About Desktop Automation
Desktop Automation is an MCP server that uses RobotJS to give LLMs control over mouse, keyboard and screen capture. It is intended for local desktop automation and has been primarily tested with Claude Desktop.
Key features
- 01Mouse movement and clicks
- 02Keyboard key and text input
- 03Screen size detection
- 04Screenshot capture and resources
Use cases
- 01Letting an LLM operate desktop application interfaces
- 02Capturing screen content for model analysis
MCP support
This is an MCP server that exposes tools such as get_screen_size, screen_capture, keyboard_press, keyboard_type, mouse_click and mouse_move, and serves screenshots as resources under screenshot://.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEMCP Desktop Automation
A Model Context Protocol server that provides desktop automation capabilities using RobotJS and screenshot capabilities. This server enables LLMs to control mouse movements, keyboard inputs, and capture screenshots of the desktop environment.
Configuration to use Desktop Automation Server
Here's how to configure Claude Desktop to use the MCP Desktop Automation server:
NPX
{
"mcpServers": {
"desktop-automation": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-desktop-automation"]
}
}
}
Permissions
This server requires system-level permissions to:
- Capture screenshots of your screen
- Control mouse movement and clicks
- Simulate keyboard input
When first running Claude Desktop with this server, you may need to grant these permissions in your operating system's security settings.
Limitations
While this server works with various MCP clients, it has been primarily tested with Claude Desktop.
Important: The current implementation has a 1MB response size limit. For screen captures, this means:
- High-resolution screenshots may exceed this limit and fail
- Testing has shown 800x600 resolution works reliably
- Consider reducing screen resolution or capturing specific screen areas if you encounter issues
Requirements
- Node.js (>=14.x)
Components
Tools
-
get_screen_size
- Gets the screen dimensions
- No input parameters required
-
screen_capture
- Captures the current screen content
- No input parameters required
-
keyboard_press
- Presses a keyboard key or key combination
- Inputs:
key(string, required): Key to press (e.g., 'enter', 'a', 'control')modifiers(array of strings, optional): Modifier keys to hold while pressing the key. Possible values: "control", "shift", "alt", "command"
-
keyboard_type
- Types text at the current cursor position
- Input:
text(string, required): Text to type
-
mouse_click
- Performs a mouse click
- Inputs:
button(string, optional, default: "left"): Mouse button to click. Possible values: "left", "right", "middle"double(boolean, optional, default: false): Whether to perform a double click
-
mouse_move
- Moves the mouse to specified coordinates
- Inputs:
x(number, required): X coordinatey(number, required): Y coordinate
Resources
The server provides access to screenshots:
-
Screenshot List (
screenshot://list)- Lists all available screenshots by name
-
Screenshot Content (
screenshot://{id})- PNG images of captured screenshots
- Accessible via the screenshot ID (timestamp-based naming)
Key Features
- Desktop mouse control
- Keyboard input simulation
- Screen size detection
- Screenshot capabilities
- Simple JSON response format
License
This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute the software, subject to the terms and conditions of the MIT License. For more details, please see the LICENSE file in the project repository.
Comments
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