# Ask HARD and HARD Engineer

The Ask HARD chat in HARD for Mac answers straight away. HARD Engineer adds a senior engineer of your own, on call at any hour. How each works.

Source: https://hard.fyi/docs/engineer/

## The Ask HARD chat

Open **Ask HARD** in HARD for Mac. HARD’s agent answers straight away. Send a screenshot of anything odd (a message, a pop-up, a payment request, a sign-in page) or describe the call you’re on. It knows what HARD has found on your Mac that needs attention.

![Ask HARD: a fake parcel text and a NAB “safe account” call, each answered, and a person on the way](https://hard.fyi/images/docs/mac-operator-light.webp "Ask HARD in HARD for Mac")

HARD’s agent uses Claude, so your messages, the recent conversation, screenshots you attach and a summary of what HARD found go to Anthropic. Never send passwords or one-time codes. The conversation is kept on your Mac.

> **Early access**
> In this version, HARD reaches Claude through Anthropic’s Claude Code on your Mac. If the agent can’t be reached, HARD says so. **Ask a person** marks the conversation for a person to pick up; that service is being switched on with HARD Engineer.

## Starting HARD Engineer

1. **Introduction.** A short, private call, under NDA if you like. The scope is agreed. [Request one](/engineer/#introduction).
2. **Discovery.** Two weeks on your accounts, devices, homes and people.
3. **Report.** Written, ranked by real-world risk, and yours to keep.
4. **Fix.** Critical findings in 72 hours, the rest by week six.
5. **Membership.** HARD on every device, every home’s network secured, and your engineer, at any hour. Everything is checked again every year.

## Questions

### What’s the Ask HARD chat in the app?

On every plan, the Ask HARD chat in HARD for Mac answers straight away with HARD’s agent. It can look at a screenshot you send and knows what HARD has found on your Mac. It uses Claude, so messages and screenshots go to Anthropic: never send passwords or one-time codes.

### How does HARD Engineer start?

With a short, private call, under NDA if you like. Then two weeks of discovery on your accounts, devices, homes and people, a written report ranked by real-world risk, and fixes: critical findings in 72 hours, the rest by week six. After that, your engineer is there for as long as you need. Request an introduction .

### How do I reach my engineer?

Your engineer is on call at any hour. How to reach them directly is set up with you when your membership starts.