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Robots

A robot is the runner that actually executes a workflow. It runs on a machine you control — a desktop, a VM — and connects out to the platform. Nothing runs without one.

The robots list

Connecting one​

Download for Windows or Download for macOS, install, then Connect a robot to pair it with your organization. It appears in this list once it has called home.

Reading the list​

  • Last seen — an Online robot that was last seen an hour ago is telling you something different from one seen a minute ago.
  • Version — the runner build it last connected with. It matters: an activity added to the runner after that build is not there, and the robot only says so after the step has been dispatched, as unsupported activity type: <Name>. If a workflow that works elsewhere fails on one robot with that message, this column is the answer.
  • Enabled — a robot can be left connected but taken out of rotation.
  • Status — Online or Offline.

Choosing where a run executes​

A run targets either a specific robot or whichever is available. Two other choices sit alongside it:

  • Headless. Faster, no window, and required for a few activities — Webpage to PDF among them, which needs a headless Chrome and cannot print from a browser with a visible window. Desktop automation needs the opposite.
  • The browser extension. Web steps can run in your own signed-in browser instead of the robot's Playwright browser, which is how you get past a site you are already logged into and a bot wall would otherwise stop. It needs an online extension, and it turns off the session-strategy control on Start Browser, because the session is the one you are sitting in.