The app window
Find your way around the Machine Desktop window, and learn how closing, the tray, quitting, zoom, menus, and Machine links work.
The main screen
Machine Desktop has three main areas:
| Area | Where | What's in it |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar | Left | Your bots (under Bots), group chats, and teams. At the top: search and the + button. At the bottom: Tools, running computers, and your name and balance. See The sidebar. |
| Chat | Middle | The conversation with the bot you've selected, with the chat header across the top. See Sending messages. |
| Message box | Bottom of the chat | Where you type, attach files, and talk. |
Some things open as a panel on the right, like the bot's computer and bot settings. Others open as a window in the middle, like Settings and Automations. Press Esc to close most of them.
Tools
At the bottom of the sidebar, Tools opens a menu with:
- Today: your day across every bot: a one-click brief, what needs you, who's working, and what's scheduled and done. See Today.
- Responsibilities: the goals each bot looks after without being asked, its routines, and its webhooks. See Responsibilities.
- Automations: scheduled work. A red dot means a routine's last run failed. It stays until that routine runs again without failing; opening the run doesn't clear it. See Automations.
- Connected apps: link Gmail, GitHub, and other tools. See Connected apps.
- Deployments: websites your bots have published. See Deployments.
- Marketplace: skills and templates to add to bots. See Marketplace.
With Simple mode on (Settings → General), the menu leaves out Deployments and Marketplace. Everything else stays. See General settings.
Your name menu
Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar for:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mobile App | Links to the phone apps. |
| Settings | All settings. See General settings. |
| Keyboard shortcuts | The list of shortcuts. |
| Check for updates | See Updates. |
| About | Your app version, and links to Machine, the docs, release notes, and the license. |
| Help Center | Opens these docs. |
| Sign out | Signs you out on this computer. |
Your balance shows next to your name. Click it to open billing on the web.
Closing and quitting
Closing the window doesn't always quit Machine Desktop. It keeps running quietly so your bots can still notify you when they finish.
- Closing the window (the × at top right, or Ctrl+W) hides Machine Desktop in the system tray: the small icons near the clock. You may need to click the ^ arrow to see it.
- To bring it back, click or double-click the Machine icon in the tray, or open Machine from the Start menu.
- To quit completely, right-click the tray icon and choose Quit.
The tray menu has two items: Open Machine and Quit.
Only one copy runs at a time. If you open Machine Desktop while it's already running, the existing window comes to the front.
Window controls and menus
- Windows: Machine Desktop draws its own title bar, with minimize, maximize, and close buttons at the top right. There's no menu bar.
- Mac: the usual red, yellow, and green buttons, and the menu bar at the top of the screen. Machine Desktop → Preferences… (⌘,) opens Settings.
On Mac, the Help menu has Machine, which opens the Machine website, and Third-party notices.
Zoom
On very wide screens, Machine Desktop zooms in a little by itself so text stays easy to read. To set the zoom yourself:
| Action | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom in | Ctrl + + | ⌘ + + |
| Zoom out | Ctrl + − | ⌘ + − |
| Reset | Ctrl+0 | ⌘0 |
| Full screen | F11 | ⌃⌘F |
Your own zoom setting is kept.
Links that open Machine Desktop
Machine Desktop understands two kinds of links. Clicking one, in a browser, email, or Slack, opens the app at the right place.
Thread links
Every conversation has its own link.
- Right-click a thread in the sidebar.
- Choose Copy link.
- Paste it wherever you like: a note, a Slack message, an email.
Opening the link brings Machine Desktop to the front and opens that thread.
It works for you and for teammates who can see the same bot. If you paste a
thread link into a message box in Machine Desktop, it turns into a clickable
#Thread title.
Recipe links
On the recipe library, Add to Machine Desktop opens that recipe in the app so you can preview it. Nothing is added until you click Add team. See Bot recipes.
If the screen goes wrong
If part of the app fails to draw, you'll see Something went wrong on this screen with two buttons:
- Reload redraws the app. Your work is safe: it's all on Machine.
- Copy details copies technical information to send to support.
If the whole app stops responding, it reloads itself once automatically.