GitHub - understudy-ai/understudy: An understudy watches. Then performs. · GitHub

An understudy watches. Then performs.

Overview · 中文展示页 · Product Design · Showcase · Contributing · 中文 README Open-source local AI agent that operates your entire computer — GUI, browser, shell, messaging — from a single instruction. Teach it once, it learns. Use it daily, it gets faster. Bring your own model.

Showcase

Demo environment: macOS + GPT-5.4 via Codex (OpenAI). All demos also work with Claude, Gemini, and other providers. See Supported Models for the full list.

The demos below map to the product story in order: general agent first, computer use next, then teach, and finally a full autonomous pipeline that combines everything.

General Agent — One Message, Done

This is the starting point: Understudy is first a general-purpose agent. It researches the web, controls your browser, invokes skills, and delivers a polished result — all from a single instruction. No staging, no multi-step prompting. Just say what you need.

Example prompt: "Research Cowork and build a tech-style landing page in my downloads folder."

Computer Use + Remote Dispatch — Agent on Desktop, You on Phone

This is computer use in practice: send a message from your phone via Telegram, and Understudy receives it on your Mac, converts a file to PDF, opens desktop Telegram, finds the right contact, and sends it — all through GUI automation. The demo shows phone and desktop views side by side.

Example prompt: "Convert the Cowork webpage to PDF and send it to Alex on Telegram."

Understudy works with messaging apps people already use: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, iMessage, and Web.

Teach — Show Once, Refine, Replay with Generalization

Teach a task by demonstrating it once. Understudy learns the intent , not the coordinates — so the skill survives UI redesigns, window resizing, even switching to a different app. Interactively refine the generated skill, then invoke it with natural language. On replay, the agent automatically generalizes: Google Image search becomes browser automation, downloads become shell commands, while native app control (Pixelmator Pro) stays GUI-driven.

Demo flow:/teach start → search Google Images for Sam Altman → download photo → remove background in Pixelmator Pro → export → send via Telegram to Alex. Then interactively refine the skill. Finally, invoke with natural language: "Find a photo of [person], remove the background, and send it to [contact] on Telegram" — the agent discovers the taught skill and replays it with automatic upgrades.

See the published skill from this demo for a real example of what teach produces. Full unedited recording.

AI App Critic — One Prompt to a Published iPhone App Review

This is everything combined. One prompt triggers a six-stage pipeline: the agent browses the real App Store in Chrome, installs Snapseed on a real iPhone through iPhone Mirroring, explores the app autonomously — discovering background removal and filters it's never seen — composes a narrated vertical video locally with FFmpeg, uploads it to YouTube, and cleans up the device. About one hour, zero human intervention.

The pipeline introduces workspace artifact composition : a playbook orchestrates workers (deterministic browser/device automation) and skills (agentic subagents that make their own decisions). Each stage runs as a separate child session with its own context. The middle stage — app exploration — is genuinely agentic: 51 quality-gate rules guide the agent, but it navigates freely through an app it has never seen.

The published review | How it was made

Example prompt: "Make a Snapseed iPhone app review video from scratch: use the real App Store and iPhone Mirroring, capture proof-first clips focusing on background removal and filters (like black & white), add English narration and subtitles, export a vertical video, upload it unlisted to YouTube, clean up the device, and share the result."

Full unedited recording.

Why Understudy?

Snapshot as of March 26, 2026. Conservative: sourced from official docs; if a product does not clearly advertise a capability, the wording stays narrow.

Capability | OpenClaw | Cowork | Vy (Vercept) | Understudy

OpenClaw — GitHub · browser docs · pricing
Cowork — pricing · computer-use announcement · Cowork webinar
Vy — Vercept → Anthropic · Watch & Repeat launch · workflow updates
Understudy — this repo (README, docs/)

The Five Layers

Understudy is designed as a layered progression — the same journey a new hire takes when they grow into a reliable colleague.

Day 1: Watches how things are done Week 1: Imitates the process, asks questions Month 1: Remembers the routine, does it independently Month 3: Finds shortcuts and better ways Month 6: Anticipates needs, acts proactively

That's why it's called Understudy — in theater, an understudy watches the lead, learns the role, and steps in when needed.

Each of the five layers maps to a stage of this journey:

Layer 1 ┃ Operate Software Natively Operate any app a human can — see, click, type, verify ────────╋────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Layer 2 ┃ Learn from Demonstrations User shows a task once — agent extracts intent, validates, learns ────────╋────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Layer 3 ┃ Crystallized Memory Agent accumulates experience from daily use, hardens successful paths ────────╋────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Layer 4 ┃ Route Optimization Automatically discover and upgrade to faster execution routes ────────╋────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Layer 5 ┃ Proactive Autonomy Notice and act in its own workspace, without disrupting the user

Current status: Layers 1-2 are implemented and usable today. Layers 3-4 are partially implemented. Layer 5 is still the long-term direction.

Every layer depends on the one below it. No shortcuts — the system earns its way up. Read the full story: Overview → | Chinese Overview → | Product Design →

Workspace Artifacts — Playbook, Worker, Skill

Understudy's teach and crystallization pipelines can produce three types of workspace artifacts that compose into larger automation:

Artifact | Role | Execution | Example

Skill | A reusable capability | Agentic — makes its own decisions within quality gates | app-explore: freely navigate an unfamiliar iPhone app Worker | A deterministic subtask | Scripted — follows a fixed sequence, reports structured output | appstore-browser-package: browse App Store, capture listing metadata Playbook | A multi-stage orchestrator | Sequences workers and skills as child sessions, manages state across stages | app-review-pipeline: 6-stage pipeline from App Store to YouTube

A playbook spawns each stage as a subagent — an independent child session with its own context window and tools. Workers are deterministic: they follow instructions and produce structured output. Skills are agentic: they receive goals and quality gates, then decide how to achieve them. This separation lets a single pipeline mix scripted reliability with genuine autonomy.

app-review-pipeline (playbook) ├─ Stage 1: appstore-browser-package (worker) → Chrome automation ├─ Stage 2: appstore-device-install (worker) → iPhone Mirroring ├─ Stage 3: app-explore (skill) → agentic exploration ├─ Stage 4: local-video-edit (skill) → FFmpeg + Python ├─ Stage 5: youtube-upload (skill) → Chrome automation └─ Stage 6: app-review-cleanup (skill) → iPhone Mirroring

The artifact type is declared in each SKILL.md's metadata.understudy.artifactKind field. The playbook declares its child artifacts, and the E2E test harness validates the full contract — required output files, manifest schema, and stage sequencing.

What It Can Do Today

Layer 1 — Operate Your Computer Natively

Status: implemented today on macOS.

Understudy is not just a GUI clicker. It's a unified desktop runtime that mixes every execution route your computer offers — in one agent loop, one session, one policy pipeline:

Route | Implementation | What it covers

The planner decides which route to use for each step. A single task might browse a website, run a shell command, click through a native app, and send a message — all in one session.

GUI grounding — dual-model architecture: the main model decides what to do, a separate grounding model decides where on screen. HiDPI-aware across Retina displays, with automatic high-res refinement for small targets and two grounding modes (simple prediction or multi-round validation with simulation overlays). Grounding benchmark: 30/30 targets resolved — explicit labels, ambiguous targets, icon-only elements, fuzzy prompts.

For implementation details (coordinate spaces, stabilization, capture modes), see Product Design.

Layer 2 — Learn from Demonstrations

Status: implemented today. Teach can record a demo, analyze it, clarify the task, optionally validate the replay, and publish a reusable skill.

Explicit teaching: you deliberately show the agent how to do a task. Not a macro recorder — Understudy learns intent , not coordinates.

/teach start Start dual-track recording (screen video + semantic events) → Perform the task once with mouse and keyboard

/teach stop "file the weekly expense report" AI analyzes the recording → extracts intent, parameters, steps, success criteria → creates a teach draft → Multi-turn dialogue to refine the task

/teach confirm [--validate] Lock the task card; optionally replay to validate

/teach publish [skill-name] Generate SKILL.md → hot-load into active sessions

Teach privacy note: demonstration videos, event logs, and traces are stored locally by default. However, teach analysis and GUI grounding may send selected screenshots, keyframes, or other image evidence to your configured model provider.

The published SKILL.md is a three-layer abstraction: intent procedure (natural language steps), route options (preferred / fallback paths), and GUI replay hints (last resort only, re-grounded from the current screenshot each time). UI redesigns, window resizing, even switching to a similar app — as long as the semantic target still exists, the skill works.

The draft/publish pipeline is no longer limited to one artifact shape. The current schema can publish skill, worker, and playbook workspace artifacts, although teach-by-demonstration most commonly produces reusable skills today.

For the full teach pipeline, evidence pack construction, and validation details, see Product Design.

Layer 3 — Remember What Worked

Status: partially implemented. Understudy now has a working workflow crystallization loop for repeated day-to-day use, but promotion policy and automatic route upgrading are still early.

Implicit learning: as you use Understudy day-to-day, it automatically identifies recurring patterns and crystallizes successful paths — no explicit teaching needed:

Stage | What Happens | User Experience

What the user experiences today

You use Understudy normally; no /teach command is required.
Repeated multi-turn work in the same workspace is compacted in the background.
Once a pattern repeats often enough, Understudy publishes a workspace skill automatically, hot-loads it into active sessions, and sends a notification that a crystallized workflow is ready.
From that point on, the agent can pick the new skill through the normal ## Skills (mandatory) flow, just like a taught skill.

Current boundaries

The learning loop is intentionally conservative: if the pattern is not clear enough, Understudy keeps exploring instead of pretending it has learned it.
Segmentation, clustering, and skill synthesis are currently LLM-first.
Promotion thresholds are still heuristic rather than fully policy-driven.
Layer 4 style route upgrading is still limited; crystallization mainly produces reusable skills today rather than fully automatic route replacement.

For the implementation details (crystallization pipeline, segmentation, clustering, skill synthesis), see Product Design.

Layer 4 — Get Faster Over Time

Status: partially implemented. Route preferences, teach route annotations, browser auto-fallback, and capability-aware routing are working today. Fully automatic route discovery, promotion, and failure-driven route policies are still in progress.

The same feature can be accomplished in multiple ways. Take "send a Slack message" as an example:

Fastest ──→ 1. API call Hit the Slack API directly (milliseconds) 2. CLI tool slack-cli send (seconds) 3. Browser Type and send in Slack's web app (seconds) Slowest ──→ 4. GUI Screenshot-ground, click, type in the Slack desktop client (seconds~10s)

Starts at GUI on Day 1 — because GUI is the universal fallback that works with any app. As usage accumulates, Understudy progressively discovers faster ways to accomplish the same feature, upgrading after safe verification.

What the user experiences today

The system prompt explicitly steers the agent toward faster routes: direct tool/API > Shell/CLI > browser > GUI.
Teach-produced skills annotate each step with preferred / fallback / observed routes, so the agent can skip GUI when a faster path is available.
Browser mode supports both managed Playwright and Chrome extension relay; in auto mode it tries the relay first, then falls back to managed Playwright if needed.
The GUI capability matrix dynamically enables/disables tool subsets based on available permissions, so the agent never attempts a route it can't execute.

For the full route selection mechanisms, upgrade policy, and future direction, see Product Design.

Layer 5 — Proactive Autonomy

Status: mostly vision today. Scheduling and runtime surfaces exist, but passive observation, isolated workspace, and proactive autonomy are still ahead.

Earned, not assumed. Understudy's ultimate goal isn't "wait for instructions" — it's becoming a colleague that observes long-term, acts proactively.

Progressive trust model — each skill starts at manual, promoted only through sustained success:

Level | Behavior

manual | User triggers every run (default) suggest | AI suggests, user confirms before execution auto_with_confirm | AI executes, user reviews result full_auto | AI executes + verifies, notifies only on exceptions

Architecture

┌──────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │ Terminal │ │ Dashboard │ │ WebChat │ │ Telegram │ │ Slack │ ... └────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘ └──────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┘ │ Gateway (HTTP + WebSocket + JSON-RPC) │ ┌────────────┴────────────┐ │ │ Session Runtime Built-in Tools + Policy Pipeline ┌──────────────────────┐ │ gui_* │ browser │ │ bash │ memory │ │ web │ schedule │ │ message│ subagents │ └──────────────────────┘

Local-first — screenshots, recordings, and traces are stored locally by default; GUI grounding and teach analysis may send selected images or keyframes to your configured model provider
One gateway — terminal, web, mobile, messaging apps all connect through one endpoint
One session runtime — chat, teach, scheduled tasks, subagents share the same loop
Policy pipeline — every tool call passes through safety, trust, and logging hooks

Quick Start

Install from npm

npm install -g @understudy-ai/understudy understudy wizard # walks you through setup

Install from GitHub Packages

cat >> ~/.npmrc <<'EOF' @understudy-ai:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com //npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN EOF

npm install -g @understudy-ai/understudy understudy wizard # walks you through setup

Use a GitHub token with read:packages access when installing from GitHub Packages. The bundled researcher skill is enabled by default for source-backed multi-source research and fact-checking.

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/understudy-ai/understudy.git cd understudy pnpm install && pnpm build pnpm start -- wizard

Start using it

Recommended: start the gateway daemon, then use the terminal

understudy daemon --start # Start the gateway background process (or: understudy gateway --port 23333) understudy chat # Terminal interactive mode (auto-connects to running gateway)

Management UI

understudy dashboard # Open the control panel in your browser

Other entry points

understudy webchat # Browser chat interface understudy agent --message "..." # Script/CI single-turn call (requires gateway)

Requirements

Required for all installs:

Dependency | Install | Purpose

Node.js >= 20.6 | brew install node or nvm | Core runtime

Required for source installs / development:

Dependency | Install | Purpose

pnpm >= 10 | corepack enable && corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate | Workspace package manager

macOS GUI automation (required for GUI tools and teach-by-demonstration on macOS):

Dependency | Install | Purpose

Xcode Command Line Tools | xcode-select --install | Compiles the Swift native helper (swiftc) for screen capture and input events Accessibility permission | See macOS Permissions | Mouse/keyboard input injection, window queries, demonstration event capture Screen Recording permission | See macOS Permissions | Screenshots, GUI grounding, demonstration video recording

Optional:

Dependency | Install | Purpose

Chrome | chrome.google.com | Extension-relay browser mode — access logged-in tabs. Without it, falls back to Playwright managed browser Playwright | pnpm exec playwright install chromium | Managed browser for the browser tool. Installed as optional dependency, needs browser binary download ffmpeg + ffprobe | brew install ffmpeg | Video analysis for teach-by-demonstration evidence packs signal-cli | brew install signal-cli | Signal messaging channel

Platform Support

Understudy is currently developed and tested on macOS. Core features (CLI, gateway, browser, channels) are cross-platform by design, but native GUI automation and teach-by-demonstration require macOS today. Linux and Windows GUI backends are planned — contributions welcome.

Supported Models

Understudy is model-agnostic. Configure models with provider/model (for example anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6).

The source of truth is the model catalog bundled with your current Understudy runtime plus any custom entries in your local model registry. That catalog evolves over time, so this README intentionally avoids freezing an exhaustive provider/model matrix.

Use one of these to see what your install can actually use:

understudy models --list understudy wizard

Auth and provider notes:

Provider family | Auth | Notes

Anthropic | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OAuth | Claude models available in your current Understudy runtime OpenAI | OPENAI_API_KEY | GPT-4.x, GPT-5.x, o*, and related OpenAI models available in your current Understudy runtime OpenAI Codex | OPENAI_API_KEY or OAuth | Codex/Responses models such as gpt-5.4; shares auth with OpenAI Google / Gemini | GOOGLE_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY | gemini is accepted as a provider alias for google MiniMax | MINIMAX_API_KEY | MiniMax-M2.7, MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed, MiniMax-M2.5, MiniMax-M2.5-highspeed; use minimax-cn provider for the China endpoint Additional compatible providers | Provider-specific auth | Depending on your current Understudy runtime, examples may include GitHub Copilot, OpenRouter, xAI, Mistral, Groq, Bedrock, Vertex, and more Custom providers / models | Provider-specific auth | You can add custom model entries through the underlying model registry

Default: openai-codex/gpt-5.4. The wizard chooses from models detected in your local runtime auth/model registry.

macOS Permissions

Full screenshot-grounded GUI automation on macOS depends on the native helper plus two system permissions. Missing permissions degrade or hide parts of the GUI toolset rather than failing every GUI capability equally.

Accessibility

What it enables: Mouse clicks, typing, drag, scroll, key presses/shortcuts, absolute cursor moves, and demonstration event capture.

If missing: Input-driving tools are blocked. Observation-oriented tools such as gui_observe may still work when Screen Recording is available.

How to grant:

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
Click the + button, add your terminal app (Terminal.app, iTerm2, VS Code, etc.)
Toggle it on

Screen Recording

What it enables: Screenshot capture for gui_observe, GUI grounding/verification, and demonstration video recording.

If missing: Screenshot-grounded tools are blocked. Keyboard/input-only routes such as gui_key and gui_move still remain available, while gui_scroll and gui_type can still operate in targetless mode.

How to grant:

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording
Click the + button, add your terminal app
Toggle it on
Restart your terminal app for the permission to take effect

Both permissions must be granted to the terminal application that runs understudy, not to Understudy itself.

If GUI behavior still looks partial after granting permissions, run understudy doctor --deep to check the native helper, grounding availability, browser runtime, and teach-analysis dependencies.

Skills

Built-in skills + workspace skills you create or install.

understudy skills --list # browse available skills understudy skills install # install from registry or URL

Or teach by demonstration

/teach start → demonstrate → /teach stop → /teach confirm → /teach publish

Optional: /teach validate before or after publish

Channels

8 built-in channel adapters: Web, Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, iMessage.

understudy channels --list understudy channels --add telegram

Repository Layout

apps/cli CLI entrypoints, 20+ operator commands packages/core Agent session runtime, config, auth, skills, policies packages/gateway HTTP + WebSocket gateway, session runtime, web surfaces packages/gui Native GUI runtime, screenshot grounding, demo recorder packages/tools Built-in tools: browser, web, memory, schedule, GUI, message packages/channels Channel adapters (8 platforms) packages/types Shared TypeScript type definitions skills/ Built-in skill modules examples/ Teach demo and published skill example docs/ Vision, product design documentation

Development

pnpm install # install dependencies pnpm build # build all packages pnpm test # run tests pnpm lint # lint with oxlint pnpm typecheck # type-check all packages pnpm check # full validation: build + lint + typecheck + test

Star History

Acknowledgments

Understudy builds on ideas and code from several outstanding open-source projects:

Project | What we learned

OpenClaw | Gateway architecture, multi-channel design, skill ecosystem patterns pi-mono | Agent core runtime, unified LLM API, TUI infrastructure NanoClaw | Minimal agent design, extension patterns OSWorld | GUI agent benchmarking methodology, computer use evaluation openai-cua-sample-app | Computer use agent reference patterns

Special thanks to Mario Zechner for the pi-agent-core foundation that powers Understudy's agent loop.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Understudy.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

We're looking for contributors in these areas:

GUI backends — Linux (AT-SPI) and Windows (UIA) native GUI support
Skills — new skill modules for popular apps and workflows
Route discovery — automatic API detection and upgrade logic (Layer 4)
Teach improvements — better evidence pack analysis and validation
Documentation & translations

License

MIT Watch → Learn → Remember → Optimize → Anticipate

That's the whole product.