Version 0.3.8 — Applies to the AutoCoder Desktop application. This guide is the complete reference for new and existing users: product overview, prerequisites, access keys, the Notion integration, every desktop and Telegram command, end-to-end workflows, and troubleshooting. All navigation paths, commands, and expected results are documented exactly.
AutoCoder is an autonomous AI coding agent that runs as a desktop application on your own machine. You describe a goal in plain language, and AutoCoder plans the work, reads your codebase, edits files, runs builds and tests, reviews its own output with a security scanner, and reports what it did — with a live stream you can watch, pause, and interrupt at any time.
AutoCoder uses a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) model: every model call runs on your DeepSeek API key. The key lives in memory on your machine and is never stored, logged, or transmitted to any AutoCoder server. Your code never leaves your infrastructure, and task execution has zero cloud dependency.
| Audience | What AutoCoder gives them |
|---|---|
| Individual developers | An autonomous agent that builds, fixes, and reviews code in their own repository with their own key |
| Teams using Notion | A shared backlog, injected team conventions, comment-thread approvals, and run history — all in Notion |
| Remote operators | Full control of their machine from Telegram: /task any job while away from the desk |
| Automation-minded users | Scheduled tasks that run on time and report to Telegram, plus browser workflows that replay at zero cost |
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Autonomous coding pipeline | Plan, discover, edit, build, run, verify, and review with Semgrep security scanning — multi-agent by default |
| Multi-agent orchestration | A Conductor coordinates planner, executor, and verifier agents (default); single-agent ReAct is the fallback |
@notion |
Creates, updates, reads, and organizes Notion pages, databases, blocks, and comments through the Notion API |
@web |
Grounded web research. Tool scope is web search only — it cannot touch your files or machine |
@browser |
Operates a separate Chrome window; workflows are recorded once and replayed with no AI calls and no cost |
@regional |
Answers in one of 22 Indian regional languages at the same price as English |
| Notion workspace | Four structured features: team-context injection, backlog task source, comment approvals, run history |
| Telegram remote control | /task commands sent from Telegram are claimed and executed on your machine |
| Scheduled tasks | Recurring tasks dispatched by the app, with completion reports to Telegram |
| BYOK cost tracking | Per-task cost cards, prompt-cache savings, and lifetime totals — visible in-app and via Telegram |
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or 11 (the current packaging target). The bridge and orchestrator are plain Node.js processes and also run on macOS and Linux when launched from source |
| Installed app | The packaged AutoCoder Desktop installer (AutoCoder.dev Setup .exe). Building from source requires Node.js 20+ and npm |
| DeepSeek API key | sk-... key created at https://platform.deepseek.com/api_keys — required for all model calls |
| Telegram account | Required to obtain and rotate your access key, and to use remote control (bot: @AutoCoderOfficialBot) |
| Notion account | Required for the Notion integration: a Personal Access Token from https://www.notion.so/my-integrations and a page you can share |
| Google Chrome | Required only for the @browser automation route |
| Permissions | Read/write access to the project folder you select; outbound HTTPS to the AutoCoder backend and to api.deepseek.com |
| Quota | Free tier includes 50 queries per calendar month, resetting monthly. Unlimited queries on Premium (see /buy_package in Telegram) |
The access key is a 32-character uppercase hexadecimal string (128 bits of entropy, generated with a cryptographically secure random source). It authenticates the desktop app to the AutoCoder control plane and links the app to your account, your quota, and your subscription. It is not a DeepSeek key and does not replace one.
Access keys are deliberately short-lived and rotate weekly. A rotation invalidates the previous key server-side.
/start.50 free queries / month), and the key commands.