#Beacons — Location-Aware Inventory

Small Bluetooth transmitters, big context upgrades. Beacons tell your AI where you are so it can give you answers that actually make sense for the room you're standing in.

#What It Does

Beacons are small, battery-powered Bluetooth transmitters that you place at fixed locations — a kitchen shelf, a museum exhibit, a garage workbench, your medicine cabinet. They use the iBeacon protocol to broadcast a unique identity made up of three values: a UUID (identifies the beacon family), a Major number (identifies a group or zone), and a Minor number (identifies the specific beacon). Together, these three values are as unique as a fingerprint, except they're useful.

When your phone detects a beacon, ambientChat adds that location context to your AI conversations automatically. Ask "What's expiring soon?" while standing near your kitchen beacon, and the AI knows to prioritize pantry items. Ask "What's on this shelf?" near a museum beacon, and the AI can tell you about the exhibit. The context flows invisibly — you don't need to tell the AI where you are, because the beacons already did.

The app maintains a Beacon Registry where you can see every beacon your phone has detected, along with signal strength, estimated distance, and whether you've given it a name. Think of it as a census of the invisible Bluetooth population in your vicinity.

#How to Use It

#iOS App

#Viewing Detected Beacons

1. Open the Location tab at the bottom of the screen
2. You'll see a list of beacons your phone is currently detecting or has recently seen
3. Each entry shows the beacon's name (if registered), UUID, Major/Minor values, signal strength (RSSI), and estimated distance
4. Beacons are sorted by proximity — the closest ones appear first

#Registering a Beacon

When you see an unregistered beacon in the list:

1. Tap the beacon entry
2. Give it a name that describes its location (e.g., "Kitchen Counter", "Front Door", "Workshop Bench")
3. Configure the alert mode:
   • Sound — plays a notification sound when you enter the beacon's range
   • Silent — detects the beacon quietly, no audio interruption
4. Set a snooze duration if you don't want repeated alerts (e.g., "Don't alert me again for 30 minutes")
5. Tap Save

Once registered, the beacon's name appears in your chat context whenever you're nearby. The AI stops saying "you're near beacon Minor 7832" and starts saying "you're in the kitchen."

#Managing Beacon Settings

1. Go to Account > Beacon Settings
2. Here you can:
   • Toggle beacon monitoring on or off
   • View all registered beacons
   • Edit beacon names and alert preferences
   • Remove beacons you no longer use

#Searching the Global Registry

ambientChat maintains a global registry of known beacon identifiers — beacons deployed in museums, retail stores, and other public venues.

1. From the beacon list, tap Search Registry
2. Enter a UUID, Major, or Minor value, or search by location name
3. If a match is found, you can import the beacon's name and metadata into your personal registry

#Via Chat

Your AI assistant is beacon-aware. Try these prompts:

• "Where am I right now?" — The AI tells you which beacons are in range
• "What's near the kitchen beacon?" — Asks about inventory associated with that location
• "When was the last time I was in the garage?" — Checks your beacon visit history
• "What beacons have I seen today?" — Lists your recent beacon encounters

#Via Claude Desktop (MCP)

When connected via MCP, the get_user_context tool automatically includes nearby beacon information in its response. You can pass a focus parameter with type: "beacon" and the beacon's ID to get context specific to that beacon's location.

#Tips & Tricks

• Place beacons at fixed locations, not on things that move. A beacon on your kitchen shelf is reliable context. A beacon in your pocket is just confusing.
• The app detects beacons even when backgrounded. iOS region monitoring works in the background, so you'll get beacon context even if ambientChat isn't in the foreground. The app wakes briefly to note the beacon, then goes back to sleep. Very efficient, very polite.
• Beacon names flow directly into chat context. The more descriptive your beacon names, the better the AI's location-aware answers. "Kitchen Pantry Shelf 2" beats "Beacon 1" every time.

#Options

#Known Limitations

• Bluetooth must be enabled. If Bluetooth is off, no beacons are detected. The app cannot force Bluetooth on — that's between you and your Settings app.
• Detection range varies wildly. Depending on walls, furniture, humidity, and the general mood of radio waves, a beacon might be detected from 1 meter or 30 meters away. Don't expect room-level precision in an open-plan loft.
• Battery-powered beacons need replacement. Most beacons run on coin cell batteries that last 1-3 years. When a beacon stops appearing, check the battery before blaming the app.
• iOS limits simultaneous beacon monitoring. The system can monitor up to 20 beacon regions at once. If you've deployed an army of beacons, some may not be tracked simultaneously.
• Signal strength fluctuates. RSSI values bounce around due to interference, body position, and whether Mercury is in retrograde. Distance estimates are approximate — treat them as "near," "medium," or "far" rather than precise measurements.

#Version History