Act Mode

Act Mode lets Silk use your mouse and keyboard to complete tasks directly on your computer — inside your real browser, with your existing sessions, cookies, and logins.

When to use Act Mode

Use Act Mode when you want Silk to do something rather than explain something. Examples:

“Create a new GitHub issue titled ‘Fix login timeout’ in the silk repo.”

“Go to Notion and create a page called Q3 Planning.”

“Fill in this form with my name and email.”

“Send a message to #general on Slack saying the build is done.”

Caution

Act Mode has real consequences — it clicks, types, and submits things in your actual accounts. Double-check task descriptions before confirming.

Triggering Act Mode

Act Mode is triggered automatically when you phrase your request as a command (“do X”, “create X”, “send X”, “go to X and Y”). You don’t need a special keyword.

Silk will briefly acknowledge the request (“on it”, “starting now”) and then begin operating your computer.

What Act Mode can do

• Navigate to any URL
• Click buttons, links, and menu items
• Type into text fields and forms
• Handle multi-step workflows (e.g., login → navigate → create)
• Ask you to complete CAPTCHAs or two-factor auth steps it can’t do itself

Pausing or stopping Act Mode

During Act Mode, Silk displays its progress in the panel. You can stop it at any time by clicking Stop in the panel.

If Silk encounters something it can’t handle — a CAPTCHA, a two-factor prompt, an unexpected dialog — it will pause and ask you to complete that step, then resume from where it left off.

Act Mode vs background agents

	Act Mode	Background Agent
Works in	Your live browser/desktop	Headless subprocess
Uses your logins	Yes — your real sessions	No — no browser access
Visible	Yes — you see it working	No — runs silently
Best for	UI tasks, form filling, app control	Research, coding, file tasks