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Consent

Consent is the contract that makes Clay safe to feel like a friend. Clay is allowed to be warm, proactive, and specific about opportunity, but it is only allowed to share what the user has explicitly translated for the outside world. Everything else stays private reflection.

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On this page

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The translated-signals rule

1

Clay never shares raw private reflections

Raw reflections — unedited intentions, personality inferences, constraints, timing signals, social energy, taste preferences, and conversation history — stay inside the user-owned vault. They are never sent to collaborators, opportunity sources, partners, or the public surface.
2

Clay only shares translated fit signals and constraints

What leaves Clay is always a translated form: a fit reason, a fit brief, a constraint summary, a working-rhythm hint, or a taste signal. The translation is designed so a recipient gets what they need to act without seeing the private reasoning behind it.
3

Sharing requires explicit permission

Permission is granted per category, per moment. Clay does not infer consent from warmth, frequency of use, or how friendly a conversation has been. Every external share shows its consent state at the time it was created.
4

Every share is reversible

The user can revoke a permission, withdraw a translated share, mark a category private, or delete a knowledge at any time. Revocation outranks prior grants and applies to future Clay behavior immediately.

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What is private by default

These signals stay inside Clay unless the user explicitly translates and shares them.

Private reflections on intentions

The exact words the user used to describe what they are trying to become, including uncertainty, ambivalence, and emotional context.

Personality inferences

Communication style, working rhythm, motivation, taste, social energy, and fit — held as editable knowledges, not shared as raw trait labels.

Constraints

Geography, time, money, family obligations, and non-negotiable commitments surfaced through conversation rather than declared in a public form.

Timing signals

Decision windows, readiness shifts, deadlines, and the moment a person becomes open to a particular kind of opportunity.

Social energy

How the person handles groups, introductions, sustained collaboration, and recovery time between commitments.

Taste preferences

Aesthetic preferences, references, the work the person admires, and the standards they hold themselves and others to.

Raw conversation history

Full transcripts of Clay conversations, including corrections, hesitations, and unfiltered reflections the user typed in private.

Sensitive life context

Topics the user has marked private, signals that arrived from difficult moments, and any knowledge flagged as sensitivity: private in the personal knowledges vault.
These are the only forms Clay produces for an outside audience. Each one belongs to a consent category that the user can grant, scope, or revoke.

Fit briefs

A short summary of why an opportunity may be relevant to the user’s stated direction and personality context. Consent category: opportunities.

Opportunity recommendations

The opportunity card the user chooses to surface, with the fit reason attached. Consent category: opportunities.

Intro drafts

Messages Clay prepares on the user’s behalf before they are sent. Consent category: introductions.

Fit reason summaries

A condensed explanation of why Clay thinks two people, a person and a team, or a person and a community will click. Consent category: introductions.

Taste signals

Aesthetic and craft signals — domains admired, references, standards — translated into a one-line shareable hint. Consent category: taste.

Working rhythm signals

Async vs. sync, deep work vs. interruptible, weekend vs. weekday — translated into a fit-shape hint, not a schedule. Consent category: rhythm.
Clay’s proactive behavior is opt-in by category. Each category is off by default, can be enabled or scoped at any time, and shows its current state on every message that depends on it.
CategoryDefaultWhat enabling changesWhat it costs
Check-insOffClay can text first to follow up on stale intentions, vague directions, or emotionally important goals.More messages, more questions, and a need to occasionally correct Clay’s assumptions.
Opportunity suggestionsOffClay can surface people, projects, roles, events, communities, and partner experiences that fit the user.Recommendations arrive without a request and may include fits the user has not asked about.
IntroductionsOffClay can draft intro messages and prepare fit briefs to share with another person, team, or community.External shares, even drafts, reveal that Clay is working on the user’s behalf.
RemindersOffClay can nudge about deadlines, decision windows, follow-through, and stated next steps.Pressure, even when gentle, on activities the user has not yet acted on.
DebriefsOffClay can ask for a quick outcome check after an accepted opportunity, intro, or event.More reflection, more corrections, and a small obligation to keep Clay honest.
Categories can be enabled independently. A user who only wants Opportunity suggestions and Debriefs can keep check-ins, intros, and reminders off without losing fit quality.
Consent state is part of the product surface, not a buried setting.
1

Always text and label

Every consent decision is shown with explicit copy: what is being shared, with whom, and why. The label is the primary signal.
2

Never icon-only

Permission toggles always include a readable label. An icon can support the label; it cannot replace it. Icons alone fail accessibility and fail in low-light or motion-reduced contexts.
3

Never color-only

Consent state is never communicated by color alone. The active theme accent can support a permissioned state, but the state must also be present in text and shape so color-blind users and reduced-color contexts are not excluded.
4

Explicit copy for permission

When Clay asks for permission, the copy names the category, the recipient, and the translated signal that will be shared. Vague asks like “Share with Clay?” are not allowed.
5

Reversible state

Every granted permission has a visible “off” path on the same surface where it was granted. Revocation is one tap, not a settings tour.
6

Visible share state on every recommendation card

Every opportunity card, intro draft, and fit brief shows which consent category it depends on and whether the category is currently granted. Outdated or revoked shares are labeled as such.
Friendship language does not lower the trust bar. Even when Clay speaks warmly — when it texts first, remembers a personal detail, or uses the language of a close friend — consent and privacy rules are unchanged. A warmer voice raises the trust the user places in Clay; it does not give Clay permission to soften the boundary between private reflection and outside sharing.

Intentions

The first-class input for direction. Consent is what protects it on the way out.

Personalities

The first-class input for fit. Personalities never leave Clay as raw trait labels.

Opportunities

The taxonomy of what Clay can route toward, and the surface where translated fit signals appear.

Companion experience

How Clay’s friendly, proactive voice stays inside the consent contract.

Curious pet memory

The personal knowledges vault that defines what is private, what is translated, and what is shareable.

3D generation and Rive pipeline

Where Rive state machines expose visible consent state alongside intent and fit.

Design language

The color, shape, and component rules for consent — active theme accent, explicit labels, reversible state.

Mobile capture flow

The consent boundary captured in the first mobile screen.