Jean couldn’t reach a brain
- Fix
- About 2 minutes
- Every browser
Jean sent the request, and no answer came back: this device may be offline, or the service doesn’t accept requests from a browser. Check your connection and press Try again. If it goes on, connect another brain in Settings › Brains.
Show me in JeanOpens Jean at the right place and points at each button. It changes nothing by itself.
Why it happens
Most often the connection dropped: Wi-Fi, a train, a phone out of signal. Jean has already tried again three times by the time it says so. Otherwise the service refused a request from a web page: a few services accept none, and Ollama and LM Studio accept them only once they are told to. A browser can’t tell Jean which of the two it was, so the message names both.
Steps
- Check that this device is online: open another site in a new tab.
- Open Settings, from the menu with your name (or “You”), at the foot of the task list, then Brains. The brain that couldn’t be reached says Needs you: open it.
- On its page, press Try again: Jean calls the brain once more. If it answers this time, the message goes away, and so does Needs you: your tasks can use it again.
- If it still can’t be reached, connect another brain with Add a brain, in Brains. OpenRouter’s free account accepts requests from a browser.
Good to know
- Under an answer, the same message has Check the brain, which opens Brains.
- Once opened, Jean itself works without the internet: only brains in the cloud, the web and the services you connect need it.
- With a brain on this device, Auto answers with it while you’re offline.
If it doesn’t work
It’s your Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot plan
A plan answers through a line you pasted in a terminal, which stops when your computer restarts or the terminal closes. Paste it again: Your plan stopped answering.
It’s Ollama or LM Studio
They answer a browser only once a setting on your computer tells them to. If that’s more than you want, start for free with OpenRouter: Choose the AI that answers.
It worked yesterday, with the same brain
The service may be down for a while. Try again later, or use another brain meanwhile.
Every brain in the cloud fails
Something between this device and the internet stops them: a network at work, a VPN, or an extension that blocks ads or trackers. Try another network, your phone’s for instance, or turn the extension off for this site. At work, your IT team knows what its network lets through.
Still stuck?
Write to arnaud@jean.is: say what you see on the screen, and in which browser.