Keepers

A keeper has to be in the conversation before it can be called. Drag a bee from the shelf into “In this conversation”, or just tap it. Drag it back to the shelf and it cannot be called again.

Tapping a bee that is already in the room calls it, using whatever you have typed as its words. Nirvaana can also call one itself when its job fits what you asked, but only a keeper you have put in the conversation. While a keeper works, its bee flies along the line beside the Nirvaana mark, with its name, where the reply is coming. What it comes back with appears right where it was called, in Nirvaana's own voice, with the keeper named. Then the bee settles back into its cell with a drop of honey.

A keeper that cannot do the job yet says so before anything runs, and does nothing.

Ten on the starter shelf. Hover one on a computer, or move to it with the keyboard, and a card shows its job, what it could reach, and whether it will ever act outward.

• Thinker — thinks a hard question all the way through before anything is done. Reads only.
• Worker — does the task end to end. Will act outward, only after your yes, once hands exist.
• Marketer — names the worry and offers the real relief. Never invents the worry. Will act outward, only after your yes, once hands exist.
• Writer — drafts emails, texts and notes in your voice. Will send them, only after your yes, once hands exist.
• Researcher — finds and checks sources, and says how sure it is. Reads only.
• Designer — lays out pages, decks and graphics. Reads only.
• Reviewer — reads over a draft or a plan, says what works and what to fix, and asks the questions that would make it better. Reads only.

Three more are for anyone who runs stage lighting. All three only read, and none of them touches your lights.

• Rig keeper — learns your rig once and keeps it: fixtures, modes, DMX addresses, positions and the room. It asks rather than guess an address.
• Show builder — turns a setlist into a show file for your rig, inside your flash limits. It hands you the file to save; you run the show from your own laptop.
• Night notes — after a show, catches what worked and what to cut, in words to keep for next time.

A keeper is not a schedule and not a robot that goes off on its own. It has no timer. It does something only when Nirvaana calls on it during a conversation you are in, and only if you put it in that conversation first.

A keeper is also not a second assistant with its own opinions. It is the same Nirvaana, doing one job. What Nirvaana would not do, no keeper does. What needs your yes still needs your yes.

The card on each bee says where it is (on the shelf, or in this conversation), its job, which rungs it could climb to — the ways in, a browser, the computer — and whether it can act outward. A rung that is crossed out is one it does not use. A rung it would climb that is not built yet is dashed, and the card names it under “Still to come”. If part of its job is not built yet, the card says that too.

The shelf sits above the composer and scrolls sideways. The small search box next to it finds a keeper by name. If nothing matches it says “No keeper by that name yet.”

A bee takes what it needs from a flower and leaves the flower unharmed. That is the rule a keeper follows in any world it visits: gather what is useful, change nothing, come back. The shelf is the hive.

The drawing carries real information. The rings on a bee's body say how deeply it thinks. Wide open wings mean it is made to act outward, once it can; small folded ones mean it only reads.