Download
Check desktop availability at audimate.ai/download. During private testing, use the installer link supplied to you. RunAudimate-Setup.exe, then launch Audimate from the Start menu.
Automatic updates are unavailable during private testing.
Setting up Audimate
The first time you sign in on a computer, Audimate walks you through a short setup. If you are also setting up a new workspace, these steps come first in that same setup. Every step but Arro’s home can be skipped. Each setting has a page under Arro’s settings afterwards, listed in Permissions settings.
Home opens a welcome followed by Arro’s spoken tutorial.
Afterwards, Replay tour in your profile menu starts the optional spoken tour of the
dynamic dock.
On the Permissions step, each row says why it is needed, and Allow raises macOS’s own
question. Each row also has an arrow that opens the matching pane in System Settings, so a closed
macOS dialog is never a dead end. Pressing Continue with nothing allowed asks whether you are
sure, because Arro then asks for each one as you work. Windows has nothing to grant, so this step
does not appear.
Arro’s home is Documents → Audimate unless you choose somewhere else. On a Mac, Change… asks
macOS about the folder you pick, and Continue asks about the one shown. This step cannot be
skipped, because Arro cannot work without a home it is allowed to use. If macOS says no, you stay
on the step with an Open settings button until you allow the folder or choose another one. A
folder outside Documents, Desktop, Downloads, iCloud Drive and external drives needs no permission.
The Browser step lists each installed browser and you pick the one Arro should use. Google
Chrome is marked Recommended. This is the same Browser setting as
Arro → Browser, and Auto there means the browser this step showed as chosen.
If neither browser is installed, the step says what Arro cannot do without one and links to both.
Pressing Continue anyway asks you to confirm, because Arro then cannot work inside websites for
you.
Talk and type offers the Push to talk and Type a prompt keys. Keep the defaults or use
your preferred keys.
Allowing screen recording on a Mac takes effect after a restart, so the final device step offers
Restart now. Restart later moves on (finishing setup, or continuing into the workspace
steps when you are setting one up in the same run) and leaves the permission on but unusable until
you next open the app.
Permissions settings
Arro → Permissions shows the same rows after setup: which permissions are allowed, what each one is for, and a way to allow it or open the right place in System Settings. The page exists only on a Mac, because Windows has nothing to grant. Arro’s home, with Change…, Use the usual place and its own permission, is under Arro → File access; the browser Arro found is under Arro → Browser.macOS permissions
This section describes the upcoming macOS release. Windows does not need these permission steps. macOS keeps screen recording, the microphone, control of your Mac, and your Documents folder behind its own permission prompts. Setup offers each of them once, with a reason. Screen recording, the microphone and control of your Mac are asked for only when you press Allow; your Documents folder is asked for when you press Continue on the Arro’s home step, or Change… to pick a folder. For screen recording, pressing Allow takes one very small capture of each display, because that is how macOS registers the request; it is thrown away immediately and never shown, stored, or sent anywhere. Anything you skip is asked the first time you use the feature that needs it, never all at once, and never before you have given Arro something to do. Screen recording, the microphone and control of your Mac arrive the same way. A card appears in the dynamic dock explaining what is needed and why, with Allow and Not now. Pressing Allow is what raises macOS’s own dialog. Arro also says it out loud, because a blocked screen capture or a blocked click otherwise fails silently. Files and Folders is offered with Arro’s home in setup and under Arro → File access, beside the folder it is about; choosing a different folder asks about that one instead. A folder other than Arro’s home is asked about the first time a task touches it, with no Audimate card in front of it. macOS asks about a folder once and remembers the answer, so declining stops the task that needed it. Arro says which folder was refused, and you turn it back on in System Settings under Privacy & Security. Notifications comes from macOS directly, the first time Audimate has something to tell you.After you allow screen recording, Audimate restarts
macOS only hands the screen-capture permission to an app when it starts up, so the running copy cannot use a grant you have only now given it. The card changes to Relaunch: press it and Audimate comes straight back, ready to capture. Choosing Later leaves the permission on but unusable until the next time you open the app.If you say no
For the microphone, screen recording and your folders, macOS asks only once, ever: if you decline, Audimate cannot ask again. Accessibility is the exception, because macOS may offer its own dialog again on a later attempt. Either way the route back is the same. Audimate opens the right pane in System Settings for you, and the card stays in the dock as Open settings so you can get back there. Turn Audimate on and switch back to the app; it notices on its own. There is no “I’m done” button to press. For screen recording the card then becomes Relaunch rather than disappearing, because macOS only hands that permission to an app as it starts up. One prompt does come back. On macOS 15 and later, macOS periodically re-asks you to confirm that Audimate may keep capturing your screen. That is macOS checking in, not something going wrong, and allowing it keeps screenshots and watch mode working. While macOS’s own dialog is open, the card reads Waiting for permission. If you close that dialog without answering, the card turns into Open settings after a minute so there is still a way through. Not now is different from declining. It puts the ask away for five minutes, during which the feature stays unavailable and nothing re-asks. After that, Arro asks again the next time it needs the permission. Audimate keeps its own windows out of the screenshots Arro sends to the AI provider on both platforms. The one exception is a viewer window showing a picture or track Arro made, which stays in so you can point at it. The remaining caveat is on a Mac during a watch mode recording: Arro’s on-screen overlay stays visible as your recording indicator and can appear in the recorded frames, its replies included, as can any Audimate window you bring to the front while recording. When you are recording something sensitive, close Arro’s panel and keep Audimate’s windows off the display you are capturing.Sign in
The desktop app does not host its own sign-in form. It opens your default browser instead, and the browser hands you back to the app.1
Click Continue in browser
From the Sign in to Audimate screen, click Continue in browser. Your default browser opens the sign-in page.
2
Sign in
Choose email and password, Google, or Microsoft. The browser shows a Sign in complete page.
3
Approve the protocol prompt
The browser asks permission to open Audimate via an
audimate:// link. Click the confirmation button, labelled
Open, Allow, or Launch Application depending on your browser. You land on your dashboard and can close
the browser tab.Moving around
The desktop window has no address bar, so navigation lives in the strip at the top.
The side buttons on a mouse that has them step back and forward too.
Sign out
Use the user menu in the sidebar and click Sign out. Your web session at app.audimate.ai is independent and stays signed in on its own. Signing out settles the work running on this device first, the same way switching workspace does. Background tasks are paused and wait for you in the Tasks view, and task board cards this device is holding go back to the pick-up list.Closing and quitting
Closing the window does not quit Audimate on either platform. The app keeps running so Arro and any background tasks stay active. Quitting is the only way to stop everything; closing the window keeps Arro listening. Windows: a small Audimate icon stays in your system tray.- Reopen the window: click the tray icon, or right-click it and choose Open Audimate.
- Quit fully: right-click the tray icon and choose Quit Audimate.
- Reopen the window: click the Audimate icon in the Dock.
- Quit fully: choose Audimate → Quit Audimate from the menu bar, or press ⌘Q.
Computer use
To have Arro use your open apps, see Computer use. For tasks running in the background, configure the browser, files, and approvals below.Browser control
The agent opens pages, clicks, fills forms, and reads page text. It uses your installed Chrome or Edge in a dedicated Audimate profile, separate from your everyday browsing. It runs without a window, so it never puts browser windows on your desktop while you work. You follow what a task is doing from its card and its run history rather than by watching it. When a task hits something only a person can clear, you can open its page and do that step yourself: see Taking over the browser and Signing in when a task asks. By default the profile stays signed in, so you sign into a site once and the agent reuses that login later. A link that serves a file rather than a page, such as a PDF, is not read in the browser. To turn this off, open Arro → Browser in settings and toggle Browser control. It is on by default, and the setting is saved to your account, so it follows you across devices.Files
The agent reads, writes, and edits documents, and builds or transforms spreadsheets (Excel and CSV), documents, and data. It can generate images, including the artwork inside a deck it builds. It saves what it makes to Arro’s home, which is Documents → Audimate unless you chose another place in setup or under Arro → File access, and it asks before touching folders you have not allowed. Everything it produces there is listed in Creations, so you can find a file without remembering which task made it. Changing Arro’s home applies to tasks you start from then on; a task already running keeps using the folder it started in, and nothing is moved. On a Mac, choosing a folder inside Documents, Desktop, Downloads or iCloud Drive is when macOS asks about that folder; a folder elsewhere needs no permission.Agent browser
The rest of Arro → Browser controls which browser the agent drives. These choices are saved per device, not to your account, because they depend on what is installed on each machine.
Auto picks Chrome if it is present, otherwise Edge, and only browsers found on this machine are
listed. With none installed the picker is disabled and the card links to where you can get one.
Incognito runs are always signed out and never reuse saved sign-ins, and the take-over window says
so instead of offering to keep a sign-in.
Taking over the browser
Some steps only a person can do: a “prove you are human” check, a cookie or consent dialog, a code sent to your phone. A task that hits one stops and its card says Needs you, with a Take over button. Choosing it opens the page the task is on, live, in a window you can click and type in. It is the same page the task was working on, so anything it had already filled in is still there. Do the step, then choose Continue: the task picks up from that page and carries on in the background. Cancel, or closing the window, leaves the task waiting so you can come back to it. You do not have to wait for a task to get stuck. A running task that has opened a browser offers Take over the browser on its card. The handover happens at the task’s next step, so it finishes what it is doing first rather than stopping half way through an action. A task waits ten minutes for you before it gives up, and that wait keeps restarting for as long as the window is open, so you are not cut off mid-way. You can also ask Arro to tell the task what to do instead. A new instruction clears whatever the task was waiting on: a takeover, a Needs you card, a site approval. It carries on with the new message, so you do not have to answer the old question first. A site it was waiting on approval for stays unapproved: it will ask again if it still needs to go there. The window has a Keep me signed in for later tasks option, on by default. With it on, a sign-in you make in the window is kept, so later tasks start signed in on that site. Untick it to keep the sign-in for this task only. In Incognito Mode nothing is kept, and the window says so instead of showing the option.Signing in when a task asks
A login is a step like any other. When a task stops at a sign-in page, its card says Needs you and offers Take over: sign in on the page, then choose Continue. The sign-in is kept for later tasks unless you untick the option in the window, as described in Taking over the browser. You can also sign in ahead of time with Sign in in Arro → Browser, which opens the agent’s shared browser in a window of its own. Use it too for a site that refuses to sign in inside a task’s browser: sign in there, close the window, then run the task again. Tasks you start from then on begin signed in. If neither browser is installed, Arro can still fetch the plain text of a page, but it cannot sign in to sites, click, fill in forms, or read pages that load as you scroll. The first task that needs a browser shows a notice in the dock, and Arro → Browser links to where you can get one and has Check again once it is installed. You sign in once, and background tasks then start already signed in on those sites. The button then reads Sign in again, and the card shows when you last opened the window. In incognito mode it reads Open or Reopen instead, since nothing is saved. You cannot sign out or change the browser while a task is running, so a change cannot disrupt a run in progress.Audimate cannot reuse the sites you are already signed into in your everyday Chrome or Edge. Chrome encrypts those
sign-ins so only your real browser can read them.
Allowed sites
The Allowed sites list controls which sites the agent’s browser may open without checking with you first. When it tries to visit a site that is not on the list, the action is gated. In Manually approve mode the task pauses and shows a card with three choices.
Nothing an Allow or Deny covers is saved past the task. An Always allow entry covers
subdomains, so
example.com also allows app.example.com. In Automatically approve, the
default, a safety check decides instead of showing the card.
The sites you enter when you set up your workspace seed this list. Add or remove sites any time
under Arro → Browser. While you are in Automatically approve, that page reminds you a site
off the list can still be visited once the safety check clears it, so the list is not a hard
boundary.
An approval covers the site you approved, not wherever it forwards you. If an allowed site
redirects to one that is not on your list, the site it landed on is checked the same way. A
redirect to an address on your own network is refused outright and cannot be approved.
Your allowed sites are saved to your account, so they follow you to every device.
Allowed folders
Arro’s background tasks can also run shell commands and read, write, and edit files. The Allowed folders list controls which folders those commands may touch without checking with you first. Arro works inside Arro’s home (C:\Users\you\Documents\Audimate on Windows,
~/Documents/Audimate on a Mac, unless you moved it under Arro → File access), and this list adds
folders on top of that.
On a Mac there is a second gate underneath this one: macOS itself guards Documents, Desktop,
Downloads, iCloud Drive, and external or network drives. A folder you add here may still raise a
macOS prompt the first time a task touches it, and both have to say yes. An Allowed folder that
macOS has not granted still cannot be read. See macOS permissions.
A gated folder raises the same three answers as Allowed sites, naming the access
it wants: “Let this task read C:\Users\you\Projects?” (/Users/you/Projects on a Mac). Two
differences apply:
- Allow covers only the access it asked about. A task allowed to read a folder asks again before it changes anything. A task allowed to modify one can read it too.
- Always allow has no read-only version. It covers reading and changing from then on, whichever access the card asked about, and a read card says so.
Projects folder allows everything
inside it. Add or remove folders under Arro → File access, entering a full path. Your allowed
folders are saved to your account.
Some locations are always off-limits and cannot be allowed, whatever your settings say:
- System folders.
- Credential stores, including your SSH and cloud keys.
- Password managers and keyrings.
- Browser profiles and mail stores.
.env files, private keys and certificates, .netrc, and
.git-credentials. A task working in a project folder you allowed can read the code and the
config, and will still refuse to open that project’s .env.
Two things a task can still do with those names: read a committed template like .env.example, and
create one that does not exist yet, so setting up a new project works normally. Overwriting a
real one is refused, since that would destroy the credentials in it.
What Arro reads
Allowed folders work differently for a background task and for Arro in conversation. A background task that needs a folder you have not allowed pauses and asks. Arro in conversation has no approval card, so an image file outside your allowed folders is refused outright, and Arro asks you to add that folder under Arro → File access or to open the image on screen so it can capture it. For image editing, Arro can read a named image inside your allowed folders. For work inside an open app, see Computer use. Arro opens a saved file in your usual app only when you ask, without reading its contents. Finishing a background task does not open its output automatically.Approval modes
Approvals under Arro → General, or the mode picker on the dynamic dock, sets how these approvals work. Both change the same setting.
In Automatically approve, each clearly safe action runs after its own safety check.
Anything unsafe or unverifiable is declined, so the task finds another way or stops and tells you
what was blocked. Auto mode never interrupts you, and what it approved or declined is listed in the
task’s history.
The safety check considers your task instructions, follow-ups, and the action being judged.
For workflow runs, it also considers the saved playbooks for the version being run, so you do not need to repeat their steps.
Your corrections take precedence over the playbook. Pages and files read during the task cannot grant permission.
Arro can read and write ordinary files in its home and temporary working area without approval.
Working copies there do not need to be named in your task. Files outside those areas still follow your access settings.
Each check uses a small amount of your workspace’s monthly usage.
Sites and folders already on your allowed lists never need one, the always-off-limits
locations stay off-limits in both modes, and local or private network addresses are never approved
automatically. Switching modes applies to running tasks right away.
Two kinds of run always use the safety check, whichever mode you chose, because nobody is at the
screen to answer a card:
- Scheduled tasks, which run on their own clock.
- Task board cards, picked up whenever a slot frees up. This covers both auto-run and a card you started with Run agent on this task.
When a task reads a file or runs a command, anything that looks like a password, API key, or token is replaced with
[REDACTED] before Arro sees it. Seeing that in a task’s history means the value was withheld on purpose, not lost.Arro
The desktop app includes Arro, your always-ready assistant, on all plans including Free. A small Arro icon follows your pointer. Hold your push-to-talk key (Right Ctrl by default on Windows, Left Command + Option on a Mac) to talk while you keep working. See Arro for the full walkthrough. Open the user menu and, under Arro, choose General.
Each card drives a real browser, so a higher Cards run at once asks more of the machine. It
works whether or not Arro itself is switched on, since task board cards do not need you to talk to
Arro.
These General settings are saved per device, so each machine can have its own.
Open Plugins from the workspace sidebar to manage apps and expertise.
Catalog installations and enabled settings follow your account within the workspace.
Arro’s background tasks use the same browser control, files, and
Allowed sites rules as Computer use.
Switching between desktop and web
You can have the desktop app open at the same time as the web app. Both show you the same workspace, so changes made in one show up in the other after a refresh. Workflows, recordings, playbooks, and task boards are all shared.Related
Arro
Talk to Arro, point at things, and set its keybinds.
The dynamic dock
Follow and control background tasks, coaching, and timers.
Computer use
Ask Arro to act in your open apps and control when it stops.