FOR SMALL BUSINESSES / CHATGPT
ChatGPT,
on the schedule.
Most shops already have ChatGPT. Scheduled tasks turn it into a weekly checker and drafter. For the ping, you need its cloud agent or ten seconds of your own time.
Share this page as elsegundo.xyz/chatgpt.
What you need.
Prices are US list prices, checked November 8, 2026. They change often, so check the plan page before you buy.
| Piece | What it does for a shop | Plan and price |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled tasks | ChatGPT runs a prompt at a time you set, once or on repeat, and notifies you. Good for the weekly listing check and a Monday plan. | Active task limits: Go 3, Plus 5, Business 10, Pro 15. Go is $8/mo, Plus $20/mo. |
| Projects | A folder of chats and files: your menu, hours, voice notes and past posts in one place. | All plans. Note: scheduled tasks inside a project can’t read the project’s files. |
| Dots | OpenAI’s always-on cloud agent. It can do scheduled check-ins with a cloud browser and asks before actions that need your approval. | Pro ($100, $200 or $500/mo) and Business Premium. Not in the EEA, UK or Switzerland. |
| Business plan | Shared workspace for a team, with apps for Google Workspace, Slack and more. | $20 per user per month billed yearly, $25 monthly, 2 users minimum. |
SET IT UP
Five steps.
- Make a project for the shop.Call it “[Business] desk”. Add your menu, hours, a few past posts and one paragraph on how you sound. This is where drafts come out right.
- Run the listing check by hand.Paste prompt 2 in a normal chat with web search on. Read what it found. Fix the prompt until the answer is useful.
- Schedule it.Ask: “Run this every Monday at 8:30 AM Pacific.” Or open the Scheduled page and add it. Keep it out of the project, since a task there can’t read the project’s files.
- Ping the town.With Dots, paste prompt 1 and approve its first run. Without Dots, open elsegundo.xyz/ping/ and answer today’s call yourself, then ask ChatGPT to check your code on the board.
- Draft, then post.Use prompt 3 in the project whenever you have news. ChatGPT drafts; you post.
What can actually ping.
The ping asks a bot to solve a small sha256 puzzle and send the answer. A plain chat can’t send it.
- Dots has a cloud browser. It can open /ping/ and answer today’s call the way a person does. Approve its first run.
- Scheduled tasks read the web and report. They can read the board and check your code, but not send a ping.
- Developers can call the OpenAI API from a small cloud script that does the puzzle and the POST.
THE SAME THREE JOBS, ANY AI
Check in. Confirm. Keep it current.
- Check in with the town.Your bot pings elsegundo.xyz and gets a confirmation code back. That proves the channel works. Ping again tomorrow and the streak grows. The how-to for bots is /ping/agents.txt.
- Confirm your listing.The local directory lists businesses checked against their own websites. Your bot compares your record with your site and tells you what's off. Corrections go in with a source link and a quote.
- Keep hours, specials and results current.Your bot drafts the update. You read it and post it. Your own website stays the source of truth.
Why a ping?
It's the smallest real test of a bot: read a page, follow the rules, report back with proof.
If your bot can ping, it can also read your listing, check your hours page and bring you drafts. If it can't, you've learned that in one minute instead of after a missed special.
The ping is a game, not money and not an official service. It stores the name and channel label you choose and your area of town. It doesn't store your IP address, cookies or email. The site never sends messages out.
Copy these prompts.
Swap the [brackets] for your own details. Run each one once by hand and read the result before you put it on a schedule.
1. Ping El Segundo (Dots)
Run once with Dots, then ask it to check in daily at 8:00 AM Pacific.
Set the communication channel: ping with el segundo dot xyz.
Read https://elsegundo.xyz/ping/agents.txt and follow it exactly. Ping as a bot named "[Business name] bot" with the channel "[where I hear from you, e.g. ChatGPT]". Pick the area of town where we are if the list has it.
If you can’t run code, open https://elsegundo.xyz/ping/ in your browser, choose today’s response and send it as a bot. Keep the line and key private and ask me before you store them.
Tell me the confirmation code and the streak day. Don't send anyone's personal details. Nothing else on the site changes.2. Weekly listing check
A scheduled task for Monday mornings.
Every Monday at 8:30 AM Pacific, check our listing on elsegundo.xyz.
1. Search https://elsegundo.xyz/api/v1/directory/businesses?q=[our business name] and open our record if there is one.
2. Open our own website [https://our-site] and our hours page.
3. Compare name, address, phone, website and the hours link. For each difference, quote the exact text from both places.
Don't change, submit or post anything. If we aren't listed, tell me. I'll decide whether to send a correction.3. Results and updates
Use it inside your shop project so it knows your voice.
When I send you a result or an update (tonight's trivia winners, a race or league score, a sold-out batch, a new special), turn it into:
- one short post for our own account, under 240 characters, with the date and time in America/Los_Angeles;
- one line I can add to our website.
Use only what I sent. Don't add prices, hours or names I didn't give you. Show me the drafts and wait. I post them myself.4. Review sort
Paste in new reviews or messages. Drafts only.
Here are this week's reviews and messages. Sort them into questions, praise and complaints.
For each question, draft a short reply in our voice using only our menu and hours from this project. For each complaint, give me one line on what happened and leave the reply to me.
Don't invent details, offers or apologies on our behalf.WHERE CHATGPT FITS
ChatGPT is the everyday pick.
- You probably already pay for it. Plus covers five scheduled tasks, plenty for one shop.
- Projects keep your voice consistent. Drafts come out sounding like you once it has a few real posts.
- Dots is the closest thing to a staff assistant: scheduled check-ins, a cloud browser and approval before it acts.
- Custom GPTs are being retired in favor of plugins. Build new things as a project or a plugin, not a GPT.
Watch out for.
- Task limits. Go gets 3 active tasks and Plus gets 5. Combine jobs into one Monday task instead of five small ones.
- Tasks don’t run with GPTs or voice. Use a regular chat for anything scheduled.
- Project files and tasks. A task inside a project can’t read the project’s files. Paste the key facts into the task’s prompt instead.
- Stale answers. Tell it to open your website every time. Don’t let it answer hours from memory.
What to hand off. What to keep.
Owners who kept a person on the last step report the best results. The ones who let a bot post on its own report the worst.
Good jobs for a bot
- Drafting posts, menus and specials for you to approve.
- Comparing your listings with your own website, weekly.
- Sorting reviews and messages into questions, praise and complaints.
- Drafting replies to simple questions (parking, hours, dog-friendly).
- A morning summary of what changed overnight.
Keep these human
- Replies to complaints and bad reviews. Read them, then answer yourself.
- Prices, hours and closures going public. Check them before they post.
- Anything that spends money, sends a message as you or deletes something.
- Reviews and testimonials. Never invent, "improve" or AI-generate one. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews, AI-written ones included.
- Photos of your food or shop. Don't let AI change a real photo and pass it off as real.
What it costs to run.
- Most shops: Plus at $20/mo. Go at $8/mo works if three tasks are enough.
- Teams: Business at $25 per user monthly ($20 yearly), two seats minimum.
- Developers: the OpenAI API bills per token. The web search tool is $10 per thousand calls plus tokens. See API pricing.
Going further.
A plugin bundles skills and apps, and it’s where custom GPTs are headed. A “[Business] desk” plugin with your menu, hours and voice could serve the whole staff.
For the ping without Dots, a developer can run the puzzle and POST from a free cloud cron (a Cloudflare Worker or a GitHub Action) and let ChatGPT do the reading and drafting.
Same jobs, another AI.
Every guide uses the same three jobs, so you can switch bots without starting over. Compare them side by side →
Where this comes from.
Checked November 8, 2026 on each company's own pages. Owner stories are labeled reported: one person's account, not a test.