Getting Started
Reflex is an AI that can see, understand and act on your computer. You tell it what you want — by typing or talking — and it does it in your real apps and websites, with its own cursor. This page gets you to your first tasks in a couple of minutes.
1. Install and open Reflex
Download Reflex for your system from the download section and install it (see Installation). Reflex lives in your menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows, Linux) — it has no Dock icon. The first time it opens, a short setup explains permissions and lets you choose how much Reflex may do.
2. Allow Reflex to control apps (macOS)
To read and click inside other apps, macOS needs you to turn on Accessibility for Reflex once: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Reflex. Opening apps and websites works even before that. See Permissions.
3. Open the task bar
Press ⌥ Space (macOS) or Ctrl + Alt + Space (Windows, Linux). The Reflex bar appears at the bottom-center of your screen:
- + — add a file or folder, open Settings, or the optional Practice Desk sandbox
- Ask anything — type your request and press Enter (the blue button turns into ↑ when you type)
- Think — slower, more careful reasoning for tricky requests
- 🎤 — dictate into the bar
- Blue button — voice mode: talk hands-free; the bar shrinks into a small listening pill
- ⚡ Fast / 📖 Teach — Fast does the task for you; Teach points at each step and explains it
Reflex's replies, questions and confirmations appear in a small panel at the top right of your screen. Drag its bottom-left corner to resize it. Click the chat icon to see past chats and the whole conversation, or + to start a new chat (Reflex forgets the earlier context). The + menu in the bar has the same options (⌘J shows chats, ⌘N starts a new chat).
4. Try these
| Say or type | What happens |
|---|---|
| Open Calculator and calculate 234 multiplied by 87 | Opens Calculator, types the calculation, reads the display and answers “234 × 87 = 20,358”. |
| Open Chrome and search for Apple | Opens Chrome and runs the search. Then try “Open the official website” or “Go back”. |
| Open a text editor and write: Reflex can control my computer. | Opens TextEdit / Notepad / your editor (getting past any file dialog) and writes the text. |
| Find the files in Downloads that are clearly unnecessary | Looks through the folder, explains each file it would remove, and asks before moving anything to the Trash. |
| Do the same thing again | Repeats your last request, reusing what it learned. |
| Stop | Stops immediately. |
5. Talk to it
Click the blue button and just speak: “Open Notes and start a new note.” Reflex answers when it matters — “The form is ready. Do you want me to submit it?” — and you can answer “yes”, “no”, “stop” or “wait” out loud. Speech is recognized on your computer.
6. It learns
When Reflex completes a multi-step task it worked out by itself, it saves it as a skill (the goal, the steps, and what to check). Next time — or when you say “do the same thing again” — it uses the skill and still verifies each step on screen. See and manage skills in Settings → Skills.
Stop, pause and confirmations
- Stop: press ⌃ ⌥ Esc (Ctrl + Alt + Esc on Windows/Linux), click ■ on the progress card, or say “stop”.
- Pause / continue: say or type “wait” and “continue”.
- Confirmations: sending, submitting, buying, deleting, publishing and account changes always ask first — Cancel or Confirm.
- Change your mind: “actually, don't submit it” while Reflex is working makes it stop before that step.
Pro
Everything above is free and runs locally. Pro adds optional cloud reasoning with your own Anthropic API key, within spend limits you set (Settings → AI models). Nothing is sent to the cloud unless you turn it on.