Launch HN: Minicor (YC P26) – Windows desktop automations at scale

Hey we’re Faiz and Saheed and we built Minicor so AI companies who need to integrate to desktop systems with no API can quickly build scalable desktop RPAs. Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD0GHZIJ1cw

We were working on non-RPA integrations when a customer promised to sign a deal in 2 days if we could unblock a sale of theirs that involved integrating with a clinic’s Windows based medical record system. We didn’t know it at the time but it turns out that building desktop RPAs at scale is extremely difficult because scripting is hard (learning the system, defining the automation, UIs changing constantly), orchestration is hard (is the VM up? queuing, parallelizing) and debugging is hard (zero observability, false positives, cascading failures). 30%+ failure rates are not uncommon. At scale we’ve seen cases of failed RPAs leading to thousands of support tickets a month.

To solve the problems we were facing, we built an MCP that Claude Code/Codex can use to navigate a virtual machine running desktop software with Python to create RPA workflows. The RPA workflows run as Python scripts for speed, cost, and determinism. These workflows can be triggered by API following any input/output schema specified, with video replays and logs stored with each run. The MCP can debug RPAs and make changes to the underlying code, all of which are version controlled. We also built tools for cloning VMs for parallelizing RPAs, and handling 2FA/OTP challenges. Plus since workflows are code based: we were also able to add triggers for Slack notifications, human-in-the-loop steps, or call an LLM to verify the state of a VM by passing a screenshot.

Would love to hear your feedback and if you have any RPA horror stories! (:

So AI companies would install this on their customer (practices) computers?

Yes, more likely on a virtual machine running the legacy software

Congrats on the launch. One complaint: RPA this, non-RPA that, but you never explain what it means. I would write down the acronym fully once at the first mention on the landing page.

Thank you!! Yeah that's a good point - it's been so engrained in our brains, appreciate the feedback

Congrats on the launch! Legacy system users are also one of the slowest to adopt AI. How do you navigate that?

100% right - we support the AI companies who are selling to the legacy end users - for ex: we don’t sell directly to hospitals, but an AI scribe for doctors that already has a hospital as a customer, we help them integrate to the hospital’s EMR

Legacy system users are also the one who pays the most for tools and services. We sell to enterprise, I can attest to that. If it is relevant usecase and positioning for the market, it should be fine.

yeah it’s been interesting to watch, we were surprised initially at how much legacy users actually wanted to adopt AI - I think it’s because of how awful the old software can be to interact with

Please make your trust center public if you are focusing on healthcare AI companies…the footer link is dead.

Thanks for flagging this!

Could you use this to test new releases of software for bugs? A bit like TDD but for GUI interactions

Yes! we have customers doing that

What the deuce is an "RPA"?

Its an acronym for Robotic Process Automation. It usually means triggering mouse clicks and key stokes to perform tasks

It's a script that simulates clicks/keystrokes on Desktop/Web