power-automate-desktop
Installation
SKILL.md
Power Automate Desktop (RPA)
Purpose: design Power Automate desktop flows that automate UI-driven work no API exposes -- the automation of last resort -- with robust selectors, variables, and error handling.
When to Use (RPA Is a Last Resort)
Use a desktop flow only when there is no connector, API, or cloud flow that can do the job:
- Driving a legacy desktop app or a website with no API
- Screen-scraping or form-filling a system you cannot change
Always prefer, in order: native connector -> custom connector over a documented API -> HTTP action -> desktop flow (RPA). RPA is brittle (UI changes break selectors) and needs a machine/runtime -- only choose it when nothing higher wins.
Attended vs Unattended
| Attended | Unattended | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs | With a signed-in user watching | On a machine with no interactive user |
| Trigger | User starts it, or a cloud flow | Scheduled / cloud-flow, queued on a machine group |
| Use for | Human-in-the-loop, desktop apps the user owns | Lights-out batch processing |