developer-tools

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

github stars

120

Zero external dependenciesBuilt-in OCR capabilityDirect GUI interaction

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>

MCP Computer Control Demo

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 coordinates
  • move_mouse(x: int, y: int): Move mouse cursor to specified coordinates
  • drag_mouse(from_x: int, from_y: int, to_x: int, to_y: int, duration: float = 0.5): Drag mouse from one position to another
  • mouse_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 position
  • press_key(key: str): Press a specified keyboard key
  • key_down(key: str): Hold down a specific keyboard key until released
  • key_up(key: str): Release a specific keyboard key
  • press_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 window
  • take_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 window
  • get_screen_size(): Get current screen resolution
  • list_windows(): List all open windows
  • activate_window(title_pattern: str, use_regex: bool = False, threshold: int = 60): Bring specified window to foreground
  • wait_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.
MCP server reviews

Ratings

4.510 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.