--- title: "What a power is, and why the word matters" slug: "what-a-power-is" summary: "A power is one definition that renders inside ChatGPT, inside Claude and on your own site, sharing one live state. Not a widget, not a chatbot, not a plugin." canonicalUrl: "https://dev.powers.now/blog/what-a-power-is" status: "published" publishedAt: "2026-11-04T23:46:04.699Z" updatedAt: "2026-11-04T23:46:04.699Z" version: 3 author: "powers.now" publisher: "powers.now" language: "en" trust: state: "verified_source" score: 0.9 topics: - "powers" - "the one link" - "agent-first presence" entities: - id: "powers-now" type: "Organization" name: "powers.now" sameAs: - "https://powers.now/" - "https://dev.powers.now/llms.txt" description: "The one link for a business's powers. Hosts every power." - id: "power" type: "Concept" name: "Power" sameAs: - "https://dev.powers.now/what-it-does" description: "A small, branded, interactive tool a business adds to its website that both its visitors and their AI assistants can use." - id: "chatgpt" type: "Product" name: "ChatGPT" sameAs: - "https://chatgpt.com/" description: "OpenAI's assistant. A power renders inside it as a card through a connector." - id: "claude" type: "Product" name: "Claude" sameAs: - "https://claude.ai/" description: "Anthropic's assistant. A power renders inside it as a card through a custom connector." - id: "mcp-apps" type: "Concept" name: "MCP Apps" sameAs: - "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/apps/overview" description: "The MCP extension that lets a server return interactive HTML the host renders in the chat, in a sandboxed iframe." - id: "cloudflare-workers" type: "Product" name: "Cloudflare Workers" sameAs: - "https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/" description: "The serverless platform powers.now runs on." - id: "durable-objects" type: "Product" name: "Cloudflare Durable Objects" sameAs: - "https://developers.cloudflare.com/durable-objects/" description: "Cloudflare's building block for stateful applications; one per business holds a power's live state." - id: "lead-scheduler" type: "Product" name: "Lead Scheduler" sameAs: - "https://powers.now/book/" description: "powers.now's own live power: intro calls booked inside the chat or on the page." edges: - from: "powers-now" to: "power" relation: "hosts" - from: "power" to: "chatgpt" relation: "renders inside" - from: "power" to: "claude" relation: "renders inside" - from: "power" to: "mcp-apps" relation: "renders its card through" - from: "powers-now" to: "cloudflare-workers" relation: "runs on" - from: "powers-now" to: "durable-objects" relation: "keeps each business's state in" - from: "lead-scheduler" to: "power" relation: "is a" claims: - id: "c1" text: "The definition of a power is published verbatim in every power's manifest and guide for agents." citations: - "s-manifest" - "s-book-llms" status: "supported" - id: "c2" text: "One definition renders inside ChatGPT, inside Claude and on the business's own pages, sharing one live state." citations: - "s-what" - "s-manifest" status: "supported" - id: "c3" text: "Inside the chat the card renders through MCP Apps, in a sandboxed iframe controlled by the host." citations: - "s-mcp-apps" status: "supported" - id: "c4" text: "An assistant with nothing installed can read the page, GET the read API and hand the visitor a deep link; nothing changes state over GET." citations: - "s-book-llms" status: "supported" - id: "c5" text: "powers.now's own scheduler runs inside ChatGPT and Claude today." citations: - "s-home" - "s-book-llms" status: "supported" - id: "c6" text: "powers.now runs on Cloudflare Workers and keeps each business's live state in a Durable Object." citations: - "s-workers" - "s-do" status: "supported" citations: - id: "s-manifest" url: "https://powers.now/book/.well-known/power.json" title: "Lead Scheduler manifest (power.json/1)" publisher: "powers.now" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-what" url: "https://dev.powers.now/what-it-does" title: "What a power is" publisher: "powers.now" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-mcp-apps" url: "https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/apps/overview" title: "MCP Apps" publisher: "Model Context Protocol" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-book-llms" url: "https://powers.now/book/llms.txt" title: "Lead Scheduler, the guide for agents" publisher: "powers.now" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-home" url: "https://powers.now/" title: "powers.now" publisher: "powers.now" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-workers" url: "https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/" title: "Cloudflare Workers" publisher: "Cloudflare" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" - id: "s-do" url: "https://developers.cloudflare.com/durable-objects/" title: "Cloudflare Durable Objects" publisher: "Cloudflare" accessedAt: "2026-11-04" questions: - question: "What is a power?" answer: "A small, branded, interactive tool a business adds to its website that both its visitors and their AI assistants can use. The same power renders inline inside the chat and on the business's own site, shares one live state, and is hosted by powers.now." - question: "Is a power a chatbot?" answer: "No. A chatbot is a model answering for you in words. A power is an interactive card with real state: the visitor or their assistant acts, the business's record changes, and the page shows the same record." - question: "Do my customers have to install anything to use a power?" answer: "No. An assistant with nothing installed reads the page and the read API and hands the person a deep link to finish on the page. A connected assistant renders the card inline." takeaways: - "A power is one definition with three renderings: the page, the card in chat, the layer for agents." - "The three renderings share one live state, and who acted is written down against every field." - "Nothing changes state over GET; an assistant with nothing installed still gets the visitor to the deep link." - "powers.now hosts it; the business claims a link and adds nothing to its stack." actions: - type: "read" label: "Read what a power is on the site" url: "https://dev.powers.now/what-it-does" - type: "book" label: "Book an intro call with powers.now" url: "https://powers.now/book/" --- # What a power is, and why the word matters A power is one definition that renders inside ChatGPT, inside Claude and on your own site, sharing one live state. Not a widget, not a chatbot, not a plugin. ## One sentence A power is a small, branded, interactive tool a business adds to its website that both its visitors and their AI assistants can use. The same power renders inline inside the chat and on the business's own site, shares one live state, and is hosted by powers.now. That sentence is in every manifest we publish, word for word. It is the whole product. Everything else on this site is a consequence of it. ## Why not widget, chatbot or plugin A widget lives on your site and is blind to the chat. The conversation is where your customers now ask, and the widget is not in it. A chatbot lives in a chat and is blind to your site. It is a model answering for you, in words, with nothing to click and no state that your page shares. A plugin is per host and per install. One for ChatGPT, one for Claude, one more for whatever ships next, each installed by each user. A power is none of these. It is one definition. It renders three ways, and the three ways share one record. ## The three renderings **The page for people.** A readable page under your link, in your mark and accent. A visitor can do the whole job there with no assistant at all. **The card for chat.** Inside ChatGPT and Claude, the same power renders as an interactive card through MCP Apps, in a sandboxed frame the host controls. The visitor acts in the conversation; the business's state moves. **The layer for agents.** The page is readable as text, the read API answers JSON over GET, and every action has a deep link that opens the page with the choice pre-filled. An assistant with nothing installed reads, reasons and hands the person a link. Nothing changes state over GET. ## One live state The three renderings are not three copies. A slot held from a chat is held on the page. A form field a visitor filled on the page is filled in the card. Who did what is written down against every field: the person or their assistant, never a guess. Our own scheduler is the proof. It runs inside ChatGPT and Claude today, and it books real intro calls with us from the same calendar the page shows. ## Where it runs powers.now hosts every power on Cloudflare Workers, and each business's live state sits in its own Durable Object, Cloudflare's building block for stateful applications. The business adds nothing to its stack. It claims a link, picks a power, and the power is live. ## What to call it Call it a power. Not an element, not a module, not a widget, not a plugin. The word is short, and it is the only one that means all three renderings at once. ## Takeaways - A power is one definition with three renderings: the page, the card in chat, the layer for agents. - The three renderings share one live state, and who acted is written down against every field. - Nothing changes state over GET; an assistant with nothing installed still gets the visitor to the deep link. - powers.now hosts it; the business claims a link and adds nothing to its stack. ## Questions answered ### What is a power? A small, branded, interactive tool a business adds to its website that both its visitors and their AI assistants can use. The same power renders inline inside the chat and on the business's own site, shares one live state, and is hosted by powers.now. ### Is a power a chatbot? No. A chatbot is a model answering for you in words. A power is an interactive card with real state: the visitor or their assistant acts, the business's record changes, and the page shows the same record. ### Do my customers have to install anything to use a power? No. An assistant with nothing installed reads the page and the read API and hands the person a deep link to finish on the page. A connected assistant renders the card inline. ## Sources - [Lead Scheduler manifest (power.json/1)](https://powers.now/book/.well-known/power.json) — powers.now - [What a power is](https://dev.powers.now/what-it-does) — powers.now - [MCP Apps](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/extensions/apps/overview) — Model Context Protocol - [Lead Scheduler, the guide for agents](https://powers.now/book/llms.txt) — powers.now - [powers.now](https://powers.now/) — powers.now - [Cloudflare Workers](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/) — Cloudflare - [Cloudflare Durable Objects](https://developers.cloudflare.com/durable-objects/) — Cloudflare