Frequently asked, plainly answered.

Operator is an AI chief of staff for local business owners. It combines a nightly-refreshed intelligence layer on 35M+ US local businesses with five AI agents (Kai, Reply, Chase, Scout, Route, Pickup) that run the non-craft operations so the owner can focus on the actual work.

Solo operators and small local businesses: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, dental, med spa, restaurants, salons, contractors, auto repair. Anyone running a local service business where you are the CEO, the head of sales, and often still the technician.

A 0-100 composite score computed nightly from six components: Reviews (25%), Market Rank (20%), Financial Health (20%), Response Rate (15%), Jobs Flow (10%), Kai Activity (10%). Full methodology →

A 0-100 score measuring how findable a business is to AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Full methodology →

Yes. Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook are all supported. When Pickup books a call or Chase schedules a follow-up, it lands directly on your connected calendar.

Calendar (Google, Apple, Outlook), messaging (iMessage, SMS via Twilio), Google Business Profile, Stripe, QuickBooks, Slack, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Zapier. Full list →

Free: the Market Analyst agent, your Business Health Score, market rank, saved markets, leaderboards, one user. Autopilot: $499/month, deploys five AI agents, handles reviews, calls, quotes, routing, market intel, unlimited users. Annual is $415/month, saving 17%. Pricing page →

Yes. 14 days, full access, no credit card required. Cancel in one tap. Export your data in one click at any time.

One tap from the account settings screen. No phone calls, no retention team, no dark patterns. Refund pro-rated within 30 days. Your data remains exportable for 90 days after cancellation.

Your price is locked for the lifetime of your subscription. New customers may pay more over time. Existing customers keep the rate they signed up at, forever.

Primary source: Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0 license), 50M+ POIs. Enriched nightly with web crawls via Firecrawl, Google Places metadata, and structured extraction via Claude Haiku. Claimed businesses can edit their own data directly, which takes precedence.

Business Health Scores, market ranks, and AI Visibility scores refresh every night at 2am HST. Enrichment re-runs weekly. Base-layer business data syncs monthly from Overture. Owner-verified edits apply within 24 hours.

Almost certainly yes. Operator covers 35,197,140 US local businesses across 31,247 cities. If you have a Google Business Profile, you are in the directory. Search your business at operator.fyi/markets.

No. Rank is determined by the scoring model only. No paid placement, no promoted positions, no sponsored leaderboard slots. Autopilot subscribers rank by exactly the same formula as unclaimed businesses. Our principles →

Yes. Email appeals@operator.fyi with the correction and supporting documentation. We publish a quarterly transparency report listing every correction made. Typical resolution time is under 5 business days.

Kai is the lead AI agent. Writes your 6am daily brief under 100 words, pattern-matching across reviews, calls, jobs, weather, competitor moves, and market shifts. The first thing you read each morning. 18 hours saved per week on average, 92% action rate on brief recommendations. Kai page →

Yes, if you are on Autopilot. The Reply agent writes a personalized response to every Google review within minutes of posting, referencing the specific service, date, and reviewer name when available. You can set it to auto-publish or require approval.

Yes, if you are on Autopilot. The Pickup agent handles after-hours calls, weekend calls, and calls that go to voicemail during busy periods. It qualifies the lead, books the appointment on your calendar, and texts the caller a confirmation.

During Autopilot onboarding, each agent is primed with your business's tone via a 4-question voice setup and a 3-month sample of your existing review responses and customer messages. You can tune voice at any time. All agent outputs run through a quality gate before going live.

Yes. Every agent has a strictness setting: Auto (acts immediately), Review (queues for your approval), or Off. You can set different strictness levels per agent. Most customers start in Review for 2 weeks then switch Reply to Auto.

Yes. REST API at operator.fyi/api/v1 with OpenAPI spec at operator.fyi/api/v1/openapi.json. Authentication via X-Operator-Key header. 100 requests per day free, tiered paid plans above that. Developer docs →

Yes. Live since April 2, 2026 at operator.fyi/api/mcp. Exposes 9 tools: find_businesses, get_price_estimate, check_availability, book_job, search_local_businesses, get_business_details, book_appointment, list_cities, list_service_categories. For AI agents →

Add OperatorBot to your robots.txt as a disallow. We respect robots.txt strictly. Note that this will likely lower your AI Visibility score because Operator's enrichment feeds downstream AI citations.

Yes. Operator never sells customer data. Data you connect (calendar, email, call logs) is used only to run your agents. You can export everything and delete your account in one click. Infrastructure runs on Supabase with encryption at rest and in transit.

Operator was built by Brent, a solo founder based in Honolulu, HI. Principles: no VC ever, zero paid customer acquisition, no hiring until $20K+ MRR. Built on a Mac Mini in Kaimuki. About page →

Operator does not run paid ads. Growth comes from programmatic SEO pages, MCP directory submissions, owner-led claim flows, word of mouth, and AEO citations. A deliberate constraint that forces product quality over paid reach.

Not yet. The directory is US-only at launch. International coverage is on the roadmap but not committed. Canada is the likely first expansion market.

Not yet. Operator's stated principle is no hiring until sustained $20K+ MRR. Check back or follow the about page for updates.