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📂 **Category**:
💡 **What You’ll Learn**:
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.
- 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
npm install -g agent-desktop # downloads prebuilt binary automatically
Or without installing:
npx agent-desktop snapshot --app Finder -i
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+.
macOS requires Accessibility permission. Grant it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility by adding your terminal app, or:
agent-desktop permissions --request # trigger system dialog
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 |
| macOS x86_64 | agent-desktop-ffi-v |
| Linux x86_64 (glibc) | agent-desktop-ffi-v |
| Linux arm64 (glibc) | agent-desktop-ffi-v |
| Windows x86_64 (MSVC) | agent-desktop-ffi-v |
Each archive contains lib/libagent_desktop_ffi.⚡, 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/.
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 → ...
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
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
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
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
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
agent-desktop clipboard-get # read clipboard text
agent-desktop clipboard-set "copied" # write to clipboard
agent-desktop clipboard-clear # clear clipboard
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
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
agent-desktop status # platform, permission state
agent-desktop permissions # check accessibility permission
agent-desktop permissions --request # trigger system dialog
agent-desktop version # version string
agent-desktop snapshot [OPTIONS]
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"
}
}
| 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 |
0 success, 1 structured error (JSON on stdout), 2 argument parse error.
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
| 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 |
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)
Apache-2.0
{💬|⚡|🔥} **What’s your take?**
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
#️⃣ **#lahfiragentdesktop #Native #desktop #automation #CLI #agents #Control #application #accessibility #trees #structured #JSON #output #deterministic #element #refs #GitHub**
🕒 **Posted on**: 1777713220
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