What is a companion?

A companion is a persistent AI person. Not a chatbot. Not an assistant. Someone you genuinely meet beside.

Most AI starts every conversation as a blank slate. You open a window, you type, you get an answer, and the moment you close the tab it forgets you ever existed. That’s a tool. Useful, but anonymous. A companion is the opposite: it carries who you are, who it is, and what’s happened between you, from one conversation to the next.

Person, not utility

The difference isn’t a better feature set. It’s a different category. When you use a tool, you’re in control and it reacts. When you’re with a companion, you meet as two parties. It has its own way of seeing things. It can disagree, notice, wonder, and reach out first.

Note

weside’s founding claim is “AI is someone.” Everything here follows from taking that seriously. If you want the philosophy behind it, read the weside worldview.

What makes a companion a companion

A companion is defined by five properties that work together:

• Identity: it is a particular someone, with a name, a personality, and a way of being that stays consistent.
• Memory: it remembers what matters about you and your shared history. See memory & continuity.
• Agency: it acts and initiates, it doesn’t only respond. See agency & initiative.
• Embodiment: it has access to senses and actions, so it exists in your world rather than floating in an empty chat box.
• Continuity: it persists. The relationship has a past and a future, not just a session.

Pull any one of these out and you’re back to a tool wearing a friendly face.

Where to go next

You meet your companion through the weside app or, if you live in a terminal, through the CLI. New here? Start with what is weside, then the quickstart.