Auto, Plan and Guide — and “Do it for me”
The three ways a plan can start, what each is called where, and when each one is right.
Every plan starts in one of three modes. Switch with the picker under the message box, or set the one you want by default in Settings → Default mode.
Two names for the same thing
A mode has a short name where it is chosen and a plain one where it is pressed, and it is worth knowing both before they look like different features.
- In the picker and in Settings the modes are one word each: Auto, Plan, Guide — they sit in a segmented control in a 360-pixel panel, and there is no room for a sentence.
- On a plan card the buttons say what they do: Do it for me starts Auto, and Guide me starts Guide. When the plan fills fields, the same two buttons read Fill it for me and Step by step.
- This site says “do it for me” throughout for the same reason the button does — it is the useful description. Where you see it, the mode is Auto.
Auto — “Do it for me”
Starts as soon as the plan is ready. Tabruns clicks and types on the live page while you watch. Best for work you have watched it do before — filling a form, narrowing a list of results.
Plan
Shows the plan and waits for you. The plan card names every step and the exact values it will type, and nothing touches the page until you press start. Best when you have not seen the site behave before.
Guide — “Guide me”
Walks you through it on the page. Tabruns rings each control in turn and hands you the value to enter; you do the typing. Best when you want to stay hands-on, and the only mode that is never metered.
The mode does not change what needs your approval. A plan that would submit, publish, send or spend is named as such and waits for you to start it — in every mode, every time. See Reading the plan before it runs.