frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

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

https://automatewithtasker.com/
12•schnetzlerjoe•1h 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.

Comments

yodon•1h ago
HN hug of death? Can't open the site
schnetzlerjoe•1h 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 or https://github.com/pitalco/tasker if that does not work.

Tade0•51m ago
Not to be confused with Tasker for Android:

https://tasker.joaoapps.com/index.html

schnetzlerjoe•45m ago
No! It's not!!!!
1shooner•19m 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?

'Move fast, break stuff': how tech bros became Hollywood's go-to baddie in 2025

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/dec/30/move-fast-break-stuff-how-tech-bros-became-hollywood...
1•mitchbob•4m ago•1 comments

Welcome to Gas Town

https://steve-yegge.medium.com/welcome-to-gas-town-4f25ee16dd04
2•gmays•8m ago•0 comments

Hydra: A system for building 3D Scene Graphs from sensor data in real-time

https://github.com/MIT-SPARK/Hydra
1•sritchie•8m ago•0 comments

Docc2json Convert your Xcode-built DocC documentation into a API deployable JSON

https://github.com/AppGram/docc2json
1•nedim0x01•9m ago•0 comments

NVCA Model Legal Documents

https://nvca.org/model-legal-documents/
1•wslh•10m ago•0 comments

Hydra: Live Coding Video Synth

https://hydra.ojack.xyz/
1•bcye•10m ago•0 comments

A small experiment in making math click for my cousins

https://farhadg.com/blog/seeing-math-differently/
1•FarhadG•11m ago•0 comments

Nudel.cc: public live coding jam space

https://nudel.cc/
2•bcye•12m ago•0 comments

Git-pkgs: explore your dependency history

https://nesbitt.io/2026/01/01/git-pkgs-explore-your-dependency-history.html
1•chmaynard•15m ago•0 comments

Migrating to Immich from Google Photos for Better Backups

https://tsmith.com/blog/2025/immich-migration/
2•sea-gold•19m ago•0 comments

Composing capability security and conflict-free replicated data types

https://spritely.institute/news/composing-capability-security-and-conflict-free-replicated-data-t...
1•PaulHoule•20m ago•0 comments

Flowlog: An ISO-style Prolog system with faster search on multicore CPUs

https://web.liminal.cafe/~byakuren/flowlog/
1•triska•21m ago•0 comments

Shipping at Inference-Speed

https://steipete.me/posts/2025/shipping-at-inference-speed
1•gozzoo•22m ago•0 comments

Iran offers to sell advanced weapons systems for crypto

https://www.ft.com/content/d1ceb1a4-3493-4776-ae22-c94d76dc478f
1•smurda•22m ago•0 comments

The Science of Resolutions (2019)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/28/can-brain-science-help-us-break-bad-habits
1•mitchbob•22m ago•1 comments

Generating Human Faces with VAEs

https://mayberay.bearblog.dev/generating-human-faces-with-variational-autoencoders/
1•mugamuga•22m ago•0 comments

Order Taking, Pain Killers, and Desperation: Avoiding Middling Startup Outcomes

https://rosslazer.com/posts/order-taking/
1•rosslazer•22m ago•0 comments

A 58-Addition, Rank-23 Scheme for General 3x3 Matrix Multiplication

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.21980
1•ColinWright•23m ago•1 comments

U.S. grants TSMC annual licence to import U.S. chipmaking tools into China

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-grants-annual-approval-tsmc-chipmaking-tool-exports...
3•DustinEchoes•25m ago•1 comments

What Are Context Graphs, Really?

https://subramanya.ai/2026/01/01/what-are-context-graphs-really/
1•subramanya1997•26m ago•0 comments

Seven students unmasked Russia's 'drone motherships'

https://ioplus.nl/en/posts/how-seven-students-unmasked-russias-drone-motherships
2•tartoran•27m ago•0 comments

CAPTCHAs and the punishment of privacy-conscious users

https://www.coryd.dev/posts/2025/captchas-and-the-punishment-of-privacy-conscious-users
2•cdrnsf•29m ago•0 comments

How LLMs Generate Text [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKnZYvZA7w4
1•y0eswddl•30m ago•1 comments

Wall Street is starting 2026 with echoes of 2000's dot-com woes

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-is-starting-2026-with-echoes-of-2000s-dot-com-woes-...
1•zerosizedweasle•31m ago•0 comments

I shrunk down into an M5 chip – MKBHD, YouTube [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9pFp1oM7E
1•tim333•31m ago•0 comments

Tesla Sales Outlook Darkens Despite Musk's Self-Driving Euphoria

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-01/tesla-sales-outlook-darkens-despite-musk-s-sel...
2•zerosizedweasle•32m ago•0 comments

I Hated All the Cross-Stitch Software So I Made My Own [video]

https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-i-hated-all-the-cross-stitch-software-so-i-made-my-own-my-deranged-ou...
1•Fnoord•35m ago•0 comments

Show HN: DBPiper – Affordable Sequin alternative ($15 vs. $1000)

https://dbpiper.netlify.app/
1•aliamer99•35m ago•0 comments

WebAssembly as a Python Extension Platform

https://nullprogram.com/blog/2026/01/01/
3•ArmageddonIt•35m ago•0 comments

Catapults don't build castles

https://keygen.sh/blog/catapults-dont-build-castles/
1•ezekg•36m ago•0 comments