- Overview
- Quickstart
- Installation
- Local security configuration
- Permission setting best practices
- Choosing the LLM model
- Usage and limits
- Delegate
- Trust and compliance
- Governance
- Features
- Cartographer
- Cartographer overview
- The Cartographer interface
- Getting started with Cartographer
- Working with existing automations
- AS-IS (Current Process) documentation
- Providing documents to Cartographer
- Delegating a task
- TO-BE design and PDD generation
- Refining your PDD and the quality checklist
- Generating an SDD
- Sending SDDs to Automation Hub
- Delegate for Testing
- Reference
- Troubleshooting
- Backup and restore
Security controls an individual user sets directly from the chatbox — approval mode, screen context, and execution mode — plus OS-level permissions and advanced security settings.
This page covers the security controls you set yourself, as an individual user, starting with the three controls available directly from the chatbox.
Security checklist
These are the main tasks to configure Delegate and Cartographer locally, in order:
- Set approval mode, screen context, and execution mode from the chatbox
- Review advanced security settings — fine-grained Allow/Ask/Block control over tools, terminal and files, protected files, and UI automation
- Choose your conversation storage mode
- Verify OS-level permissions
- Review installed skills' requirements against your setup for compatibility
- Know how to interrupt or stop Delegate or Cartographer (Escape key)
Approval mode
Set from the mode selector next to the chatbox, and applies to all chats.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Cautious | Asks for all operations; strict process isolation with allowlist-only access |
| Adaptive (recommended) | Runs safe tools automatically; asks before high-impact operations; protects credentials and sensitive files |
| Full access | Full system access, no prompts |
Approval mode sets the defaults for the granular, per-tool, per-file, and per-app/site controls — tool permissions, terminal and files, protected files, and UI automation — described in Security settings reference.
Computer use settings
Screen context and execution mode both govern computer use for Delegate and Cartographer — what it can see, and how it acts on your screen.
Screen context
Governs what it can see. Set from the screen icon next to the chatbox:
| Option | What it sees |
|---|---|
| Default | Only the apps attached to the current chat |
| All apps | Every visible app |
| None | Nothing — it can ask you to turn it on when it needs to |
The chatbox also shows which apps are currently attached to the chat, since it only sees what's listed there when capturing your screen.
First message of each turn
A related setting under Settings → General → General.
In Default mode, each user message gets one full-screen capture so "do this for me" works on cold start. Subsequent turns within the turn mask to attached apps. On by default.
Execution mode
Governs how it acts — whether it takes over your screen or works without touching it. Set from the computer icon next to the chatbox:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| On my screen | Drives your mouse and keyboard on the current screen |
| Ask before each app | Asks for approval before taking the first action in each application |
| In the background | Works without taking over your screen |
In the background expands into three sub-modes:
| Sub-mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Native Background | Runs web and desktop tasks together in the background |
| Web only | Runs browser tasks in a minimized window via CDP — suitable for parallel browser work |
| Local (new session) | Creates a separate Windows session via RDP — setup is required |
A separate Always plan before toggle, next to execution mode, has it review its plan with you before executing the task — this may consume more token units.
For On my screen and Ask before each app modes, where it takes over your screen, two auto-minimize settings keep it out of the way while it works:
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Auto-Minimize | On | Minimize the window during UI automation |
| Maximize Target App | On | Bring the target application to full screen during automation |
For the Web only and Native Background sub-modes, you can select which named browser profile to use — this determines which cookies, logins, and extensions are available.
Advanced security settings
Beyond approval mode, Settings → Security holds four areas of fine-grained, per-tool, per-file, and per-app/site controls:
| Area | Covers |
|---|---|
| Tool permissions | Allow, Ask, or Block for individual tools, connectors, and operations |
| Terminal and files | The shell command sandbox, its allowed paths, capabilities, and blocked commands |
| Protected files | Files Delegate needs approval to access — secrets, keys, cloud credentials, config, and data files |
| UI automation | Trusted and blocked apps and websites |
See Security settings reference for the full breakdown of each.
Conversation storage
A user-selectable, security-relevant setting that lives outside Settings → Security: New tasks, under Settings → General → General.
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Local | Chat history stays on the device only (SQLite). |
| Remote | A PostgreSQL database stores chat session metadata, message content, delegation requests, user settings, daily usage, and product settings. |
Message content, including attachments and screen context screenshots, transits the UiPath backend for inference regardless of storage mode, but is not persisted server-side in Local mode.
OS-level permissions
Beyond approval mode, screen context, and execution mode, the operating system controls what Delegate and Cartographer can do — and always takes precedence: if Windows denies a permission, they cannot do that thing regardless of what you have set above.
The following table lists the permissions Delegate and Cartographer require on Windows.
| Permission | Where to Grant | What It Enables |
|---|---|---|
| UI Automation | User Account Control during install | Controlling applications |
| File System | Standard user permissions | Reading/writing files in accessible locations |
| Network | Windows Firewall (if prompted) | Web access, cloud integrations |
Running as Administrator grants broader access but is not required for normal operation, and prevents them from driving applications you have launched as administrator.