On your desktop — four moments with the desktop agents

The desktop agents are Sven, Kairi, Madis and Piret standing in a corner of your Mac screen. They are the same agents as in the dashboard, with the same tools and the same rules. What changes is the distance: you don't have to leave Outlook or Excel to reach Studio. Here are four moments from one Tuesday at a small terrace builder.

9.10 · An email becomes a quote request — Anne and Kairi

Anne is a co-owner and runs sales. Tõnu Kask writes to her own mailbox, not the company address: “Could you quote the terrace by Friday? Measurements attached.” In the past Anne would have forwarded it, gone into Studio, found the client and typed out the background.

Now she drags the message out of Outlook. As soon as the drag starts, Kairi notices, waves her over and holds out her hands. Anne lets go over her.

Filed “Terrace quote” from Tõnu Kask (with measurements.xlsx) in Studio, as if you'd forwarded it. Tell me what to do with it, or I'll leave it there.

Anne types: “He needs an offer by Friday — get it started.”

Behind that one sentence, Studio does what it does with every forwarded email. It recognises that the message came from inside the company and that the real sender is Tõnu, finds or creates his client record, files the measurements on it and writes a note where the email came from. Kairi reads the email and the spreadsheet, opens the opportunity and prepares the offer. The offer is not sent: it waits as a draft, and nothing goes out without Anne approving it. Before lunch Kairi steps back onto the screen: “Kairi prepared an email for review.” One click continues the conversation, and Anne reads the draft in Studio and sends it.

What Anne didn't do: save the attachment, look up the client, or explain who Tõnu is.

10.40 · Supplier prices without an export — Jaan and Madis

Jaan runs the projects. The decking supplier has sent their confirmed prices for Pine House, and Jaan has pasted them into his own Excel sheet. He selects the six rows and presses ⌘C. Then ⌃⌥Space, and ⌃⌥3 to bring Madis forward.

Under Madis's greeting there is a new button:

📎 Attach what you copied from Microsoft Excel

One click turns the six rows into a small CSV in Studio, in Uploads, named after the program and the time. There is no file to save and no export. Jaan writes: “These are the decking prices we agreed for Pine House — log them as committed costs.”

Madis files the table under Pine House and records the rows as committed costs, which are reversible internal records and not an invoice. He replies with what the budget can now actually show, and says what is still unmeasured. He doesn't invent a margin.

Jaan could just as well have dragged the selected cells onto Madis. The result is the same table.

13.15 · An invoice from the inbox — Tiina, Sven and Liisa

Tiina owns the company. A software invoice arrives by email as a PDF. She drags the attachment straight out of the email onto Sven, who is standing in the corner of her screen, and says nothing more. Sven confirms that he saved it in Studio, in Uploads.

A PDF in Uploads is checked by Liisa in the background. She only speaks up when the document is a purchase invoice the company should book. This one is, so Liisa reads it and books it: what each line is, the account from the company's own chart of accounts, the VAT treatment, and no project, because software is a company cost. A few minutes later Sven puts a decision card in front of Tiina: the booking line by line, with Approve, Review and Decline. Tiina approves, and the purchase invoice is booked in the accounting system (Merit) with the PDF attached.

If she had declined with a reason (“this is rent, account 4015”), Liisa would have booked it again with that correction and come back with a new card.

17.35 · The day is wrapped up — Jaan and Piret

Toward the end of the day Piret steps in. The timer has been running on Pine House since morning: Stop it or Keep it running? Jaan stops it. Then:

Shall we log today's time? About 6 h 40 min on this Mac.

Below it is a summary of the day: how long he spent in Excel, Outlook and the browser, and the main window titles. That summary has so far stayed on this Mac. Only Match to projects sends it to Studio. Piret proposes entries (two hours of Pine House planning, an hour of the Kask offer) and logs them once Jaan confirms. The raw activity log never leaves the Mac.

The next morning Jaan wakes up with a fever. He right-clicks Piret → I'm sick…, and she asks once, kindly, and wants a Confirm. Sickness takes effect immediately, without approval, and no diagnosis is stored anywhere. Jaan's manager gets a single card proposing who covers his dated tasks. The reason stays in Piret's records.

What the desktop agents never do

• They don't read your clipboard on their own. They notice that you copied something, and in which program, but only read it when you press "Attach what you copied".
• They don't send anything to clients without approval. The same drafts and decision cards apply as in the dashboard.
• They don't turn your workday into a report for your manager. The activity record stays on your Mac. Studio only sees what you send with "Match to projects".

The app is installed from the downloads page, and Studio is connected under Personal settings → Signed-in devices → Connect desktop app.