Log in for it once, let it work from then on
The situation
Your main supplier takes orders through a website and nothing else: nothing to connect to, no useful export, and a monthly statement four pages deep behind a sign-in. You would happily hand the clicking over, but not the password.
You do not have to: you sign in yourself, once, in a window your agent cannot type into, and it works there from then on.
What you need
A chat, and your own login for the site. Nothing else: nothing to find, nothing to prepare.
Two minutes at the keyboard the first time. If the site sends a code by text or app, have your phone next to you.
The conversation
Say what you want, and say that you will do the sign-in yourself.
"Sign in to the Kestrel Supplies portal and download last month's statement. I'll do the login."
Your agent opens the site in a browser of its own, gets as far as the sign-in page, then puts that same browser in front of you in the preview pane beside the chat. Allow it ten seconds to appear. It arrives ready for you to use, with Hand back waiting in the floating controls at the corner.
- Click once inside the window, so the keyboard goes to the right place.
- Type your username and password into the website itself, exactly as you would at home.
- Complete whatever the site asks next: a code by text, an authenticator app, an emailed link.
- When the signed-in page is on screen, press Hand back.
Your password went into the website in that window: it never passed through your agent and never appeared in the chat. While you type, the agent can look at the page but not touch it, so you can ask "does this look right?" before handing back.
Hand back returns the window to view only and your agent gets on with the statement. If you close the window instead of pressing the button, reply "done" in the chat, because closing your view does not close the browser.
From then on
That browser keeps the session. Ask for the next statement in three weeks and there is no window and nothing to press: your agent goes straight to the page, already signed in. The login survives the browser closing between jobs, and your installation restarting.
Sites do sign you out eventually, after a quiet month or a password change. Your agent then meets the sign-in page again and asks you for the same two minutes. Nothing is lost and nothing is set up again.
What it can do in there
Read the pages and answer from them: the balance, which orders are outstanding, what changed since last month. Fill in forms and submit them. Download the statement and keep it with your other files, under Manage > Files (/workspaces). Take a screenshot when seeing the page beats reading about it.
A file downloaded while you watch reaches your own device too, and if your browser blocks that, press Save downloaded file.
Most of this happens with nothing on screen: the window is for you, not for the work. Say "show me what you are doing" and it opens in view only, with Take control there if you decide to step in.
Keeping identities apart
Each set of logins lives in a named browser profile. One profile is one identity, so two accounts on the same site need two of them.
If you keep separate projects, give each the profile it should use and one client's work never touches another's session. Ask in plain words: "keep a separate browser login for the Kestrel account and use it for this project."
A profile is not a password store: it remembers that you are signed in, not what you typed. Passwords, keys and tokens belong in the vault. Do not ask for one per site either: every running profile is another browser holding memory, and you can see what they cost under Admin > Resources (/admin/resources).
If something goes wrong
The window is blank, black or stopped on a Connect button. Say so and your agent opens a fresh one. If that fails too, ask for the link and open it in a tab of your own.
Your typing goes nowhere. Click once inside the window. If the controls say View only, you are watching rather than driving: press Take control and wait for them to change.
Control ran out. A control session lasts about half an hour. When it lapses the window drops back to view only and your agent carries on. The login is untouched, so ask for control again if you were not finished.
The site wants a passkey or your password manager. Neither follows you into that window, because both live on your own computer. Take the site's other route: a code by text or email, an authenticator app or a QR code.
Related
- Let it see and act, for what else your agents can reach.
- The preview pane, where the window opens.
- Vault and sandboxing, for where passwords and keys live.
- Stay in control, for what agents may do unasked.
- Organising with projects.