How to turn a repair request into a work order and send it to a vendor with AI

Step 1: create the work order

Describe the problem the way the tenant did: "5A says water is dripping from the ceiling under the upstairs bathroom." Give the unit or the property. For a single home, the property is enough.

The assistant answers first without saving. It shows the trade it would use (plumbing, for the example), the urgency and a title. Check three things: the urgency matches the risk, the unit is right and the description holds what a vendor needs to know. Ask it to add whether entry is allowed and any access notes, such as a dog or a lockbox.

A good description names the symptom, where it is and since when, for example whether the drip is constant or only when the upstairs shower runs. It also helps a vendor to know if the tenant already shut off a valve. Ask the assistant to turn the tenant's message into those facts before you confirm. When you say yes, it creates the work order. The triage thinking behind urgency is in triage maintenance requests with AI.

Step 2: offer it to a helper

Ask: "Send it to a plumber." The assistant first shows who it would pick: an active helper with the right trade and area and the fewest open jobs. You can name a different helper instead. Nothing is sent until you say yes.

The helper gets a job link and answers there. If no helper matches the trade and area, the assistant tells you, and you add one first. How to vet a helper is in hiring maintenance vendors: W-9 and insurance.

Step 3: decide whether to auto-dispatch

For emergencies at 2 am you may not want to be the bottleneck. You can ask the assistant to set an auto-dispatch rule for chosen urgencies, for example emergency and urgent only, with a limit on how many helpers are offered a job one at a time. That request queues an approval, and nothing changes until you accept it. Each dispatch it makes shows in your morning brief.

Leave routine work off auto-dispatch until you trust your helper list. Routine jobs can wait for your yes.

Review the dispatches in the morning brief for the first few weeks. If a helper keeps declining or answering slowly, remove them from the list so the next job goes to someone who responds. Keeping the list short and current is the biggest factor in how fast a repair gets started.

What about paying the helper

The job link covers who does the work, not the payment. Pay from your own bank when the work is done, and keep the invoice with the work order. Check any invoice that comes in far above the quote before you pay; see vendor invoice higher than the quote. Money always follows your own approval.

How DoorKeeping handles it

Creating a work order and dispatching a helper are both two-step actions that act only after your yes. The assistant running in the background can suggest a helper but cannot send the job. Rent stays in your own bank account, and anything involving money waits for your approval.

Sources

1. DoorKeeping: Connect Claude or ChatGPT (steps and tools list), read Oct 30, 2026
2. Model Context Protocol: Architecture overview (tools, resources, prompts), read Oct 30, 2026

Questions

Does the AI decide how urgent a repair is?

It proposes the trade, urgency and title and shows them before saving. You can change them.

Can the AI send a job to a vendor without me?

Not unless you turn on an auto-dispatch rule, which itself needs your approval. Otherwise it shows the helper and waits for your yes.

What if no vendor matches?

The assistant tells you no helper matches that trade and area, and you add one before dispatching.

How fast does a helper have to answer?

30 minutes for an emergency, 2 hours for urgent and a day for routine.