> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.audimate.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Desktop app > Install Audimate on Windows, sign in, and choose the browser, files, and approvals for Arro's background tasks. macOS is coming soon. The Audimate desktop app is the same workspace you use at [app.audimate.ai](https://app.audimate.ai), packaged as a native window. It uses the same account and the same data, and it is where you record workflows through [watch mode](/concepts/watch-mode). Anything you create in one shows up in the other. Audimate is coming soon. Access to the web workspace and desktop downloads is limited to approved testers. Public signups and downloads are not open yet. The desktop app is for Windows. macOS is coming soon; Mac-specific guidance describes the upcoming release. ## Download Check desktop availability at [audimate.ai/download](https://audimate.ai/download). During private testing, use the installer link supplied to you. Run `Audimate-Setup.exe`, then launch Audimate from the Start menu. Automatic updates are unavailable during private testing. | Platform | Availability | Requirements | | ------------------- | --------------- | -------------------------------------- | | Windows | Launch platform | Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) | | macOS | Coming soon | macOS 13+, Apple silicon (M1 or later) | | Intel Mac and Linux | No desktop app | Use the web workspace | If the Windows installer will not run, contact [support@audimate.ai](mailto:support@audimate.ai). ## 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](#permissions-settings). | Step | What it settles | Where it lives afterwards | | ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | | **Permissions** | macOS only, coming soon | **Arro → Permissions** | | **Arro's home** | Where Arro keeps everything it makes for you | **Arro → File access** | | **Browser** | Which installed browser Arro uses, Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge | **Arro → Browser** | | **Talk and type** | The key you hold to talk to Arro, and the key that opens a text box | **Arro → Keybinds** | Home opens a welcome followed by Arro's [spoken tutorial](/quickstart). Afterwards, **Replay tour** in your profile menu starts the optional spoken tour of the [dynamic dock](/concepts/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](#agent-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](#setting-up-audimate) 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](/concepts/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](#setting-up-audimate) 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. | Permission | What it unlocks | When Audimate asks | | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Microphone** | Talking to Arro, and narrating a recording | Your first voice session | | **Screen & System Audio Recording** | Screenshots, "point at this", and watch mode | The first time Arro looks at your screen | | **Accessibility** | Arro clicking and typing for you, and reading on-screen controls | The first time Arro acts on your Mac, or a recording starts | | **Files and Folders** | Files in Documents, Desktop, Downloads, iCloud Drive and connected drives | Setup, choosing Arro's home, or Arro's first task that opens a file | | **Notifications** | Telling you a background task finished | The first time Audimate notifies 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](/concepts/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. From the **Sign in to Audimate** screen, click **Continue in browser**. Your default browser opens the sign-in page. Choose email and password, Google, or Microsoft. The browser shows a **Sign in complete** page. 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. If the app does not come forward, use **Reopen** on the completion page, or **Try again** in the desktop app. Some corporate browser policies block custom protocol prompts. If that happens, contact your IT team or use the web app. ## Moving around The desktop window has no address bar, so navigation lives in the strip at the top. | Action | Shortcut | | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------- | | **Back** and **Forward** | **Alt** + **←** / **→**, or **⌘** + **\[** / **]** | | **Refresh** | **Ctrl+R**, **⌘+R**, or **F5** | 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](https://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. Everything the dock is holding live ends outright, because none of it has been saved anywhere to come back to. Arro's conversation is cleared, a screen recording in progress is discarded, a coaching session closes, a timer is cancelled, and Arro stops controlling your screen. ## Closing and quitting Closing the window does not quit Audimate on either platform. The app keeps running so [Arro](#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**. The first time you close to the tray, Audimate shows a one-time notice. **macOS:** there is no persistent menu bar icon. Audimate stays in the Dock. (The one exception is a red recording dot that sits in the menu bar while [Watch Mode](/concepts/watch-mode) records.) * **Reopen the window:** click the Audimate icon in the Dock. * **Quit fully:** choose **Audimate → Quit Audimate** from the menu bar, or press **⌘Q**. Audimate also starts when you sign in to your computer: minimized to the tray on Windows, and with no window shown on a Mac. Turn that off in your Windows startup settings, or under **System Settings → General → Login Items** on a Mac. ## Computer use To have Arro use your open apps, see [Computer use](/concepts/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](#taking-over-the-browser) and [Signing in when a task asks](#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](/concepts/creations#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](#setting-up-audimate) or under **Arro → File access**, and it asks before touching folders you have not allowed. Everything it produces there is listed in [Creations](/concepts/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. | Setting | Where | What it does | | ------------------ | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------- | | **Incognito mode** | Browser control | Off by default. On means a fresh session each run | | **Browser** | Installed browsers | Picks **Auto**, **Google Chrome**, or **Microsoft Edge** | | **Sign in** | Sign-in | Opens the shared sign-in window so you can log into sites | | **Sign out** | Sign-in | Clears the profile, signing it out of every site | **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](#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. | Answer | What happens | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | **Allow** | Runs it, and covers that site for the rest of this task | | **Always allow** | Runs it, and adds the site to your list for good | | **Deny** | Stops it for the rest of this task, and works around it | 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](#approval-modes) 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](#macos-permissions). A gated folder raises the same three answers as [Allowed sites](#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. An **Always allow** entry covers subfolders, so allowing your `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. Files whose only purpose is to hold a secret are off-limits **wherever they sit, including inside a folder you allowed**: `.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](/concepts/creations#images), Arro can read a named image inside your allowed folders. For work inside an open app, see [Computer use](/concepts/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. | File | What opening it does | | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | Documents, spreadsheets, decks, PDFs | Opens in its usual app | | Images, video, audio, archives, text and data | Opens in its usual app | | Installers, scripts, executables | Shown in your file manager instead | | Anything outside its allowed folders | Shown in your file manager instead | ### Approval modes **Approvals** under **Arro → General**, or the mode picker on the [dynamic dock](/concepts/dynamic-dock), sets how these approvals work. Both change the same setting. | Mode | What happens | | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | **Automatically approve** (default) | A safety check judges each gated action | | **Manually approve** | Each gated action pauses and shows a card | 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](/concepts/scheduled-tasks)**, which run on their own clock. * **[Task board cards](/data/boards#starting-agents)**, picked up whenever a slot frees up. This covers both auto-run and a card you started with **Run agent on this task**. A card run is also told nobody is at the screen, so it never shows a card of its own: a blocker is worked around, or the run ends and names it. If your card runs keep stopping on the same wall, sign in to that site once in the agent's shared browser and add the folders it needs. 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](/concepts/arro) for the full walkthrough. Open the user menu and, under **Arro**, choose **General**. | Setting | What it does | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Enable Arro** | Turns Arro on or off | | **Let Arro control your computer** | On by default. Off means Arro only guides you | | **Voice** | Picks one of two spoken voices | | **Cards run at once** | 1 to 4 [task board](/data/boards) cards on this computer, 2 to start | | **Share product usage analytics** | Account-wide choice, off by default. [Privacy choices](/account/privacy) | | **Color, size, and opacity** | Restyles the Arro icon, applied right away | 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](/concepts/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](#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 Talk to Arro, point at things, and set its keybinds. Follow and control background tasks, coaching, and timers. Ask Arro to act in your open apps and control when it stops.