Independent business-effect verification
A run is judged by an out-of-band check of the system of record, such as a read-only API call, a SQL query, or re-reading the persisted record, not by the acting session declaring itself successful.
OpenAdapt vs hand-rolled scripts
A script written with Playwright, Selenium, AutoHotkey, or PyAutoGUI is free, precise, and completely under your control. Plenty of production automation runs this way for good reasons. OpenAdapt is also open and local; what it adds is the governance around the script you would otherwise build yourself.
Where hand-rolled scripts are strong
- Zero license cost and no vendor relationship: the whole stack is open source and yours.
- Exact control over every step, wait, and assertion, with the full power of a general-purpose language.
- Mature frameworks, huge communities, and years of accumulated answers for almost any situation.
- For a developer who owns the workflow, a small script is often the fastest and simplest correct answer.
What OpenAdapt does differently
These are the differences that hold up under scrutiny. Recording demonstrations, visual targeting, virtual desktop awareness, and selector repair are broadly available across modern tools and are not claimed here as unique.
Explicit transaction outcomes
Every consequential run ends verified or halted with a preserved run report. There is no silent third state where the workflow looked finished but the record never changed.
Deterministic healthy runs
A compiled workflow replays deterministically with zero model calls on healthy runs. Model spend is reserved for compilation and reviewable repair.
External zero-install remote lane
For managed Citrix, RDP, and VDI estates, OpenAdapt can drive the local client window from outside the session, so nothing is installed inside the remote environment. The lane is qualified today against a deterministic stand-in and a real FreeRDP round trip; a real ICA/HDX environment is qualified per customer before consequential use.
Customer-controlled sensitive data
Recordings, screenshots, and compiled bundles can stay inside your boundary. Local, self-hosted, and customer-controlled deployments are first-class, not an enterprise afterthought.
Open MIT local runtime
The compiler and governed runtime are MIT-licensed and inspectable. You can audit exactly what runs beside your systems of record.
Published qualification evidence
Each execution surface ships with bounded, published acceptance evidence, counted effects, refusals, and halts, instead of an unbounded compatibility claim.
Per-surface acceptance results are published in the qualification evidence.
Which should you choose?
Choose hand-rolled scripts when
Keep a hand-rolled script when it already works, a developer owns and maintains it, and its failure modes are understood and affordable.
Choose OpenAdapt when
Choose OpenAdapt when scripts have become an unowned maintenance burden, when non-developers need to author workflows by demonstration, or when you need what scripts rarely include: independent out-of-band verification of the business effect, an explicit verified-or-halted outcome with a preserved run report, and halts on ambiguity instead of best-effort clicks. The runtime is MIT-licensed, so you trade none of the openness.
OpenAdapt does not claim your script cannot work. It packages the verification, outcome discipline, and audit trail that consequential scripts eventually grow by hand, and it publishes qualification evidence per surface instead of assuming coverage.
Other comparisons
Test the difference on one real workflow.
Bring one repeated, consequential workflow and measure authoring time, run time, intervention rate, and incorrect-success rate against your current approach.