tasks;
- keep a file in an almanac;
- open a file.
Letting one item go, or clearing the whole shuttle, waits behind the switch. Clearing it clears it in every Zenith app. See The Shuttle in the calendar.
Looks
The sky can remove a page template added from a file, behind the switch. If it had stood in for a shipped one, the shipped one comes back.
Settings
The sky can read every setting, every notification bell, and whether Zenith Gold is held. It can change one setting by name.
A number outside what a setting allows is refused with the allowed range. It is never rounded and reported back as though it had been set.
The sound switch it sets is the suite's own, so it reaches every Zenith app.
The sky can also turn almanacs on or off, set my sky's constellations, and turn immersion mode on or off.
- Almanacs on or off are the switches on settings › "the almanacs". They wait behind the switch, and it asks every time. See Holiday almanacs.
- My sky's constellations is the "constellations" slider on the my sky page, 1 to 88 (Gold). The my sky page is shared, so the number changes in every Zenith app. See Skies, colours & my sky.
- Immersion mode is the switch on settings › "ease". See Ease — motion, colour & touch.
Turning "nothing leaves this phone" off, or the screen description on, is asked first.
It can switch the 24-hour clock on or off. See Time & directions.
Announcements
The sky can set when each announcement comes, what it says and what it is called — the morning, the afternoon, the evening and the night. It can list your own, add one, rename it, change its time or what it says, and switch it on or off. Adding one, or switching one on, also turns on "your own announcements". Removing one of your own waits behind the switch. See Announcements.
Zenith Tasks' stars
The sky can read out the stars Zenith Tasks has given a date, on one day or between two — each one's time, whether it is done, and which of Tasks' skies it is in. It only reads them. It can't change a star, because they are Tasks' stars, not commitments. See The eye — putting repeats away.
Four things it can't talk past, because they are Zenith Gold (Gold):
- the skies past clean, mono and pastel;
- "my sky";
- the sky remembering your talks;
- a calendar tradition other than gregorian.
Most of the folds-and-tablets choices are Gold as well. And it can switch "allow destructive actions" off, never on.
Moving you about
The sky can show you a view — day, week, month, year, years or today — on a date you name. It can go back or home. It can open a panel: tomorrow, the shuttle, the settings book, the quick show-and-hide legend, or the binder.
It can also open the exact screen for anything only a person can finish: a picker, a permission, Google's own consent, the purchase sheet, a drag. Each opens with its own button's words and its own button's refusals, so a locked almanac's editor is still refused.
The manual, and Gold
The sky reads the handbook the app ships with, one section at a time. That is how it answers "how do I…" about the calendar itself. It can also ask the Play Store whether this account already owns Zenith Gold — the same door as "restore a purchase" on the Gold page.
Its own memory, your yeses, and reporting
The sky can list the talks it remembers, and rewrite one line with Zenith Gold and remembering switched on (Gold) — see Chat memory & interpret screen.
Behind the switch, it can withdraw your yes to one AI company or to all of them, remove a service's saved key, and burn — delete — one remembered line or all of them.
It can report a reply, a form it filled, or a "what you fill in" section it made. Each report is logged on the phone, and nothing else leaves.
What it will never do
- It can't type or save a key. That field belongs to the settings page alone.
- It can't say yes to an AI company for you.
- It can't switch "allow destructive actions" on.
- It can't bring an almanac down from your Drive.
See also.
What the sky can do — commitments · The binder · Safety, consent & your rights · The Shuttle