---
title: "Public assistants"
description: "Make an assistant public so any Lookio workspace can ask it with its own credits, earn 20% of what they spend, and ask the public assistants of others."
canonical: "https://lookio.app/docs/platform/public-assistants"
updated: "2026-10-29"
---

# Public assistants

A public assistant is listed in the **Public assistants** directory. Any Lookio workspace finds it there and asks it from its Chat, the API, the MCP server or the CLI, **with its own credits**.

## Making one of yours public

Open the assistant, then the **Public** tab (or **Make it public** in its menu). Write the description the directory shows: what it answers, from what kind of sources, for whom (40 to 1,000 characters). Lookio reviews every request before listing it.

- **You earn 20%** of the credits other workspaces spend on it, added to your balance early the next month and shown in Billing as _Public assistant earnings_.
- **Its setup stays yours**: others see its name and description, never its context, guidelines or resources. Its answers cite passages without linking your files.
- **Their questions stay theirs**: conversations live in the workspace that asks. The Public tab shows how much it is asked (questions, workspaces, credits, your share), never what.
- **Its description stays as approved.** To change it, unpublish the assistant, edit the description and send it again: Lookio reviews it again.
- **Unpublish** takes it out of the directory at once; the next question from another workspace is refused.

Only workspace admins make an assistant public.

## Asking the assistants of others

Open **Assistants**, then **Public assistants**. Search the directory, open one, and choose **Add to Chat**: it joins the Chat's assistant picker, marked with a globe. From the API, MCP or CLI, ask it by its id like your own assistants (`POST /v1/assistants/{id}/query`, `ask_assistant`, `lookio ask`). Your conversations with it stay in your workspace, in your Logs and Usage.