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198•awaaz•4h ago•33 comments

Dave Farber has passed away

https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog@lists.nanog.org/thread/TSNPJVFH4DKLINIKSMRIIVNHDG5XKJCM/
9•vitplister•23m ago•2 comments

Matchlock: Linux-based sandboxing for AI agents

https://github.com/jingkaihe/matchlock
38•jingkai_he•3h ago•5 comments

Show HN: LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory

https://github.com/localgpt-app/localgpt
245•yi_wang•10h ago•119 comments

Reverse Engineering Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600

https://github.com/joshuanwalker/Raiders2600
14•pacod•2h ago•1 comments

Haskell for all: Beyond agentic coding

https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/beyond-agentic-coding
144•RebelPotato•10h ago•43 comments

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes (2023)

https://xorvoid.com/sectorc.html
323•valyala•18h ago•65 comments

LLMs as the new high level language

https://federicopereiro.com/llm-high/
136•swah•5d ago•245 comments

The Architecture of Open Source Applications (Volume 1) Berkeley DB

https://aosabook.org/en/v1/bdb.html
45•grep_it•5d ago•8 comments

Modern and Antique Technologies Reveal a Dynamic Cosmos

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-modern-and-antique-technologies-reveal-a-dynamic-cosmos-20260202/
11•sohkamyung•5d ago•0 comments

Software factories and the agentic moment

https://factory.strongdm.ai/
242•mellosouls•20h ago•400 comments

(AI) Slop Terrifies Me

https://ezhik.jp/ai-slop-terrifies-me/
21•Ezhik•1h ago•8 comments

Rabbit Ear "Origami": programmable origami in the browser (JS)

https://rabbitear.org/book/origami.html
12•molszanski•3d ago•3 comments

Speed up responses with fast mode

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/fast-mode
195•surprisetalk•17h ago•200 comments

Hoot: Scheme on WebAssembly

https://www.spritely.institute/hoot/
197•AlexeyBrin•23h ago•36 comments

uLauncher

https://github.com/jrpie/launcher
40•dtj1123•5d ago•10 comments

Stories from 25 Years of Software Development

https://susam.net/twenty-five-years-of-computing.html
213•vinhnx•21h ago•24 comments

Vocal Guide – belt sing without killing yourself

https://jesperordrup.github.io/vocal-guide/
376•jesperordrup•1d ago•112 comments

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC concludes 25-year run with final collisions

https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/brookhaven-labs-rhic-concludes-25-year-run-with-final-collis...
85•gnufx•16h ago•66 comments

LineageOS 23.2

https://lineageos.org/Changelog-31/
85•pentagrama•6h ago•22 comments

The Legacy of Daniel Kahneman: A Personal View (2025)

https://ejpe.org/journal/article/view/1075/753
5•cainxinth•3d ago•0 comments

Wood Gas Vehicles: Firewood in the Fuel Tank (2010)

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-vehicles-firewood-in-the-fuel-tank/
56•Rygian•3d ago•28 comments

Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

https://github.com/Momciloo/fun-with-clip-path
117•momciloo•18h ago•25 comments

First Proof

https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05192
156•samasblack•20h ago•95 comments

In the Australian outback, we're listening for nuclear tests

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-08/australian-outback-nuclear-tests-listening-warramunga-faci...
17•defrost•2h ago•4 comments

Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

https://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/commands-with-comma/
622•theblazehen•3d ago•223 comments

Substack confirms data breach affects users’ email addresses and phone numbers

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/substack-confirms-data-breach-affecting-email-addresses-and-pho...
77•witnessme•7h ago•35 comments

Al Lowe on model trains, funny deaths and working with Disney

https://spillhistorie.no/2026/02/06/interview-with-sierra-veteran-al-lowe/
114•thelok•20h ago•27 comments

Where did all the starships go?

https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/science-fiction-decline
198•speckx•4d ago•293 comments

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
929•klaussilveira•1d ago•284 comments
Open in hackernews

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

https://automatewithtasker.com/
33•schnetzlerjoe•1mo 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•1mo ago
HN hug of death? Can't open the site
schnetzlerjoe•1mo 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•1mo ago
Not to be confused with Tasker for Android:

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

schnetzlerjoe•1mo ago
No! It's not!!!!
farmerbb•1mo 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•1mo ago
Yeah probably if I were to take it seriously! Thanks for the rec
blackqueeriroh•1mo ago
You’re fine, trust me. Mac and android apps that do different things often have the same names.
schnetzlerjoe•1mo 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•1mo 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.

schnetzlerjoe•1mo ago
No I guess not. I just asked it. Your answer:

Why Tasker is a good name Instantly understandable “Tasker” clearly communicates automation, jobs, actions, workflows Zero explanation needed — huge plus for a consumer + SMB product Broad enough to scale Works for: Desktop agent Cloud cron jobs HTTP-triggered automations AI agents running tasks for sales, ops, HVAC estimates, etc. Doesn’t lock you into just AI or just workflows Matches your positioning Given what you’ve built: non-technical, consumer-friendly automation powered by AI Tasker fits that perfectly — especially compared to over-clever AI names.

I think that answers your question lmao

blackqueeriroh•1mo ago
It’s great and I love it and don’t change the name!
netsharc•1mo ago
OK, since you've apparently delegated all thinking to AI ("lmao"), can you ask it this: "What if there's already an established app called Tasker for Android"

Plus what I said about the potential confusion of users?

In another reply above you said "...if I were to take it seriously".. God fucking damnit, add this to my 2026 resolutions: ignore people putting up vibe-coded slop onto Show HN.

schnetzlerjoe•1mo ago
I asked it if people still understand sarcasm and humor in 2026 since it's doing all my "thinking" for me! You would not like the answer.

It's New Years Day. You seem to have a lot of anger.

I'm here for you if you need to talk. I support you!!!

netsharc•1mo ago
Yuck.
dizhn•1mo ago
Super unnecessary confusion generating stuff from OP's side. He is having fun with people who think it's not the best idea too. Nobody is thinking of the potential confused user. It's a shit name to begin with, now we have two of them.

> I wanna get a job naming kitchen appliances. Seems like the easiest job ever. You know, refrigerator, toaster, blender... You just say what the thing does and then you add '-er'. Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. "What's this do?" "It keeps shit fresh." "Well, that's a 'fresher'. I'm going on break."

Mitch Hedberg

1shooner•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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.

conception•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo 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•1mo ago
I will try to see if I can get my hands on a similar spec to test and recreate! Thanks for the message :)
donclark•1mo 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