Why DuckyHelper is built to ask before it sends a message or pays

TL;DR:

• DuckyHelper is built to ask first before it sends a message or pays for anything, and to wait for your yes.

• For a message you can send it, edit it or deny it.

• Doing work in your apps is in early access, on Mac. Asking first is part of how it is built.

When an assistant starts doing work for you instead of only answering questions, one question matters more than any other: what happens if it gets something wrong? For most tasks the answer is "you fix it". For two kinds of task, the answer is "too late". This post explains how we handle those two, and why.

Two actions you cannot take back

Besides answering questions, DuckyHelper is starting to do jobs in your apps. That part is early access, on Mac. Hand it a job and it gets on with it in that window, using a cursor of its own, while your cursor stays yours.

Almost everything it does in a window is easy to undo. It can open a page, read a table, sort a list or fill in a sheet, and if it gets a cell wrong you change the cell. Two actions are different. A message that has been sent is in someone else's inbox. A payment that has gone through has moved money. You cannot reach in and pull either one back.

So we drew the line at exactly those two. DuckyHelper is built to ask first before it sends a message or pays for anything.

What counts as sending or paying

Sending means a message that leaves your computer and lands in front of another person, such as an email, a chat message or a reply to a comment. Paying means anything that spends your money, such as checking out a cart or confirming a purchase.

Reading, searching, drafting and organizing are not on that list. Drafting an email is not sending it. Filling a shopping cart is not paying for it. DuckyHelper can get right up to the edge of either one and stop there.

What you see before it goes out

When a job reaches a send or a payment, DuckyHelper is built to stop and show you the thing itself, not a summary of it. For a message, you see the message as it would be sent, and you can send it, edit it or deny it. For a payment, you see what is being bought before anything is charged.

• Send lets it go out exactly as written.

• Edit lets you change the words first.

• Deny drops it, and nothing is sent.

The point of showing the real message is that a description such as "I wrote a reply" tells you very little. The words are what matter, so the words are what you get to read.

Why everything else can just happen

It could ask before every click. It does not, on purpose. An assistant that asks about every small step turns into a slow form you have to babysit, and people stop reading the questions once there are too many of them. A question that only appears for the two actions that cannot be reversed stays meaningful when it does appear.

That is also why the rule is narrow and firm instead of broad and vague. It names two actions, sending a message and paying, and for those two it is built to ask first.

A companion rule: secrets stay with you

Asking first is one of two rules we treat as fixed. The other is that DuckyHelper is built not to type your passwords or card numbers. We wrote about that separately in why DuckyHelper is built not to type your passwords or card numbers. Together they are meant to keep you in charge of the two things that matter most: what you say to other people, and your money and access.

What this means for you

If you give DuckyHelper a job that ends in a message, expect it to do the work up to the draft and then wait for you. If you walk away, the message waits too. That can feel slower than letting it run, and we think that is the right trade for something that can act in your name. It may not recognize every send or payment, so keep an eye on tasks that involve messages or money.

You can read more about how this fits with the rest of its limits on the asks first page, and about when it looks at your screen in when DuckyHelper looks at your screen.