Ostara in chat
Connect Ostara once for the organisation, then ask Centrus about a work order by its number, or ask it to accept the work order, set an ETA, add a note or set your job number as the client reference.
Checked against the app on
What it does
Ostara connects Centrus chat to the Ostara account your clients raise work orders in. Once it is set up, you ask about one work order by its number, and Centrus reads that work order while you wait. When you ask it to accept the work order, set an ETA, add a note or set the client reference, it asks you to confirm before it writes anything in Ostara.
Connect and manage external services
Connect Microsoft Excel to create and manage workbooks through Centrus.
- Ask “Create an Excel workbook for tracking tasks”
- Generate professional workbooks with data and formatting
- Produce data tables, reports, and tracking sheets
- Secure OAuth2 connection
Connect Microsoft Word to create and edit documents through Centrus.
- Ask “Put this in MS Doc” or “Create a Word document”
- Generate structured documents with headings and lists
- Files are saved to your OneDrive as real .docx
- Secure OAuth2 connection
Connect your Microsoft Outlook account for email and calendar access through Centrus.
- Send and read Outlook emails
- Schedule and manage calendar events
- Check free/busy times and availability
- Secure OAuth2 connection
Configure your organisation’s Ostara connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- Set a client reference
- There is no list of work orders. Create, cancel, and engineer actions are on the Agent Builder node.
Configure your organisation\u2019s Sage Intacct connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- List and look up AR invoices
- Find customers and AR payments
- List bills and vendors
Configure your organisation\u2019s GoHighLevel connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- Find a contact and see pipeline stages
- Check free slots and appointments
- Read a conversation
- 1Integrations, in the menu on the left.
- 2The Ostara card. It reads Not Connected until an administrator connects it.
- 3Connect, where an organisation administrator enters the Ostara username, API key and client host name.
- 4How to Use, with five questions to start with.
An administrator connects Ostara once for the whole organisation, and everyone else then clicks Enable on the same card. Chat can open a work order only when you have the number. There is no list of work orders. The last line on the card points to Agent Builder, where an agent can create, cancel and progress work orders: see Ostara in Agent Builder. Connecting chat does not connect Agent Builder.
Before you start
- An organisation administrator to connect it. Centrus accepts the details only from an administrator. For everyone else, Connect stays greyed out until an administrator has connected.
- Three details from Ostara: the account Username, the API key Ostara emailed you, and the Client host name. The host is the short name only, such as meridian, not the full web address.
- A key that can do the work you need. Ostara decides what that username and API key may read and change. A key set up to read only will turn an accept, an ETA, a note or a client reference down.
Username
The Ostara account user Centrus signs in as.
API key
The key Ostara emailed you. Stored encrypted.
Client host name
The short name only, such as meridian. Not the full web address.
You will not find these three boxes inside a Centrus menu. The username is the Ostara account user. The API key is the one Ostara emailed when they granted access. The client host name is the short name at the front of the Ostara address: for Meridian FM that is meridian, and Centrus then calls https:/. Do not paste the full address into the box.
The username, the API key and the host belong to the organisation, not to one person. Everyone who enables Ostara works through the same account, so a change made from chat is made as that user, whoever asked for it. Centrus stores the API key encrypted, and it stores the host in lower case, so meridian and Meridian are the same connection.
Connect Ostara
- 1Open Integrations from the menu on the left and find the Ostara card.
- 2Click Connect. The Connect Ostara window opens.
- 3Enter the Username, the API key and the Client host name. All three are required. For the host, enter the short name only, such as meridian.
- 4Click Connect.
Configure your organisation’s Ostara connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
Configure your organisation\u2019s Sage Intacct connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- List and look up AR invoices
- Find customers and AR payments
Enter the Ostara account username, the API key Ostara emailed you, and the client host short name. Connecting chat does not connect Agent Builder.
*Username
meridian.api*API key
••••••••••••••••*Client host name
meridianShort name only, for example meridian. Not the full URL.
- 1Username, the Ostara account user.
- 2API key, hidden as you type. It is the key from the Ostara email.
- 3Client host name, the short name only, such as meridian.
- 4Connect, which checks the username and API key with Ostara before saving them.
Before anything is saved, Centrus builds the address from the short name and asks Ostara for its action names, at GET / on https:/. Only if Ostara accepts the username and API key is the connection saved. The API key is encrypted. You then see Successfully connected to Ostara, and the card changes to Connected, with a green line reading Connected to and the short name, in lower case.
The sentence under the title is on the window itself: Connecting chat does not connect Agent Builder. The note under Client host name says to use the short name only, not the full URL.
Configure your organisation’s Ostara connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
Configure your organisation\u2019s Sage Intacct connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- List and look up AR invoices
- Find customers and AR payments
Enter the Ostara account username, the API key Ostara emailed you, and the client host short name. Connecting chat does not connect Agent Builder.
*Username
meridian.api*API key
••••••••••••••••*Client host name
meridianShort name only, for example meridian. Not the full URL.
If anything is wrong, the window stays open so you can correct it. The same message appears in the window and at the top of the page. The messages you may see are:
- Ostara rejected the username or API key. Ostara refused the sign-in. Check the username and the key for a missing character or a stray space, and check that the key in the email is still the current one.
- Username is required, API key is required or Client host name is required, under a box: that box is empty.
- Ostara username, API key, and client host name are required. The same check, if a required value was blank when it reached the server.
- Ostara client host name is invalid. The short name can contain letters, numbers and hyphens, and it has to start with a letter or a number. Enter meridian, not the full web address.
- Only organisation administrators can connect Ostara. Your account is not an administrator. Ask one to connect. You use Enable once they have.
- Could not connect to Ostara, or Failed to connect to Ostara, when the page has no more specific message to show.
Enable it for everyone else
Once an administrator has connected, everyone else sees Organisation connected by: with that person's name on the card, and the greyed-out Connect becomes Enable. Clicking Enable copies that administrator's connection onto your own account, so you never need the username, the API key or the host yourself. You see Successfully connected to Ostara, and the card shows Connected with the short name.
Enable copies the administrator's connection only. It does not copy from a colleague who has only clicked Enable. Chat then uses your own copy. If the administrator connects again with a new API key, your copy does not pick that up by itself: click Disconnect, then Enable, to take a fresh one.
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- Set a client reference
- There is no list of work orders. Create, cancel, and engineer actions are on the Agent Builder node.
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Organisation connected by: John Martin
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- Set a client reference
- There is no list of work orders. Create, cancel, and engineer actions are on the Agent Builder node.
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Connected to meridian
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- Set a client reference
- There is no list of work orders. Create, cancel, and engineer actions are on the Agent Builder node.
Integrations works the same way in a phone browser, with the cards in a single column. Scroll to Ostara and tap Enable. Each person enables once, and Ostara is then available to them in every chat, including Chat in the web app.
Centrus
Connect and manage external services
Connect Sage Intacct to look up and draft invoices, customers, AR payments, bills, vendors and projects through Centrus.
✓ Connected to company MeridianFM
- List and look up AR invoices
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Organisation connected by: John Martin
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
Connect GoHighLevel to find contacts, read conversations and check the diary through Centrus.
- Find a contact and see pipeline stages
Ask your first questions
Open Chat, start a chat and ask the way you would ask a colleague who has the Ostara number in front of them. Ostara is available in every chat once you have enabled it, whichever tag you choose. How to Use on the card opens a window titled Ostara in chat.
Ask Centrus to look up a work order by its number, and, after you confirm, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set the client reference. Connecting chat does not connect Agent Builder. There is no list of work orders.
- 1Questions to start with, the five lines on the window.
The window names Centrus, or the name your organisation has set for the AI. It says there is no list of work orders, and that an accept, an ETA, a note or a client reference waits until you confirm. Four questions in the same shape, for a work order Meridian has been given:
- “What is work order 48213?”
- “Accept work order 48213 with an ETA of tomorrow at 09:00.”
- “Add a note to 48213 that the engineer is on site.”
- “Set our job number J-10482 as the client reference on 48213.”
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
What is work order 48213?
Work order 48213 is a no-heating call at Riverside House for Northgate Housing. It has not been accepted, and it has no ETA yet.
| Work order | Client | Site | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48213 | Northgate Housing | Riverside House | No heating |
Shall I accept it for tomorrow at 09:00?
While Centrus works, the panel above the answer names each step. A look-up reads Ostara Get Work Order. The names on those lines are short titles, not full sentences. When the answer is ready, the panel folds to Worked with the number of steps. Open it to see that Centrus fetched that one work order before it answered.
You need the number. “What came in this morning?” has nothing to look up, because chat cannot list work orders. Carry on in the same chat, with “Accept that one” or “Add a note that the engineer is on site”, and Centrus keeps the number you were just talking about.
What you can ask
Centrus has 6 Ostara tools in chat, 2 that read and 4 that change data, and it picks the right ones from what you ask, so you never choose them yourself. Every tool is listed in the reference.
Work order
“What is work order 48213?”
“Show me Ostara work order 48213.”
Accept
“Accept work order 48213.”
“Accept 48213 with an ETA of tomorrow at 09:00.”
ETA
“Set the ETA on 48213 to tomorrow at 09:00.”
“Change the ETA on 48213 to 10/10/2026 at 14:00.”
Notes
“Add a note to 48213 that the engineer is on site.”
“Add a note that the tenant is out until 14:00.”
Client reference
“Set the client reference on 48213 to J-10482.”
“Clear the client reference on 48213.”
Action names
“What action names does Ostara have for us?”
“List the Ostara action mapping. This is not a list of work orders.”
- Work order. Look up one work order by its number. The number is digits only, such as 48213. There is no search by site, client, engineer or date, and there is no list of work orders. If you do not have the number, chat cannot find it.
- Accept. Accept that work order, after you confirm. You can put an ETA on the same accept, and a note if you want one. Accepting 48213 with an ETA of tomorrow at 09:00 is one change, not two.
- ETA. Write or change the ETA on a work order, after you confirm. The time is required. Use this when the work order is already accepted and only the time is changing. You can say tomorrow at 09:00, or give the date as 10/10/2026 at 09:00.
- Notes. Add a note, after you confirm. The wording is required. “The engineer is on site” and “The tenant is out until 14:00” are both notes. Chat cannot delete a note afterwards.
- Client reference. Set your own job number on the work order, after you confirm, such as J-10482. This is the reference the client sees against the work order. Ask to clear it and Centrus sends an empty reference, which removes the one that is there. You can add a note on the same change.
- Action names. Ask what action names this Ostara account has. That look-up returns names and ids. It does not need a work order number, and it is not a list of work orders. Centrus also uses this same look-up when an administrator clicks Connect, to check the username and API key.
The number has to be digits. 48213 is valid. J-10482 is your job number, which belongs in the client reference, not in the work order number. Centrus is told to keep the digits as a string, so a leading zero is not dropped.
An accept, an ETA, a note and a client reference can also carry a date, a person and a reference from your own job system, when you give them. Those sit alongside the change. They are not a substitute for the client reference: if you want J-10482 on the work order itself, ask for the client reference.
A question that needs a list has no tool behind it. Open, overdue, by site, by client, or raised today: chat cannot filter a set of work orders, because Ostara never sends the set. Give the number.
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
Which work orders came in today for Northgate Housing?
Chat cannot list Ostara work orders, by date, client or site. It can open one work order when you have the number, such as 48213. What number should I look up?
Making changes
4 of the 6 tools change data in Ostara: accept a work order, set an ETA, add a note, and set or clear the client reference. Each change shows as its own step in the panel above the answer: Ostara Accept Job, Ostara Provide Eta, Ostara Add Notes or Ostara Update Client Reference.
Centrus asks you in the chat before it changes anything. There is no separate approval screen. Say yes, give the work order number, and give the ETA, the note or the job number. Then check the result in Ostara.
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
Yes. Accept work order 48213 with an ETA of tomorrow at 09:00.
Done. Work order 48213 is accepted in Ostara. The ETA is 10/10/2026 at 09:00, at Riverside House for Northgate Housing.
Check the work order in Ostara.
Accepting with an ETA is a single write. You do not need a second request to set the time, unless the work order is already accepted and only the time is changing. In that case ask to set the ETA, and the time is required. A note on the accept is optional. A note on its own still needs the wording.
The client reference is the job number you want Ostara to hold, such as J-10482 for the Riverside House call. Say the number. To remove it, ask Centrus to clear the client reference. An empty reference is what Ostara treats as cleared.
Some changes cannot be taken back from chat:
- Accepting a work order cannot be undone from chat. If it should not have been accepted, correct it in Ostara.
- A note stays on the work order. Chat cannot delete it. Add a further note if you need to correct what was written.
- An ETA can be changed by setting it again, after you confirm the new time.
- Clearing the client reference removes it. Set J-10482 again if you still need it there.
There is no tool that applies one change to every work order. Each accept, ETA, note or client reference is one number. If you name 48213 and another work order in the same message, Centrus still treats them as two changes, and it asks before it writes either of them. Nothing is written while it is still asking.
John Martin
last message sent: 1 minute ago
Accept every open Northgate Housing work order, and set the ETA to tomorrow at 09:00.
Chat cannot accept a list. There is no list of work orders, and no bulk action. Nothing has been written. Give me the work order number, for example 48213, and I will ask before I accept it.
A number you looked up earlier in the chat is still just that number. You can say “that work order” and Centrus uses 48213. You cannot point at a morning's intake and accept the lot.
Who can use Ostara in chat
Ostara has no tool list in Settings, and editing a team does not include Ostara tools. The Integrations overview describes the tool screens used by BigChange REST and Simpro. Those screens do not appear for Ostara. Anyone who has clicked Enable, and the administrator who connected, can use all 6 tools.
Configure your organisation’s Ostara connection. Other users can then Enable it for chat.
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Organisation connected by: John Martin
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
Accept work order 48213 with an ETA of tomorrow at 09:00.
I can accept work order 48213 in Ostara and set the ETA to 10/10/2026 at 09:00. Shall I go ahead?
- 1The Settings tabs. Ostara is not among them.
- 2Connect, shown to an organisation administrator.
- 3Enable, which turns on every Ostara tool for that person.
- 4Centrus asks in the chat before it accepts, sets an ETA, adds a note or sets a client reference.
What each person can change in Ostara is decided by the API key the administrator connected, not by a tick against their name in Centrus. The lines on the card are the same for everyone. The only extra control in chat is the confirm step: Centrus is told to wait until you agree before it accepts a work order, sets an ETA, adds a note or sets the client reference.
Ostara
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- Set a client reference
- There is no list of work orders. Create, cancel, and engineer actions are on the Agent Builder node.
Limits
- One work order, by number. There is no list, no search and no page of results. The number is digits only. A question with no number cannot be answered from Ostara.
- Action names are not work orders. The other read returns the action names for this account. It takes no work order number, and it does not list jobs.
- One at a time. An accept, an ETA, a note or a client reference is one work order. There is no bulk action, and nothing is kept as a list to continue tomorrow.
- One call at a time. Ostara allows one request at a time for that username. Centrus waits for the call already in progress to finish before it sends the next. If Ostara is already busy, you see Ostara allows only one request at a time. Retry shortly.
- Confirm before a change. The four writes run after you agree in the chat. There is no approval window on the Integrations card.
- Accept and ETA. An ETA on an accept is optional and goes on the same write. Setting an ETA on its own needs the time. You can say tomorrow at 09:00. On Friday 09/10/2026, tomorrow at 09:00 is 10/10/2026 at 09:00.
- Client reference. Your job number, such as J-10482, is the client reference. An empty reference clears it. A note can go with it.
- No undo for an accept or a note. Chat cannot take an acceptance back, and it cannot delete a note. An ETA can be replaced by setting a new time.
- What chat cannot do. Chat cannot create a work order, and it cannot record travel or an engineer starting or stopping. The card's last line mentions those actions. They are on the Ostara step in Agent Builder, described in Ostara in Agent Builder.
- The host. Letters, numbers and hyphens, starting with a letter or a number. Centrus stores it in lower case and calls
https:/. The box wants the short name, such as meridian./ {client}-ostaraapi.ostarasystems.net - A failed call is not retried. Centrus does not send the same Ostara request again for you. The message includes Ostara's own explanation, cut off after 400 characters. Ask again once you have corrected it.
- The key. The API key can only do what Ostara allows that user to do. A refusal comes back in Ostara's own words, often after Ostara rejected the request:.
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
What is work order 48213?
The Working line names the look-up while Centrus is fetching it. For a work order that line is Ostara Get Work Order. When the answer is ready, the line folds into Worked.
Disconnect
Disconnect on the card removes your own connection only. It happens straight away, without asking you to confirm, and you see Integration disconnected. If an administrator's connection is still there to copy, the card goes back to Enable (or to Connect, if you are an administrator), so you can turn Ostara on again.
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Connected to meridian
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
Connect Ostara so Centrus can look up a work order, accept it, set an ETA, add a note, or set a client reference.
Organisation connected by: John Martin
- Look up a work order by number
- Accept a work order
- Set an ETA
- Add a note
- 1Disconnect, which removes your own connection without asking you to confirm.
- 2Enable, to turn Ostara back on from the administrator's connection.
Centrus looks for the connection that was marked as the organisation's, and if that row has gone it uses an administrator's remaining copy. It will not copy from someone who only clicked Enable. People who have already enabled keep working from their own copy. A person who has not enabled yet can still click Enable while an administrator's connection remains.
If the administrator who connected disconnects, and no other administrator still has an Ostara connection, new people cannot enable until an administrator connects again. The people who already enabled still can, until their own copy stops working. To stop every copy at once, change or withdraw the API key in Ostara. Copies do not pick up a new key by themselves, so once a new key is issued, the administrator connects again and everyone else clicks Disconnect, then Enable.
Troubleshooting
- Centrus answers as though Ostara is not connected. Check that the card says Connected for you, and click Enable if it shows Organisation connected by. If Connect is greyed out, nobody has connected yet. Ask an administrator to connect.
- Ostara is not connected. Your account has no copy of the connection. Click Enable, or ask an administrator to connect first.
- No Ostara connection found. Please ask your administrator to connect first. You clicked Enable, but no administrator's connection is left to copy.
- Stored Ostara API key is invalid. Please reconnect. The saved key can no longer be read. An administrator connects again, then everyone else clicks Disconnect and Enable.
- Ostara credentials are incomplete. Please reconnect. The saved username, API key or host is missing. Connect again. Until that is fixed, chat offers no Ostara tools, even if the card still looks connected.
- Ostara rejected the username or API key. Ostara refused the sign-in while connecting. Check the username, the key from the email, and the short host name.
- Only organisation administrators can connect Ostara. Ask an administrator to use Connect. You use Enable.
- Ostara client host name is invalid. Use the short name only, such as meridian. A full web address is not accepted.
- Ostara could not find that URL or work order. The number is not in Ostara, or the host name is pointing at the wrong address. Check the number, and check Connected to on the card.
- Ostara work order id must be a number. The number was not digits only. Ask again with 48213, not a job number such as J-10482. J-10482 belongs in the client reference.
- Ostara rejected the request: followed by Ostara's own text. The username and key worked, and Ostara refused this change. The text after the colon is the reason, often a permission on that user. It is cut off after 400 characters.
- Ostara allows only one request at a time. Retry shortly. Someone is already calling Ostara with this username. Wait a moment and ask again.
- Ostara request failed, with a number in brackets. Ostara returned an error page. Ask again. If Ostara's own description is included, that description is the reason.
- A list of today's work orders comes back empty of Ostara detail. There is no list to fetch. Ask by number.
- The accept did not happen. Centrus asks first. Say yes, and include the number and the ETA if you want one. Check the work order in Ostara after the Ostara Accept Job step.
John Martin
last message sent: less than a minute ago
What is work order 48213?
I couldn't get work order 48213. Ostara said Stored Ostara API key is invalid. Please reconnect. Ask an administrator to connect Ostara again on Integrations, then click Disconnect and Enable.
Tools and endpoints reference
There are 6 Ostara tools in chat: 2 read from Ostara and 4 change data. Chat does not list them in Settings, so the names below are the lines on the card, plus the action-name look-up. Every tool calls https:/, where {client} is the short host name on the card, such as meridian. Where a path contains {id}, that is the work order number, digits only. A change is a POST whose body names the action in the table. An accept, an ETA, a note and a client reference still wait until you confirm, as described above.
| Tool | What it does | Reads or changes | Endpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Look up a work order | Reads one work order by its number. There is no search and no list. | Reads | GET / |
| Accept a work order | Accepts the work order. An ETA and a note are optional and go on the same call. The action is acceptjob. | Changes | POST / |
| Set an ETA | Writes the ETA. The time is required. A note is optional. The action is provideeta. | Changes | POST / |
| Add a note | Adds the note. The wording is required. The action is addnotes. | Changes | POST / |
| Set a client reference | Sets the client reference, such as J-10482. An empty reference clears it. A note is optional. The action is updateclientreference. | Changes | POST / |
| Tool | What it does | Reads or changes | Endpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| List action mapping | Reads the action names for this Ostara account. It does not take a work order number, and it is not a list of work orders. Connect uses the same call to check the username and API key. | Reads | GET / |