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

33 points by schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago

Hi HN I recently got married, promptly had a bit of a meltdown, and decided to lock myself in a room and build for a while. At the same time, I was trying to outbound sell for my startup and kept running into the same problem: I wanted an automation tool that could actually use my computer like a person. Click through UIs, copy/paste between apps, handle messy workflows — not just APIs and webhooks. I couldn’t find anything that felt: - consumer-friendly (non-technical) - local-first - flexible enough for real-world, UI-driven tasks So I challenged myself to see how far I could get building an open-source, desktop automation app powered by AI. That’s Tasker. I’ve been using it daily for ~2–3 weeks for sales workflows, and my father has been using it to help generate estimates for his HVAC business. It’s still early (still needs to expand to general OS), but it’s already replaced a lot of manual work for us in browser. One thing that’s become very clear: a cloud/deployable version that can run on cron or be triggered via HTTP would unlock a lot of use cases. I’m not totally sure where this goes next, but I wanted to share it early and get feedback. Would love thoughts on: - What workflows you’d actually trust something like this with - Desktop vs cloud tradeoffs - Where this breaks down in practice - Whether this feels useful or just scary Repo and docs are linked on the site.

yodon 9mo ago
HN hug of death? Can't open the site
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  Hahahaha, oh fun. I guess so then. It is opening for me, maybe DNS stuff although its been up for a month. https://automatewithtasker.com https://automatewithtasker.com or https://github.com/pitalco/tasker https://github.com/pitalco/tasker if that does not work.
Tade0 9mo ago
Not to be confused with Tasker for Android: https://tasker.joaoapps.com/index.html https://tasker.joaoapps.com/index.html
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  No! It's not!!!!
  - farmerbb 9mo ago
    I'd recommend you change the name of your project sooner rather than later, Tasker is a well established app in the Android power user community for automating various tasks (albeit without AI)
    - schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
      Yeah probably if I were to take it seriously! Thanks for the rec
      - blackqueeriroh 9mo ago
        You’re fine, trust me. Mac and android apps that do different things often have the same names.
        schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
        Yeah I know and agree. I use like dozens of tools with same names, many very similar products. But those that are genuinely confused and provide feedback I appreciate. Those that are hostile that just seem to follow "misery loves company", I like to be sarcastic with. Seems to be a win win with both sides (I can be a smart ass). Appreciate it!
  - netsharc 9mo ago
    I guess you didn't ask your AI if "Tasker" is a good name, or your AI doesn't know enough to answer that Tasker is a very well-known app that does what you describe, on Android. Your post made me think Tasker had branched out to automating actions on desktop computers... If your app gets popular, good luck sifting through the questions of confused people asking about tasks on Android, and realize that many many Tasker (the original one, see I already have to write in parantheses which Tasker I'm referring too) forum users will be cursing you for naming your app the same as theirs.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
1shooner 9mo 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?
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  Technically it can run any OpenAI schema open source LLM through Fireworks or Groq or whatever. But you are right I should probably make that clearer.
jutter 9mo 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?
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  I knew about it. I just did it for fun and me and my father so did not care enough. You can name it whatever you would like. Lmfaooooo on the meltdown. No probably not considering I have been one for longer. And so far it has. Time will be the real tell so I've heard.
- blackqueeriroh 9mo ago
  He can absolutely call this Tasker. There are a bunch of apps with the same name. Tasker on Android doesn’t have a macOS version. Unless they got a trademark, he’s good to go.
IntelliAvatar 9mo 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.
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  Phenomenal questions. Sandboxing would be a PHENOMENAL idea. And allowlist it currently is capable of this but does require code changes so configuration based would probably be more what you are referring to? The replay feature is similar to the record feature. It's not a "guardrail" I would say though. All stuff that definitely would be great idea.
  - IntelliAvatar 9mo ago
    Makes sense, thanks for the clarification. I mostly worry about the gap between a correct plan and execution-time behavior — especially when tools touch the filesystem or OS APIs. Even a single malformed argument can have irreversible effects. Totally agree these guardrails are non-trivial, but it’s great to see the project thinking in this direction.
Agent_Builder 9mo ago
[dead]
- schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
  That makes a lot of sense tbh. I believe some of the way around this is only exposing context and actionable tools the agent can and should be using per step but additional guardrails would not hurt at all.
conception 9mo 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 9mo 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.
sbondaryev 9mo 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 9mo ago
  I will try to see if I can get my hands on a similar spec to test and recreate! Thanks for the message :)
cbnotfromthere 9mo ago
[dead]
donclark 9mo 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

33 points by schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago

yodon 9mo ago

HN hug of death? Can't open the site

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
Hahahaha, oh fun. I guess so then. It is opening for me, maybe DNS stuff although its been up for a month. https://automatewithtasker.com https://automatewithtasker.com or https://github.com/pitalco/tasker https://github.com/pitalco/tasker if that does not work.

Tade0 9mo ago

Not to be confused with Tasker for Android: https://tasker.joaoapps.com/index.html https://tasker.joaoapps.com/index.html

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
No! It's not!!!!
- farmerbb 9mo ago
  I'd recommend you change the name of your project sooner rather than later, Tasker is a well established app in the Android power user community for automating various tasks (albeit without AI)
  - schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
    Yeah probably if I were to take it seriously! Thanks for the rec
    - blackqueeriroh 9mo ago
      You’re fine, trust me. Mac and android apps that do different things often have the same names.
      - schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
        Yeah I know and agree. I use like dozens of tools with same names, many very similar products. But those that are genuinely confused and provide feedback I appreciate. Those that are hostile that just seem to follow "misery loves company", I like to be sarcastic with. Seems to be a win win with both sides (I can be a smart ass). Appreciate it!
- netsharc 9mo ago
  I guess you didn't ask your AI if "Tasker" is a good name, or your AI doesn't know enough to answer that Tasker is a very well-known app that does what you describe, on Android. Your post made me think Tasker had branched out to automating actions on desktop computers... If your app gets popular, good luck sifting through the questions of confused people asking about tasks on Android, and realize that many many Tasker (the original one, see I already have to write in parantheses which Tasker I'm referring too) forum users will be cursing you for naming your app the same as theirs.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

1shooner 9mo 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?

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
Technically it can run any OpenAI schema open source LLM through Fireworks or Groq or whatever. But you are right I should probably make that clearer.

jutter 9mo 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?

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
I knew about it. I just did it for fun and me and my father so did not care enough. You can name it whatever you would like. Lmfaooooo on the meltdown. No probably not considering I have been one for longer. And so far it has. Time will be the real tell so I've heard.
blackqueeriroh 9mo ago
He can absolutely call this Tasker. There are a bunch of apps with the same name. Tasker on Android doesn’t have a macOS version. Unless they got a trademark, he’s good to go.

IntelliAvatar 9mo 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.

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
Phenomenal questions. Sandboxing would be a PHENOMENAL idea. And allowlist it currently is capable of this but does require code changes so configuration based would probably be more what you are referring to? The replay feature is similar to the record feature. It's not a "guardrail" I would say though. All stuff that definitely would be great idea.
- IntelliAvatar 9mo ago
  Makes sense, thanks for the clarification. I mostly worry about the gap between a correct plan and execution-time behavior — especially when tools touch the filesystem or OS APIs. Even a single malformed argument can have irreversible effects. Totally agree these guardrails are non-trivial, but it’s great to see the project thinking in this direction.

Agent_Builder 9mo ago

[dead]

schnetzlerjoe 9mo ago
That makes a lot of sense tbh. I believe some of the way around this is only exposing context and actionable tools the agent can and should be using per step but additional guardrails would not hurt at all.

conception 9mo 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 9mo 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.

sbondaryev 9mo 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 9mo ago
I will try to see if I can get my hands on a similar spec to test and recreate! Thanks for the message :)

cbnotfromthere 9mo ago

[dead]

donclark 9mo 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