Computer Control▌

by ab498
Automate desktop tasks with Computer Control: mouse, keyboard, screenshots, OCR & window management. Power Automate Desk
Enables desktop automation through mouse control, keyboard input, screenshots, OCR, and window management for direct interaction with graphical user interfaces
best for
- / Desktop automation and testing
- / GUI workflow automation
- / Screen scraping and data extraction
- / Repetitive task automation
capabilities
- / Control mouse movements and clicks
- / Send keyboard input and keystrokes
- / Take desktop screenshots
- / Extract text from images using OCR
- / Manage windows and applications
- / Automate GUI interactions
what it does
Provides desktop automation capabilities including mouse control, keyboard input, screen capture, and OCR text recognition. Works directly with your computer's GUI without external dependencies.
about
Computer Control is a community-built MCP server published by ab498 that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Automate desktop tasks with Computer Control: mouse, keyboard, screenshots, OCR & window management. Power Automate Desk It is categorized under developer tools.
how to install
You can install Computer Control in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
license
MIT
Computer Control is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
readme
Computer Control MCP
MCP server that provides computer control capabilities, like mouse, keyboard, OCR, etc. using PyAutoGUI, RapidOCR, ONNXRuntime. Similar to 'computer-use' by Anthropic. With Zero External Dependencies.
<div align="center" style="text-align:center;font-family: monospace; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; width: 100%; gap: 10px"> <a href="https://nextjs-boilerplate-ashy-nine-64.vercel.app/demo-computer-control"><img src="https://komarev.com/ghpvc/?username=AB498&label=DEMO&style=for-the-badge&color=CC0000" /></a> <a href="https://discord.gg/ZeeqSBpjU2"><img src="https://img.shields.io/discord/1095854826786668545?style=for-the-badge&color=0000CC" alt="Discord"></a> <a href="https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg?style=for-the-badge&color=00CC00" alt="License: MIT"></a> <a href="https://pypi.org/project/computer-control-mcp"><img src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/computer-control-mcp?style=for-the-badge" alt="PyPi"></a> </div>
Quick Usage (MCP Setup Using uvx)
Note: Running uvx computer-control-mcp@latest for the first time will download python dependencies (around 70MB) which may take some time. Recommended to run this in a terminal before using it as MCP. Subsequent runs will be instant.
{
"mcpServers": {
"computer-control-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["computer-control-mcp@latest"]
}
}
}
OR install globally with pip:
pip install computer-control-mcp
Then run the server with:
computer-control-mcp # instead of uvx computer-control-mcp, so you can use the latest version, also you can `uv cache clean` to clear the cache and `uvx` again to use latest version.
Features
- Control mouse movements and clicks
- Type text at the current cursor position
- Take screenshots of the entire screen or specific windows with optional saving to downloads directory
- Extract text from screenshots using OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
- List and activate windows
- Press keyboard keys
- Drag and drop operations
- Enhanced screenshot capture for GPU-accelerated windows (Windows only)
Note on GPU-accelerated Windows
Traditional screenshot methods like GDI/PrintWindow fail to capture GPU-accelerated windows, resulting in black screens. This impacts games, media players, Electron apps, browsers with GPU acceleration, streaming software, and CAD tools. Use WGC through take_screenshot tool's flag or ENV variable
Configuration
Custom Screenshot Directory
By default, screenshots are saved to the OS downloads directory. You can customize this by setting the COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_SCREENSHOT_DIR environment variable:
{
"mcpServers": {
"computer-control-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["computer-control-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_SCREENSHOT_DIR": "C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\Screenshots"
}
}
}
}
Or set it system-wide:
# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_SCREENSHOT_DIR = "C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\Screenshots"
# macOS/Linux
export COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_SCREENSHOT_DIR="/home/yourname/Pictures/Screenshots"
If the specified directory doesn't exist, the server will fall back to the default downloads directory.
Automatic WGC for Specific Windows
You can configure the system to automatically use Windows Graphics Capture (WGC) for specific windows by setting the COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_WGC_PATTERNS environment variable. This variable should contain comma-separated patterns that match window titles:
{
"mcpServers": {
"computer-control-mcp": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["computer-control-mcp@latest"],
"env": {
"COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_WGC_PATTERNS": "obs, discord, game, steam"
}
}
}
}
Or set it system-wide:
# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_WGC_PATTERNS = "obs, discord, game, steam"
# macOS/Linux
export COMPUTER_CONTROL_MCP_WGC_PATTERNS="obs, discord, game, steam"
When this variable is set, any window whose title contains any of the specified patterns will automatically use WGC for screenshot capture, eliminating black screens for GPU-accelerated applications.
Available Tools
Mouse Control
click_screen(x: int, y: int): Click at specified screen coordinatesmove_mouse(x: int, y: int): Move mouse cursor to specified coordinatesdrag_mouse(from_x: int, from_y: int, to_x: int, to_y: int, duration: float = 0.5): Drag mouse from one position to anothermouse_down(button: str = "left"): Hold down a mouse button ('left', 'right', 'middle')mouse_up(button: str = "left"): Release a mouse button ('left', 'right', 'middle')
Keyboard Control
type_text(text: str): Type the specified text at current cursor positionpress_key(key: str): Press a specified keyboard keykey_down(key: str): Hold down a specific keyboard key until releasedkey_up(key: str): Release a specific keyboard keypress_keys(keys: Union[str, List[Union[str, List[str]]]]): Press keyboard keys (supports single keys, sequences, and combinations)
Screen and Window Management
take_screenshot(title_pattern: str = None, use_regex: bool = False, threshold: int = 60, scale_percent_for_ocr: int = None, save_to_downloads: bool = False, use_wgc: bool = False): Capture screen or windowtake_screenshot_with_ocr(title_pattern: str = None, use_regex: bool = False, threshold: int = 10, scale_percent_for_ocr: int = None, save_to_downloads: bool = False): Extract adn return text with coordinates using OCR from screen or windowget_screen_size(): Get current screen resolutionlist_windows(): List all open windowsactivate_window(title_pattern: str, use_regex: bool = False, threshold: int = 60): Bring specified window to foregroundwait_milliseconds(milliseconds: int): Wait for a specified number of milliseconds
Development
Setting up the Development Environment
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AB498/computer-control-mcp.git
cd computer-control-mcp
# Build/Run:
# 1. Install in development mode | Meaning that your edits to source code will be reflected in the installed package.
pip install -e .
# Then Start server | This is equivalent to `uvx computer-control-mcp@latest` just the local code is used
computer-control-mcp
# -- OR --
# 2. Build after `pip install hatch` | This needs version increment in orer to reflect code changes
hatch build
# Windows
$latest = Get-ChildItem .\dist\*.whl | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 1
pip install $latest.FullName --upgrade
# Non-windows
pip install dist/*.whl --upgrade
# Run
computer-control-mcp
Running Tests
python -m pytest
API Reference
See the API Reference for detailed information about the available functions and classes.
License
MIT
For more information or help
FAQ
- What is the Computer Control MCP server?
- Computer Control is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server profile on explainx.ai. MCP lets AI hosts (e.g. Claude Desktop, Cursor) call tools and resources through a standard interface; this page summarizes categories, install hints, and community ratings.
- How do MCP servers relate to agent skills?
- Skills are reusable instruction packages (often SKILL.md); MCP servers expose live capabilities. Teams frequently combine both—skills for workflows, MCP for APIs and data. See explainx.ai/skills and explainx.ai/mcp-servers for parallel directories.
- How are reviews shown for Computer Control?
- This profile displays 10 aggregated ratings (sample rows for discoverability plus signed-in user reviews). Average score is about 4.5 out of 5—verify behavior in your own environment before production use.
Ratings
4.5★★★★★10 reviews- ★★★★★Shikha Mishra· Oct 10, 2024
Computer Control is among the better-indexed MCP projects we tried; the explainx.ai summary tracks the official description.
- ★★★★★Piyush G· Sep 9, 2024
We evaluated Computer Control against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
- ★★★★★Chaitanya Patil· Aug 8, 2024
Useful MCP listing: Computer Control is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
- ★★★★★Sakshi Patil· Jul 7, 2024
Computer Control reduced integration guesswork — categories and install configs on the listing matched the upstream repo.
- ★★★★★Ganesh Mohane· Jun 6, 2024
I recommend Computer Control for teams standardizing on MCP; the explainx.ai page compares cleanly with sibling servers.
- ★★★★★Oshnikdeep· May 5, 2024
Strong directory entry: Computer Control surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
- ★★★★★Dhruvi Jain· Apr 4, 2024
Computer Control has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
- ★★★★★Rahul Santra· Mar 3, 2024
According to our notes, Computer Control benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
- ★★★★★Pratham Ware· Feb 2, 2024
We wired Computer Control into a staging workspace; the listing’s GitHub and npm pointers saved time versus hunting across READMEs.
- ★★★★★Yash Thakker· Jan 1, 2024
Computer Control is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.