Your first 15 minutes

Install Machine Desktop

Go to the download page and click the download button for your computer.

• Windows: open the downloaded .exe file. It installs by itself and opens Machine Desktop. If Windows shows a blue "Windows protected your PC" box, click More info, then Run anyway.
• Mac: open the downloaded .dmg file and drag Machine Desktop into Applications. Then open it from Applications.

More detail is in Install and sign in.

Sign in

1. Type your email address and click Send code.
2. Check your email for a message from Machine with a 6-digit code. Check your spam folder if you don't see it within a minute.
3. Type the code into Code from the email and click Sign in.

You stay signed in after this, even if you close the app.

Go through the welcome screens

Machine Desktop shows a few welcome screens the first time you open it:

1. Your name. Type it in. It is shown in the sidebar.
2. A short tour of what bots can do. Click Continue.
3. Microphone. Click Enable if you'd like to talk to your bots later, or Skip for now.
4. Your phone. Links to the phone app. Skip it for now.
5. Meet your first bot. Give it a name, like Assistant, pick a color, and write one standing instruction, like "Explain what you are doing in simple terms." Click Start chatting.

After that, a short tour points out the main buttons. Click Next to follow it, or Skip tour. You can replay it later from Settings → General.

Look around

You are now looking at the main screen. It has three parts:

• The sidebar, on the left. Your bots are listed under Bots. Your name and balance are at the bottom, with Tools just above.
• The chat, in the middle. Your conversation with the selected bot.
• The message box, at the bottom. Where you type.

Above the chat is the chat header. On the right of it is the model chip, which shows which AI model the bot uses, and a monitor icon, which opens the bot's computer. You'll use that in a moment.

Give your bot a real task

Click in the message box and type a task. Be specific about what you want back. For example:

Research the 5 most popular project management tools for small teams. Compare their price, best features, and biggest downsides in a table. Save the table as a file called comparison.md, and give me a one-paragraph recommendation in the chat.

Press Enter to send.

Watch it work

The bot gets to work. You'll see:

• A status under its avatar, like Searching the web or Writing…, and a timer. The first message in a thread may show Setting up this bot's computer… or Waking its computer… for a few seconds.
• Small chips for each action it takes, like web search or write. Click a chip to see exactly what went in and what came out.
• A blue, pulsing dot on the bot's avatar in the sidebar while it works.

If the bot needs permission to do something, a card appears saying "… wants to …" and the message box changes to Pending approval. Read what it wants to do and click Allow once. (To let it go ahead without asking, see Approvals.)

When it finishes, its working notes fold into a Worked for … line, the reply appears, and you hear a soft pop.

Find the file it made

The bot saved comparison.md on its computer. To see it:

1. Click the monitor icon in the chat header. A panel opens on the right.
2. On the Computer tab you'll see the files in the bot's workspace.
3. Click comparison.md to read it right there.
4. Click Download to save a copy to your computer.

Files a bot mentions in a reply also appear as chips in the chat, with a Save a copy button.

Ask for changes

You don't need to start over to change something. Just reply in the same thread, the way you would with a colleague:

Good. Make the table shorter: only price and best feature. Then add a row for Notion.

The bot remembers everything in this thread, including the file it already made.

Try stopping it

It's worth knowing how to stop a bot before you need to. Send a bigger task, like "Write a 2,000 word guide to remote work", and while it is working click the red Stop button in the chat header (or the square in the message box). The bot stops right away. You can also just send the word stop.

If a bot ever seems frozen, use Kick instead. See A bot is stuck.

Start a new thread for a new task

When you move on to something unrelated, start a fresh thread so the bot doesn't drag the old conversation along. In the sidebar, click the arrow next to your bot's name and then New thread.

Your earlier thread is still there in the list whenever you want to go back.