08 · Assistant: drive your PC by phone

What the Assistant is

The Assistant (助理) is WorkBuddy's remote control — you drive the WorkBuddy on your desktop through a messaging app on your phone.

Three steps:

1. Send a message from your phone
2. WorkBuddy on your computer executes the task
3. The result comes back to your phone

Which means: you do not have to be at your desk for WorkBuddy to be working.

Supported platforms

Platform	Notes
WeChat assistant (recommended)	The official recommended path
WeChat customer-service account	No open-platform app needed — scan a QR code and you are bound
WeCom assistant	@ the bot in a group; results are shared with everyone
QQ bot	Requires setup in the QQ open platform
Feishu	Requires creating an app and configuring permissions
DingTalk bot	Requires creating and configuring a bot

Start with the WeChat customer-service account

That route needs no open-platform app, no App ID or App Secret — the whole binding happens inside WorkBuddy: open assistant settings, click configure, scan with your phone, done.

WeCom, QQ, Feishu and DingTalk normally need an app or bot configured on their side first, which is a much longer path. For a first taste of remote control, take the WeChat route.

Setting up

1. Open WorkBuddy, click your avatar (bottom left), open Settings → Assistant settings (助理设置)
2. Find the platform's integration and click Configure (配置)
3. Follow the prompts — for the WeChat customer-service account that means waiting for a QR code, scanning it, and confirming the binding

QR codes expire

If the code expires or the scan fails, click Configure again for a fresh one.

Once bound, WorkBuddy shows the linked account's avatar and nickname with the status "bound". Click Unbind (解绑) to switch accounts.

Prerequisites

For the WeChat customer-service account route:

Requirement	Detail
WorkBuddy version	Installed and signed in on macOS / Windows, version ≥ 4.6.4
WeChat version	A working WeChat signed in on your phone, version ≥ 8.0.70
Network	Both computer and phone online
WorkBuddy running	The computer must stay on with WorkBuddy running

The last one is a hard constraint: the Assistant is a remote control, not a cloud service. With the computer off, pressing buttons does nothing.

What you can do once bound

In the chat window:

• Start a new task, or continue an unfinished session in the Assistant panel
• Send follow-up instructions, answer WorkBuddy's questions, steer work in progress
• Approve command execution, file modifications and other actions needing confirmation
• View task output and diffs
• Get notified when a task finishes or needs your attention

That third point matters: with remote work, default permission confirmation dialogs become chat messages. You tap approve on your phone and the desktop continues.

Remote tasks versus normal tasks

Aspect	Normal task	Assistant
Working directory	Any you choose	Fixed dedicated assistant folder
New conversations	Multiple parallel tasks	One session only, all remote instructions in it
Context management	History can be cleared and restarted	Full history retained, cannot be cleared

Do not use the Assistant while at your desk

The official recommendation: use normal tasks from the main window for local work, and the Assistant only for remote triggering or a unified record.

There is a specific trap: in the assistant workspace, only the task with the most recent conversation is shown in the Assistant panel — the others appear only in the workspace list. So do not pick the assistant as a workspace when creating a task on the desktop, or your history will look like it disappeared.

The Assistant's default folder also cannot be changed. It is designed for remote tasks; this is a constraint, not a defect.

Typical situations

• Out of the office — have your desktop process files from your phone
• In a meeting — get minutes generated quickly
• Commuting — line up material before you arrive
• Ad hoc — send a task from anywhere and check the result later

Some real examples:

Summarise the newest meeting notes on my desktop.

Find the PowerPoint file named "project review" on my computer, check the
version, tidy it into a folder that is easy to send, and tell me how to
transfer it across.

I am away from my computer. Keep investigating the error in this project,
starting with the most recent run log. Tell me the cause and your proposed
fix first, then we will decide whether to change code.

Note the phrasing in the last one — diagnose first, act second. That habit is worth a great deal in remote work.

Approving from your phone

On a phone you can see less

At your desk, a confirmation dialog shows the full operation, path and reason, and you can take it in at a glance.

A phone screen is small and chat messages are easy to skim past. If you cannot read it properly, do not approve it. Reply and ask:

Explain which files this step changes and why it is necessary before I decide.

Continuing across devices

Assistant sessions and the desktop are joined up: a task you started on your phone continues in the Assistant panel when you sit down, with the conversation history intact.

Two patterns:

Start on the commute, finish at the office.

[phone] Read D:/project/requirements-v3.md and list every open question
in it. We will go through them when I get in.

Open the Assistant panel on arrival; the context is all there.

Set it going at the end of the day, collect in the morning.

[phone] Merge all the CSVs in D:/data from this week, aggregate by product
line, and put an analysis report in D:/reports. Take your time; tell me when done.

Acceptance checks

• [ ] Sending from your phone actually starts execution on the desktop
• [ ] Progress and results come back to the chat window
• [ ] You receive a confirmation request for anything high-risk
• [ ] Artifacts land in the directory you specified
• [ ] The full conversation is in the Assistant panel when you return to your desk

Remote safety

Remote means you cannot see what it is doing

The official "ten tips" has a dedicated entry: local first, remote second.

The reasoning is blunt: remote control means WorkBuddy acts where you cannot see it. If it does something beyond expectations, you may not stop it in time.

Get comfortable at the desk first — learn how it executes, how it interprets, where the risk boundaries are — and hand over remote control gradually.

Three product-side protections:

• Bound identity — configure the linked account in assistant settings; you can rebind to a different mobile platform
• Source validation — every remote instruction goes through multiple layers of source checking
• High-risk confirmation — file deletion, system configuration changes and command approvals require confirmation

Three things you should do:

1. Give clear goals. You cannot course-correct the way you can at your desk.
2. Reduce high-risk operations. For deletes, overwrites and bulk moves, ask for a preview.
3. Name filenames precisely. Explicit names and directories markedly improve success rates across devices.

Unbinding

Unbinding removes the link between a platform and this WorkBuddy.

Steps: Settings → Assistant settings → find the platform → Unbind on the right of the card.

After unbinding:

• That platform account can no longer send remote instructions here
• The platform's integration configuration is deleted locally
• The bot / app on the platform side still exists, but its messages are not received
• History from executed tasks stays local and is not cleared
• Other bound platforms are unaffected

That third point matters: unbinding only cuts the WorkBuddy side. The bot is still sitting in the WeCom group and needs deleting there separately if you want it gone.

FAQ

Bound successfully but nothing happens when I send a message.

In order:

1. Is the connection still online?
2. Switch model and test again — some non-response issues clear with a model switch
3. On WeChat, if it is unresponsive for a long time, disconnect and reconnect
4. If it worked once and then stopped, note the time and platform for investigation

HarmonyOS WeChat scan fails.

HarmonyOS 6 currently has a WeChat scanning incompatibility; HarmonyOS 4 works. Workaround: complete the first scan on an Android phone, then continue on HarmonyOS WeChat.

WeCom says the webhook domain ownership check failed.

WeCom validates domain ownership on webhook addresses. Check the address is complete and matches the required configuration; if it still fails, keep the error screenshot and submit it.

Uploading a desktop file from mobile says it cannot be done.

A known Windows limitation — device permissions, path access and platform capability all constrain it. Specify the file path explicitly on the machine side instead.

Is there a cap on assistants?

Yes: free 3, standard 5, advanced 8, ultimate 10.

More in Troubleshooting.

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09 Memory — stop re-explaining who you are.