nowfound

AI · May 16, 2025

WU

Workflow Use – Deterministic, self-healing browser automation (RPA 2.0)

Hey HN – Gregor & Magnus here again. A few months ago, we launched Browser Use (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43173378), which let LLMs perform tasks in the browser using natural language prompts. It was great for one-off tasks like booking flights or finding products—but we soon realized enterprises have somewhat different needs: They typically have one workflow with dynamic variables (e.g., filling out a form and downloading a PDF) that they want to reliably run a million times without breaking. Pure LLM agents were slow, expensive, and unpredictable for these…

In plain words

Workflow Use is a browser automation tool that converts recorded user actions into deterministic scripts with dynamic variables, designed for enterprises needing reliable, repetitive task execution. Users manually demonstrate workflows like form-filling or PDF downloads, which an AI system converts into scripts that run consistently at scale. It combines recorded automation steps with AI capabilities where needed, addressing limitations of pure language model agents for high-frequency, production-level tasks.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey HN – Gregor & Magnus here again. A few months ago, we launched Browser Use (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43173378), which let LLMs perform tasks in the browser using natural language prompts. It was great for one-off tasks like booking flights or finding products—but we soon realized enterprises have somewhat different needs: They typically have one workflow with dynamic variables (e.g., filling out a form and downloading a PDF) that they want to reliably run a million times without breaking. Pure LLM agents were slow, expensive, and unpredictable for these high-frequency tasks. So we just started working on Workflow Use: - You show the browser what to do (by manually recording steps; show don’t tell). - An LLM converts these recordings into deterministic scripts with variables (scripts include AI steps as well, where it’s 100% agentic) - Scripts run reliably, 10x faster, and ~90% cheaper than Browser Use. - If a step breaks, workflow will fallback to Browser Use and agentically run the step. (This self-healing functionality is still very early.) This project just kicked off, so lots of things will break, it’s definitely not production-ready yet, and plenty of stuff is still missing (like a solid editor and proper self-healing). But we wanted to share early, get feedback, and figure out what workflows you’d want to automate this way. Try it out and let us know what you think!

More ai this month

the category →
  • I trained a 125M-parameter transformer to autocomplete piano performances in real time (~108 notes/sec on an iPhone 15). The idea is basically GitHub Copilot or Tabnine, except instead of prompting it with code, you prompt it by playing a few notes on a MIDI piano. The model then continues what you played, entirely on-device. The app is free if anyone wants to try it. Happy to answer questions about the model, training, Core ML, or the many things that didn't work.

    AI · 16d ago · simedw.com

  • Astute585

    Automate your B2B brand going viral, with new media creators

    AI · 18d ago · company-app.joinastute.com

  • Grok Bot547

    AI teammates that you can give real work to

    AI · 25d ago · x.ai

  • Hey HN, Henry from Cactus here! We previously released Cactus Needle, a 14MB agentic LLM for tool call, device use, and structured extraction for phones, wearables, smart homes, small robots and microcontrollers. We got really great feedback here, and have now incorporated the suggestions to release Needle 2. The whole model is a single 14MB binary that runs a full session in 28MB of RAM; 45m parameters at 2bit compression. Needle hits 500 tokens/sec decode speed on a Raspberry Pi 5, sits between 400-1,500 tokens/sec on VR devices like Meta Quest 3S and Apple Vision Pro, and ranges…

    AI · 26d ago · cactuscompute.com

  • Make your software self-driving

    AI · 30d ago · coldtea.ai

  • Soloop472

    Approval-first Agent OS for solo founders

    AI · 30d ago · soloop.io

Launched alongside, May 2025

the whole month →