do companions heal themselves?

[Jakuzi]

I notice some of my allies are injured and it seems they have been a for a bit
do I have to start shooting salves at them

[Water Ｖａｐｏｒ Merchant]

If they were attacked by thirst thistles then they are probably dehydrated, and won't naturally regenerate HP until you give them some water. You can just give them a waterskin with a few drams and then they should be good to go again.

[Jakuzi]

I was unaware I could give them things, I don't normally seem capable of interacting with them

[Green9090]

You can force interact with them (CTRL+Space is the default I believe). That command is also useful for other things; loot on top of doorways, bookshelves stacked on top of one another, etc.

Also, giving companions items is pretty key to companion builds. If they have compatible equipment slots, they'll equip things you hand them if they decide it's better than what they're wearing (though they can be very stupid about evaluating equipment). They're also fantastic for carrying loot, especially legendary mobs which tend to have extremely high stats and thus carry capacity. Just make sure you don't overload them and then fast travel away, because they'll stay stuck there and it can be borderline impossible to find your way back to them.

[Jakuzi]

okay I have 3 legendary companions, supposed it's time to look into how to utilize them better

[Null_Error]

You can also interact with them with the look command. This is useful for directing them at range.