Unattended Runs That Match Your Dev Machine

What it is for

The handover checklist between a working automation and a scheduled unattended one. It covers hardcoded values, credentials, leftover debug dialogs, the difference between your desktop and the robot's session, and a precondition check that fails fast. Use it the day before you set a trigger, not the morning after the first overnight run failed.

The skill Copy

Before you hand a process to an unattended robot, take out everything that
only worked because you were sitting in front of it.

1. Search the project for hardcoded values: paths under your user profile,
   mapped drive letters, the test environment's URL, email addresses, dates,
   your own name. Move each one into an asset or a config file the process
   reads at startup.
2. Never keep a password in a variable, an argument, or a config cell. Use a
   credential asset and read it at the moment it is needed.
3. Assume nobody is logged in and nobody will click. Remove every message
   box, input dialog and "press OK to continue" left from debugging.
4. Assume a fresh, smaller session. Test at the resolution the robot machine
   actually runs, with the application closed, with no browser tabs already
   open, and with that machine's language and date format.
5. Check the account, not the machine. The robot signs in as a service
   account: it may not have your permissions, your printer, your default
   folders, or a licence for the target application.
6. Give the process a first step that verifies its preconditions - folder
   exists, queue reachable, credential not empty, target application opens -
   and stops with a clear message when one fails. Failing at step one is
   cheap; failing at step forty is not.
7. Run it once on the production machine against test data before you
   schedule anything, and read the whole job log line by line.
8. Only then add the trigger, and set it first to a window you are awake to
   watch.

The failure this prevents: a process that runs perfectly while you watch and
then sits at 2 a.m. on an invisible dialog on a locked machine until the
timeout kills it.

How to install it Copy

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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Where it came from