Show HN: Tasker – An open-source desktop agent for browser and OS automation

33 pointsposted a month ago
by schnetzlerjoe

13 Comments

1shooner

a month ago

>Your data never leaves your computer. Tasker runs entirely on your machine for maximum privacy.

Am I misreading your docs that Tasker actually does not support running local, and in fact requires using either a Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI service?

donclark

a month ago

I tried to create a workflow and it does not seem to record specific tasks. It did not record me going to a specific website, clicking on an area of text, copying of text. How can I get this to work? How do I teach or correct it? THx

IntelliAvatar

a month ago

This looks great.

One thing I’ve been bitten by with desktop agents is execution-time safety: the plan is correct, but a single malformed path or OS call causes real damage.

Do you enforce any guardrails at the tool boundary (e.g. path sandboxing, network allowlists, dry-run / replay)?

Curious how you’re thinking about this.

sbondaryev

a month ago

Nice idea - unfortunately I didn't manage to get it running on my MacBook Pro (Late 2013).

I'm on Big Sur 11.7.10, which I know is pretty old at this point. The app launches, but it only shows an empty window.

I was also a bit concerned about privacy while running it :)

schnetzlerjoe

a month ago

I will try to see if I can get my hands on a similar spec to test and recreate! Thanks for the message :)

conception

a month ago

I want this but it runs in its own session- like screen or terminal server- so i can keep using the computer and just check in on the automation from time to time.

schnetzlerjoe

a month ago

Agree. That's the biggest ask from myself from using it. That's why I was thinking of just having a deployment option to my own server or something. Just runs and I don't have to be interrupted during my browsing.

yodon

a month ago

HN hug of death? Can't open the site

user

a month ago

[deleted]

jutter

a month ago

How on earth did you manage to get this far before learning of the Android app by the same name? You can't call this Tasker.

Are you willing to expand more on the meltdown? Coming to terms with being a grown up? Did your marriage survive?