Full-Code · Browser & Computer-Useactive

Anthropic Computer Use

Type: full-code  ·  Vendor: Anthropic  ·  Language: API  ·  License: proprietary  ·  Status: active  ·  Status in practice: emerging  ·  First released: 2024-10-22

Links: homepage docs

Anthropic API beta tool that lets Claude see a desktop via screenshots and drive mouse/keyboard, running inside a developer-supplied sandbox driven by an agent loop the application implements.

Description. Computer Use is a beta API capability where Claude returns abstract tool calls (screenshot, click, type, key, scroll) for a virtual display and the developer's program executes them in a sandboxed environment (the reference implementation runs Xvfb + Mutter + Tint2 inside Docker). The model is paired with text_editor and bash tools for end-to-end automation. Anthropic ships a reference quickstart that bundles the container, the tool implementations, the agent loop, and a web UI. The feature is gated behind a beta header and Anthropic recommends running with classifiers, allowlisted domains, and human confirmation for consequential actions.

Agent loop shape. Stateful multi-turn agent loop driven by the developer. Each turn the model emits one or more tool_use blocks (computer / text_editor / bash); the application executes them in a sandboxed environment, captures results (a screenshot, command output, file diff), and returns them as tool_result blocks. The loop continues until Claude responds without further tool_use blocks or a max-iteration safeguard fires.

Primary use cases

  • desktop GUI automation via Claude controlling mouse, keyboard and screenshots
  • browser navigation and form filling inside a sandboxed VM
  • agentic workflows combining the computer, text_editor and bash tools
  • research and prototyping of GUI agents on benchmarks like WebArena

Key concepts

  • computer tool computer-use (docs)Screenshot capture plus mouse and keyboard control over a virtual display.
  • text_editor and bash tools code-execution (docs)Companion tools for file editing and shell commands inside the same sandbox.
  • Agent loop react (docs)Developer-owned cycle that ships tool_use results back to Claude until the task ends.
  • Sandboxed computing environment sandbox-isolation (docs)Xvfb virtual display, Mutter window manager and Tint2 panel inside a Docker container.
  • Prompt-injection classifier approval-queue (docs)Server-side classifier flags screenshot prompt injections and steers Claude to ask for confirmation.

Patterns this full-code implements

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