Teach Fred
Teach Fred by Showing Him Once — Any App on Your Screen
The short answer. Some jobs are not worth explaining in words — you just know how you do them. Fred can learn those by watching. Press Teach in the top-left corner of the dashboard, do the task the way you always do it, press Teach again, and Fred writes it up as a lesson: plain steps, the parts that change each time, and his own script for repeating it. Then he can run it again with different details, or on a schedule. He stops and asks you whenever he is unsure, and every time a password is needed.
How it works
Show him, don't tell him
The Teach button asks one question: Screen or Browser. Screen watches anything on your desktop — a spreadsheet, your accounting program, a file manager, a supplier's ordering site — any app. Browser records inside Fred's own browser window only. Either way, the recording is the steps of that one task: each click, named by the control you clicked (the desktop tells Fred that a button is called "New Folder" the same way it tells a screen reader), what you typed, and a screenshot at each step so Fred can see what you saw. A small "Fred is watching" strip sits at the bottom of the screen while it records, and Esc twice stops it. It is not a video, and nothing is recorded when you are not teaching.
When you stop, Fred reads the steps and the screenshots and writes the lesson up: a title, the steps in plain English, the things that change from run to run (a customer's name, a date, an amount) as fill-in details, and a script for repeating it. The button says Lesson ready; click it and the lesson is waiting in Settings, Teach Fred, where you can read it, run it again with different details, or hand it to Workflows and give it a schedule.
Replay
Repeating it without guessing
Replay is where most "record and playback" tools fall apart: they click at the old coordinates and hope. Fred's dashboard does it the other way round. For each step it first looks for the control by its name — so a moved window, a hidden toolbar or a different screen size does not matter. If a control has no name, it shows Fred a screenshot and asks him where it is. Only if neither works does it fall back to the recorded spot inside the same window. And when it is still unsure, it does the honest thing: it stops, shows you a Continue / Stop question, and lets you do that one step.
Passwords get the same treatment every time. A password field is stored as four dots and marked secret when you teach; on replay Fred stops at that step, asks you to type it yourself, and carries on when you press Continue. He never types a password, a card number or a one-time code.
Honest limits
- Whole-screen teaching needs a Linux desktop today (a standard X11 session). On Windows, Teach works inside Fred's Browser; the whole-screen version follows later, as does support for the newer Wayland desktops.
- It records one task at a time, while you are teaching. Fred does not learn from watching you work, and he does not record when the Teach button is off.
- Names come from the app. Most programs tell the desktop what their buttons and fields are called; a few do not, and there Fred relies on the screenshot and, if needed, on you.
- A lesson is a recipe, not judgement. If a site or program changes its layout completely, the replay will stop and ask rather than improvise.
Where it fits
Teach once, then schedule
The natural pairing is with scheduled workflows: teach Fred the Monday export from your accounting program, hand the lesson to Workflows, and it runs every Monday — stopping to ask at the login, exactly as you would want. Fred's browser has its own guard rails too: site rules decide which sites he may open, ask first, or never touch.
FAQ
Questions people ask
What exactly does Fred record when I teach him?
The steps of that one task while the Teach button is on: each click (which app, which control by its name), what you typed, and a screenshot at each step so Fred can see what you saw. It is not a video, and it records nothing when you are not teaching. A small "Fred is watching" strip stays on screen the whole time.
Does it record my passwords?
No. A password field is stored as four dots and marked secret, and the real value never reaches disk. When the lesson is replayed, Fred stops at that step and asks you to type it yourself, then carries on.
Does teaching work in any program, or only in the browser?
Both. Choose Screen to teach a task in any app on your desktop, or Browser to teach inside Fred's own browser window. Whole-screen teaching needs a Linux desktop today; on Windows, Teach works inside Fred's Browser, and the whole-screen version follows later.
What happens if the window moved or a button is somewhere else?
Replay does not click blindly at old coordinates. It looks for each control by its name first, and if a control has no name it shows Fred a screenshot and asks him where it is. If neither works, it stops and asks you to do that step, then continues.
Can I stop a replay?
Yes. Press Esc twice at any time, or click the Teach button while it says "Doing lesson". The run stops before the next action lands, and the report shows where it got to.
Can a lesson run by itself later?
Yes. From Settings, Teach Fred, hand a lesson to Workflows and give it a schedule. It runs the same way, and still stops to ask you at any password.
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