Computer Use

Codewhale Computer Use

Computers first

The plugin controls computers, not "the screen". computer_list shows the registry; one computer is always active, and every tool acts on the active computer unless given computer.

• Pass computer: "<id>" on any tool to act on (and stickily switch to) that computer. computer_switch changes the active computer without acting.
• local is the machine the plugin runs on. ssh computers run the bundled remote agent (pushed automatically at registration). hdc computers are HarmonyOS devices driven over hdc.
• Every receipt names the computer it happened on. Read it before continuing — never assume the action landed on the machine you meant.

Human controls

When the local helper is installed, it owns the input route even when the host also includes a native binary. A disconnected helper is an error, never permission to bypass it with direct input. control_paused and control_stopped mean the person paused or stopped Computer Use. Stop acting and wait for them; do not change environment variables, restart the helper, create another session or use another tool to defeat their choice. After Stop, the old session remains invalid even when the person allows new sessions. The helper's own setup, permission and safety controls belong to the person. Do not operate them or approve the host's pending authorization yourself.

Core loop

Observe once, act once, then verify.

1. If readiness is unknown, call request_access once. It names missing permissions and missing tools per platform, and never pops dialogs. Its via field says who holds the permissions: "app" means the Codewhale Computer Use desktop app is doing the work (grants belong to it); "direct" means the hosting app or terminal is. Follow the actual appHint: bundled Codewhale builds already carry their native helper.
2. list_apps shows running apps only. If the user names an app that is absent, call open_application once with the original user-provided name, copied character-for-character — including case, spaces, punctuation, and suffixes such as app or .exe. Do not translate, localize, normalize, shorten, or retry with guesses.
3. get_app_state defaults to a text-first summary (macOS AX / Windows UIA / Linux AT-SPI / HarmonyOS uitest) with controls, values, actions, layout, element indices and a state_id. Start here without a screenshot, whether or not the model supports vision. Pass query, role, limit and offset instead of dumping the whole tree — truncated dumps hide the title and search field. detail:"compact" is smaller (same indices, shorter labels). detail:"full" adds nested menus and tree paths. find_elements searches a cached state_id or observes now. Missing labels or values mean unknown content, not something to guess. get_value reads one field live.
4. If the tree contains the target, act on the element: focus then type or key for composers (or pass the element target straight to type/key — it focuses first, in the same call), set_value for ordinary fields, perform_action (AXPress/Invoke/click…) for advertised actions, element click. Newlines in type are Return/Enter; press_enter:true sends after the text. Never expect \\n to send a chat message. run_actions batches up to 8 steps (click → type → key return → get_value). macOS provides background element actions; Linux AT-SPI support depends on the control. Windows currently refuses scoped semantic mutations. Windows and Linux are development backends: do not assume their raw input is background-safe or that native Pause/Stop controls are available.
5. When accessibility cannot read visible text, macOS supports get_app_state({app_ref, include_ocr:true}). Pass ocr_region:[x,y,w,h] in screen points to recognize one rect instead of the whole window. This captures locally, without a vision model. Check ocr.status; recognized blocks include confidence, pixel bounds and ready-to-use coordinate targets. OCR text is not a control role or an advertised action. Verify uncertain text and observe again after changes. Other platforms return an explicit unavailable status while keeping their accessibility state usable. A text-only model must not infer unlabeled icons, charts or other graphical meaning from OCR or a screenshot file path. With vision, when accessibility cannot express the target: screenshot (optionally zoom for small targets) and act with a coordinate target. Default coordinates are pixels in the latest returned raster. Pass space:"screen" to send absolute screen points from the AX tree and skip conversion. After a new screenshot, old raster pixels are stale. If the host reports an omitted or oversized image, capture a smaller app window/region or zoom, then use that returned raster. Do not guess from a file path or reuse coordinates from an image the model never received. 5b. When the UI needs time — a page loading, a dialog appearing or dismissing, a spinner finishing — call wait_for instead of looping get_app_state + wait by hand: it polls the accessibility tree until a query/role match appears (state:"present") or disappears (state:"absent"), then returns the matched elements bound to a fresh state_id you can target immediately. A timed_out:true receipt means the condition never held — observe and reconsider rather than repeating the same wait.
6. Verify with a fresh observation or a task oracle before claiming success. action_sent: true means it may already have happened — never replay. On macOS type also reports verified: false (with verification_required: "screenshot") means the focused control's value did not reflect the text, so confirm with a screenshot before relying on the input.

Choosing targets

• Element: {"type":"element","state_id":"s-1","index":4} — prefer this. Elements are revalidated against the live tree before every action: if the element moved, the click lands on its fresh center and the receipt carries target_reacquired: true; if it no longer resolves (or changed role) the call fails element_stale — call get_app_state again for a fresh state_id. A state_id only works on the computer that issued it (state_wrong_computer).
• Coordinate: {"type":"coordinate","x":496,"y":331} — pixels from the latest raster only; submit x/y unchanged, never transform them yourself. {"type":"coordinate","x":100,"y":200,"space":"screen"} is an absolute screen point (what AX position uses). zoom returns a bindable raster of its own: after zooming, raster coordinates are pixels in the zoomed image. Points outside the bound raster fail target_outside_raster instead of landing somewhere unintended.
• Never translate pixels into an element target; never invent state_ids.

Raw input reality (read before clicking)

• macOS: call open_application with activate:false to bind input to the intended process, even when the app is already running; pass pid when two processes share a bundle id. Then the two halves behave differently:
  • Keyboard and element actions are quiet. type, key, focus, set_value, get_value, select_text and perform_action reach the bound process without moving the pointer or changing the foreground. Prefer them. Text entry uses writable accessibility selection when available; verify the resulting value. get_app_state, list_windows and screenshot default to the selected app.
  • Background mode never takes the shared pointer. A coordinate left_click first tries the bound application's accessibility action, including focusing a field that is not AXPressable. right_click uses advertised context-menu actions. scroll uses the target's accessibility scrollbar; prefer a scroll-area element and read the receipt's unit and value change. If accessibility cannot act, strategy:"app" posts a pointer event only when the point is inside the bound app's window, then restores the cursor — not a global desktop click. Raw double/triple/middle click, drag, hover, and strategy:"event" fail with shared_pointer_required before moving the cursor. Missing semantic scrolling or context-menu support is a refusal, never permission to activate. Use strategy:"app", another advertised accessibility action, or a separate computer.
  • Shared-desktop gestures and foreground keyboard delivery require explicit user authorization for exclusive desktop use, followed by open_application(activate:true). Do not select it merely to work around a background refusal. Receipts identify input_scope: "shared-desktop"; pointer gestures use the physical cursor, even if it is restored afterward. Keys and raw pointer gestures stop when another app takes focus. Never keep reactivating after the user takes control; return to activate:false when the shared-desktop step ends.
  • Menus appear in get_app_state. Use the advertised action (often AXPress to open a menu, then AXPick on its item), then observe again.
  • A pointer gesture is refused when another application's window covers the point; it names the owner. Observe again and use the selected control's accessibility action, or wait for authorized exclusive desktop use. Do not move or close the reported window.
  • An accessibility press refuses to cross a modal sheet (window_blocked_by_modal_sheet): deal with the sheet first. Use app-scoped screenshots (app_ref) to avoid capturing unrelated windows. Watching the preview does not authorize shared-desktop control. Enable it only when the user asks to watch; disable it when finished. The preview is a local app view, not an isolated desktop. Process-directed actions still change the target app: do not work in an app the user is actively editing. Close only disposable documents created by your task; never quit a user app.
• Windows/Linux: raw input is foreground by nature; UIA/AT-SPI element actions are the precise path.
• HarmonyOS: uitest synthesizes touches; there is no hover or cursor.

Keyboard

• macOS uses cmd (cmd+c), Linux/Windows use ctrl (ctrl+c).
• key is the key-press tool: return, enter, backspace, tab, escape, chords and repeats. hold_key holds for a duration.
• type sends unicode. Newlines and press_enter become Return; they do not insert a literal line break or U+FFFC.
• Prefer set_value on ordinary fields; prefer focus then type/key on chat composers.

Recording

recording_start → work → recording_stop returns the finalized file path. macOS uses ScreenCaptureKit inside the signed helper — no system recorder UI and no desktop dimming overlay (a receipt warning about Screen Recording permission means the user must grant it once). Linux and Windows recording is unavailable pending session-owned cleanup; use screenshots. HarmonyOS uses snapshot-series (no native CLI recorder — the receipt says so). recording_status / recording_list report bytes and paths. Screenshots land in the same directory.

Safety

• stop_computer_control is the kill switch; after it, actions fail closed for the session. Do not continue after it or after a denied permission.
• Never retry a refused action unchanged. Re-observe, choose a fresh target.
• If a permission is explicitly denied, tell the user which permission in which Settings pane, and end the turn. Do not promise later retries.

Recipes

• Screenshot — optionally a computer id, display index, or [x,y,w,h] region; call screenshot; report path, size, computer/display. Black or empty capture means Screen Recording permission is missing (macOS) for the app (via: "app") or the host terminal (via: "direct"): say which and stop.
• Record — recording_start (parse computer id, fps, display, duration or "record for 30s" → durationSec on macOS), then report id, path, mode. To stop, find the running id via recording_list and call recording_stop.
• Switch computers — computer_list; if asked to add: ssh user@host (agent is pushed automatically) or hdc [target] for a HarmonyOS device; otherwise show the registry and remind that any tool accepts computer.
• Status — computer_list, then request_access per computer; call out anything that will fail closed with the exact install hint from the receipt.