OBSERVE. DECIDE. ACT.
agent-desktop is a native desktop automation CLI designed for AI agents, built with Rust. It gives structured access to any application through OS accessibility trees — no screenshots, no pixel matching, no browser required.
Architecture
Key Features
- Native Rust CLI: Fast, single binary, no runtime dependencies
- C-ABI cdylib (
libagent_desktop_ffi): Load once from Python / Swift / Go / Ruby / Node / C instead of forking the CLI per call - 53 commands: Observation, interaction, keyboard, mouse, notifications, clipboard, window management
- Progressive skeleton traversal: 78–96% token reduction on dense apps via shallow overview + targeted drill-down
- Snapshot & refs: AI-optimized workflow using deterministic element references (
@e1,@e2) - AX-first interactions: Every action exhausts pure accessibility API strategies before falling back to mouse events
- Structured JSON output: Machine-readable responses with error codes and recovery hints
- Works with any app: Finder, Safari, System Settings, Xcode, Slack — anything with an accessibility tree
Installation
npm (recommended)
npm install -g agent-desktop # downloads prebuilt binary automaticallyOr without installing:
npx agent-desktop snapshot --app Finder -i
From source
git clone https://github.com/lahfir/agent-desktop
cd agent-desktop
cargo build --release
cp target/release/agent-desktop /usr/local/bin/Requires Rust 1.78+ and macOS 13.0+.
Permissions
macOS requires Accessibility permission. Grant it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility by adding your terminal app, or:
agent-desktop permissions --request # trigger system dialogLanguage bindings (FFI)
Every GitHub Release ships a prebuilt C-ABI cdylib alongside the CLI tarballs. Hosts that need in-process calls (Python agents, Swift apps, Go services, Node tools, Ruby scripts, C/C++ code) dlopen the dylib and call the functions declared in agent_desktop.h — no fork-exec per command.
| Platform | Artifact |
|---|---|
| macOS arm64 | agent-desktop-ffi-v<ver>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz |
| macOS x86_64 | agent-desktop-ffi-v<ver>-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz |
| Linux x86_64 (glibc) | agent-desktop-ffi-v<ver>-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz |
| Linux arm64 (glibc) | agent-desktop-ffi-v<ver>-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz |
| Windows x86_64 (MSVC) | agent-desktop-ffi-v<ver>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip |
Each archive contains lib/libagent_desktop_ffi.{dylib,so,dll}, include/agent_desktop.h, LICENSE, and a short README. Verify the download with the release's checksums.txt:
shasum -a 256 -c checksums.txt gh attestation verify agent-desktop-ffi-v*.tar.gz --repo lahfir/agent-desktop # Sigstore provenance
Minimal Python round-trip:
import ctypes lib = ctypes.CDLL("./lib/libagent_desktop_ffi.dylib") lib.ad_adapter_create.restype = ctypes.c_void_p adapter = lib.ad_adapter_create() # ... call ad_list_apps / ad_get_tree / ad_execute_action, see docs below lib.ad_adapter_destroy(adapter)
Full consumer guide — error-handling contract, ownership rules, threading constraints, every entrypoint with Safety docs: skills/agent-desktop-ffi/.
Core Workflow for AI
For dense apps (Slack, VS Code, Notion), use progressive skeleton traversal to minimize token usage:
# 1. Shallow overview — depth-3 map, truncated containers show children_count agent-desktop snapshot --skeleton --app Slack -i --compact # 2. Drill into a region of interest (named containers get refs as drill targets) agent-desktop snapshot --root @e3 -i --compact # 3. Act on an element found in the drill-down agent-desktop click @e12 # 4. Re-drill the same region to verify the state change agent-desktop snapshot --root @e3 -i --compact
For simple apps, a full snapshot is fine:
agent-desktop snapshot --app Finder -i # get interactive elements with refs agent-desktop click @e3 # click a button by ref agent-desktop type @e5 "quarterly report" # type into a text field agent-desktop press cmd+s # keyboard shortcut agent-desktop snapshot -i # re-observe after UI changes
Agent loop: snapshot → decide → act → snapshot → decide → act → ...
Commands
Observation
agent-desktop snapshot --app Safari -i # accessibility tree with refs agent-desktop snapshot --surface menu # capture open menu agent-desktop screenshot --app Finder # PNG screenshot agent-desktop find --role button --app TextEdit # search by role, name, value, text agent-desktop get @e3 value # read element property agent-desktop is @e7 checked # check boolean state agent-desktop list-surfaces --app Notes # list menus, sheets, popovers, alerts
Interaction
agent-desktop click @e3 # smart AX-first click (15-step chain) agent-desktop double-click @e3 # open files, select words agent-desktop triple-click @e3 # select lines/paragraphs agent-desktop right-click @e3 # context menu (returns menu tree inline) agent-desktop type @e5 "hello world" # type text into element agent-desktop set-value @e5 "new value" # set value directly via AX agent-desktop clear @e5 # clear element value agent-desktop focus @e5 # set keyboard focus agent-desktop select @e9 "Option B" # select option in dropdown/list agent-desktop toggle @e12 # flip checkbox or switch agent-desktop check @e12 # idempotent check agent-desktop uncheck @e12 # idempotent uncheck agent-desktop expand @e15 # expand disclosure/tree item agent-desktop collapse @e15 # collapse disclosure/tree item agent-desktop scroll @e1 down 3 # scroll (AX-first, 10-step chain) agent-desktop scroll-to @e20 # scroll element into view
Keyboard
agent-desktop press cmd+s # key combo agent-desktop press cmd+shift+z # multi-modifier agent-desktop press escape # single key agent-desktop key-down shift # hold key agent-desktop key-up shift # release key
Mouse
agent-desktop hover @e3 # move cursor to element agent-desktop hover --xy 500,300 # move cursor to coordinates agent-desktop drag @e3 --to @e8 # drag between elements agent-desktop drag --xy 100,200 --to-xy 400,200 # drag between coordinates agent-desktop mouse-click --xy 500,300 # click at coordinates agent-desktop mouse-down --xy 500,300 # press at coordinates agent-desktop mouse-up --xy 500,300 # release at coordinates
App & Window Management
agent-desktop launch Safari # launch app by name agent-desktop launch com.apple.Safari # launch by bundle ID agent-desktop close-app Safari # quit app agent-desktop close-app Safari --force # force quit (SIGKILL) agent-desktop list-apps # list running GUI apps agent-desktop list-windows # list visible windows agent-desktop list-windows --app Finder # windows for specific app agent-desktop focus-window w-4521 # bring window to front agent-desktop resize-window w-4521 800 600 # resize agent-desktop move-window w-4521 100 100 # move agent-desktop minimize w-4521 # minimize agent-desktop maximize w-4521 # maximize agent-desktop restore w-4521 # restore
Notifications (macOS only)
agent-desktop list-notifications # list all notifications agent-desktop list-notifications --app "Slack" # filter by app agent-desktop list-notifications --text "deploy" --limit 5 # filter by text agent-desktop dismiss-notification 1 # dismiss by index agent-desktop dismiss-all-notifications # dismiss all agent-desktop dismiss-all-notifications --app "Slack" # dismiss all from app agent-desktop notification-action 1 --action "Reply" # click action button
Clipboard
agent-desktop clipboard-get # read clipboard text agent-desktop clipboard-set "copied" # write to clipboard agent-desktop clipboard-clear # clear clipboard
Wait
agent-desktop wait 500 # sleep 500ms agent-desktop wait --element @e3 --timeout 5000 # wait for element agent-desktop wait --window "Save" --timeout 10000 # wait for window agent-desktop wait --text "Loading complete" --app Safari # wait for text agent-desktop wait --menu --timeout 3000 # wait for menu
Batch
agent-desktop batch '[ {"command": "click", "args": {"ref_id": "@e2"}}, {"command": "type", "args": {"ref_id": "@e5", "text": "hello"}}, {"command": "press", "args": {"combo": "return"}} ]' --stop-on-error
System
agent-desktop status # platform, permission state agent-desktop permissions # check accessibility permission agent-desktop permissions --request # trigger system dialog agent-desktop version # version string
Snapshot Options
agent-desktop snapshot [OPTIONS]
| Flag | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
--app <NAME> |
focused app | Filter to a specific application |
--window-id <ID> |
- | Filter to a specific window |
-i / --interactive-only |
off | Only include interactive elements |
--compact |
off | Omit empty structural nodes |
--include-bounds |
off | Include pixel bounds (x, y, width, height) |
--max-depth <N> |
10 | Maximum tree depth |
--skeleton |
off | Shallow 3-level overview; truncated containers show children_count and get refs as drill targets |
--root <REF> |
- | Start traversal from this ref; merges into existing refmap with scoped invalidation |
--surface <TYPE> |
window | window, focused, menu, menubar, sheet, popover, alert |
JSON Output
Every command returns structured JSON:
{
"version": "1.0",
"ok": true,
"command": "click",
"data": { "action": "click" }
}Errors include machine-readable codes and recovery hints:
{
"version": "1.0",
"ok": false,
"command": "click",
"error": {
"code": "STALE_REF",
"message": "Element at @e7 no longer matches the last snapshot",
"suggestion": "Run 'snapshot' to refresh refs, then retry"
}
}Error Codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
PERM_DENIED |
Accessibility permission not granted |
ELEMENT_NOT_FOUND |
No element matched the ref or query |
APP_NOT_FOUND |
Application not running or no windows |
STALE_REF |
Ref is from a previous snapshot |
ACTION_FAILED |
The OS rejected the action |
TIMEOUT |
Wait condition expired |
INVALID_ARGS |
Invalid argument values |
Exit Codes
0 success, 1 structured error (JSON on stdout), 2 argument parse error.
Ref System
snapshot assigns refs to interactive elements in depth-first order: @e1, @e2, @e3, etc. Refs are valid until the next snapshot replaces them.
Interactive roles that receive refs: button, textfield, checkbox, link, menuitem, tab, slider, combobox, treeitem, cell, radiobutton, incrementor, menubutton, switch, colorwell, dockitem.
Static elements (labels, groups, containers) appear in the tree for context but have no ref.
Stale ref recovery:
snapshot → act → STALE_REF? → snapshot again → retry
Platform Support
| macOS | Windows | Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accessibility tree | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| Click / type / keyboard | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| Mouse input | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| Screenshot | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| Clipboard | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| App & window management | Yes | Planned | Planned |
| Notifications | Yes | Planned | Planned |
Development
cargo build # debug build cargo build --release # optimized (<15MB) cargo test --lib --workspace # run tests cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings # lint (must pass with zero warnings)
License
Apache-2.0