guide

Quickstart

Boot a computer, open it in your browser, and drive it from the SDK.

Get a disposable Linux computer running on your machine, then drive it from code. Total time: about two minutes.

Prerequisites

Docker (Docker Desktop works fine)
Node.js 18+ — only if you want to use the TypeScript SDK

1. Boot the computer

Clone the repository and start the container from its root:

bash

git clone https://github.com/tanav29/desktop && cd desktop
docker compose up -d --build

This builds the image (computer-desktop) and starts one container named linux-desktop. Wait for it to become healthy:

bash

docker ps --filter name=linux-desktop

2. Verify and look at it

The daemon answers on port 8095, the desktop viewer on port 6080:

bash

curl http://localhost:8095/api/health   # -> {"ok": true, "display": ":99"}

Open http://localhost:6080/vnc.html in your browser for the live desktop.

Port	What
`6080`	noVNC viewer — the desktop, for humans
`8095`	HTTP daemon — the control plane, for agents

3. Drive it from the SDK

bash

cd sdk && npm install && npm run build && node smoke.mjs

Or write your own script:

import { computer } from "computer-use-sdk";

// shell — the escape hatch
await computer.cmd("pgrep -f xfce4-session");

// launch an app with a unique title
await computer.create("chromium https://example.com", { title: "web-1" });

// a whole input sequence in ONE round-trip
await computer.actions([
  { do: "wait_for", window: "Chromium", timeoutMs: 45_000 },
  { do: "focus",    window: "Chromium" },
  { do: "key",      keys: "ctrl+l" },
  { do: "paste",    text: "https://news.ycombinator.com" },
  { do: "key",      keys: "Return" },
]);

await computer.screenshot("state.png"); // -> workspace/state.png on your host
await computer.kill("web-1");

4. Watch it live

const feed = await computer.live(); // MJPEG stream on http://localhost:8090
for await (const frame of computer.frames({ fps: 4 })) {
  // JPEG buffers — feed them to a vision model
}
await feed.stop();

Reset

Everything except ./workspace is disposable:

bash

docker compose down && docker compose up -d

Files you drop into /workspace inside the container persist on your host under ./workspace.

Where to next

Docker setup — ports, env vars, resources, multiple computers.
TypeScript SDK — every method explained.
Daemon API — talk to the computer over raw HTTP.

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