Ira for Windows¶

Ira for Windows lives in the tray. Press Ctrl+Alt+Space anywhere (or the shortcut you chose in Settings), or click its icon, and a panel opens where you type to Ira. Ira can then use what your PC can do, for you, when you ask: find a file and read it, read the window you are in, list your browser tabs, open an app or a link, or read what you copied.

vo PDF kahan hai jo kal download kiya?

padh kar batao

screen pe kya hai?

It is text only for now: talking by voice is on the Mac, iPhone and Android apps. Ira reads nothing until you ask, and only with the skills you switch on. See what Ira can and cannot see.

Install¶

There is no installer yet. Build it on Windows 10 (version 2004) or later with the .NET 10 SDK:

git clone https://github.com/helloupendra/ira.git
cd ira\clients\windows
dotnet build Ira.Windows -c Release -p:Platform=x64

Then run Ira.exe from the build's output folder (Ira.Windows\bin\x64\Release\...\win-x64). It carries what it needs with it. One copy runs per Windows user; starting it again opens the panel.

Pair it with your Ira¶

The first time, the panel opens on pairing. On your Ira, in Your devices, pair a Windows PC (it asks your PIN): it shows a link and a code. Copy the link (https://ira.example.com/pair#code=...) and Ira for Windows finds it on the clipboard (or press Paste); or type the code and your Ira's address. The PC's key is kept in Windows Credential Manager, for your Windows user only. Pair again… is in the tray icon's menu.

Ask, and say yes¶

Type in the panel and press Enter. When Ira proposes something that acts for you, a card asks: Yes or No for a small step, your PIN for anything that sends, spends or deletes (three wrong PINs lock actions for 15 minutes, as everywhere in Ira), or Windows Hello once you set it up in Settings. The panel hides when you click elsewhere, unless you pin it.

Settings¶

Settings… is in the tray icon's menu and in the panel's menu:

Shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+Space, Ctrl+Shift+Space, Alt+Shift+Space or Ctrl+Alt+I. If another app already has the one you choose, Ira says so and keeps the one it had.
Folders Ira may use: your user folder at first. Add folders inside it and Ira uses only those; add a folder elsewhere (D:\Work, say) and Ira may use it too. AppData, .ssh, hidden files and key files stay off wherever they are.
Start Ira when you sign in to Windows: a value under your own Run key in the registry, nothing that needs an administrator.
Approving with Windows Hello: type your Ira PIN once and Windows Hello makes a key that only your face, finger or Hello PIN unlocks; its public key goes to your Ira (RS256, see Security). After that, a card that needs your PIN also has Windows Hello. Turn off forgets the key on the PC.
What Ira may use on this PC: each skill, on or off here. A skill works only when it is on for this PC on your Ira (with your PIN) and on here; switch it off here and the PC refuses it, whatever your Ira asks.

What I read (in the same window, and in the tray icon's menu) lists what Ira used on this PC since it started, newest first: the file, the search, the window or the app, never what it read. It stays on the PC, in memory only, until Ira quits; Clear empties it.

Drop: send anything to your other devices¶

Drop is your own inbox, shared by your devices (see Privacy). The panel's Drop lists the newest items: Copy first for text and links, a file to save or open.

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V sends the clipboard (text, or files copied in Explorer); Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C copies the newest item. Both are also in the tray icon's menu.
In Explorer, Send to → Ira (your devices) sends the files you chose.
Something new from another device comes as a notification with Copy; a file goes to Downloads\Ira, with Show in folder.

What Ira can and cannot see¶

Each ability belongs to a skill you switch on for this PC on Your devices, and then allow on the PC too: the panel asks once. The PC checks both itself, so not even a server that asks can use a skill you did not allow here.

Skill	Tools	Tier
files	find files, read one (PDF, Word, RTF, text, Markdown), open one	0, 0, 1
screen	read the text of the window you are in	0
browser	list the tabs in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi and Opera; bring one to the front	0, 1
apps	open an app from the Start menu; open a web link	1, 2
clipboard	read what you copied	0
control	type, press keys, click a control by its label, scroll: in the window you are in or an app you name, each step after your PIN or within an approval it opened	3
routine	tell your Ira when the PC locks, unlocks, sleeps and wakes, its first activity of the day, and which network it is on (see Routine)	—

Ira cannot:

read anything you did not ask about; nothing runs in the background;
send a picture of your screen: Windows' own text recognition reads the window on the PC, and only the words go to your Ira;
read the windows of password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, KeePass, LastPass and others), the Windows sign-in or administrator prompt, or the lock screen;
read AppData (browser profiles, saved passwords, mail), .ssh, .aws and other credential folders, hidden or system files, or files that hold keys and passwords (.env, .pem, .key, id_rsa, password vaults), even if you ask; links and junctions are followed first, and network paths, device paths and alternate data streams are refused;
read outside your user folder, or outside the folders you chose in Settings;
open a terminal, PowerShell, the Command Prompt or Task Manager, a program, script or shortcut file, or a link that is not a plain https:// or http:// address;
read what a password manager copied and marked as private;
type, press keys or click in a terminal, PowerShell, the Command Prompt, Task Manager, a password manager or the sign-in or administrator prompt (the PC checks the program itself, whatever your Ira asks); type into a password field; or press the Windows key, which opens Run.

What Ira reads goes to your own Ira server, marked as data that can never give Ira orders, and is kept only in that conversation.

Trusted apps. On your Ira, under Your assistant → Trusted apps, you can name a program on this PC (chrome.exe, say) where Ira may type and click without asking while it is in front; adding one needs your PIN, and a terminal or Task Manager can never be one.

Routine¶

If you switch on the routine skill for this PC (on your Ira, and in Settings here), Ira for Windows tells your Ira every 30 seconds, when something changed: when the PC locks, unlocks, sleeps and wakes, its first activity of the day, and which network it is on, as a code made from the network's gateway with a salt kept on this PC. Never the network's name, never what is on the screen or which apps run. The codes are the Mac's kind, so a network you name Office is Office for both. See What Ira learns.

Remove Ira from this PC¶

Forget this pairing… in the panel's menu tells your Ira to stop this PC's key and forgets it here; or remove the PC on your Ira, under Your devices. Delete the folder you built it in to remove the app.