About UIAutomationMcp
A Windows desktop inspection and automation toolkit for developers who need to locate interface elements, read their state, and perform actions. It offers an MCP server, CLI, and VS Code extension, and reads UIA and MSAA data.
Key features
- 01Inspect desktop and focused-element metadata
- 02Search UI elements by properties
- 03Traverse UIA trees and views
- 04Read text, selection, and control states
- 05Wait for automation events
- 06Perform focus, selection, and window actions
Use cases
- 01Inspect control structure in desktop applications
- 02Find elements by name or automation ID
- 03Read table cells and text information
- 04Automate common interface actions
MCP support
The MCP server exposes Windows UI Automation inspection, search, navigation, event waiting, and action capabilities to MCP clients. The CLI and VS Code extension provide the same expanded surface.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
We haven’t collected a package or remote endpoint for this server. Follow the instructions in the project README.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEUIAutomationMcp
Windows UI Automation toolkit with three aligned entry points:
- CLI (
uiamcp) - MCP server (
UIAutomationMcp.McpServer) - VS Code extension (
uia-mcp)
Install
VS Code extension (recommended) — install
trsdn.uia-mcp
from the Marketplace (code --install-extension trsdn.uia-mcp), or
install the UIAutomationMcp-<version>.vsix from the
latest release.
Self-contained; bundles the MCP server, the CLI, and both agent skills.
Claude Desktop — download uia-mcp-<version>.mcpb from the latest release and
double-click it.
npm — uia-mcp ships the MCP server with
the .NET runtime bundled, so it needs no prerequisites:
{
"mcpServers": {
"uia-mcp": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "uia-mcp"] }
}
}
NuGet .NET tools
dotnet tool install --global UIAutomationMcp.McpServer # MCP server -> uiamcp-server
dotnet tool install --global UIAutomationMcp.CLI # CLI -> uiamcp
Standalone ZIP — UIAutomationMcp-MCP-Server-<version>-windows.zip contains the
self-contained MCP server and CLI; no .NET runtime required.
Requires Windows and an interactive desktop session. UI Automation cannot run headless.
Lineage
This repository is part of the broader MCP automation lineage and intentionally keeps attribution to earlier work by Stefan Brönner.
It also keeps the historical reference to Excel MCP as a related sibling project in that lineage, even though this repository itself is focused on Windows UI Automation.
What it does
- boots a typed UI Automation client through
Interop.UIAutomationClient - reads rich desktop-root and focused-element metadata, including bounds, runtime IDs, and supported patterns
- resolves elements from native window handles and screen coordinates
- searches UIA trees by name, class name, automation id, framework id, control type, and process id
- enumerates immediate children from raw, control, or content tree views
- enumerates descendants from raw, control, or content tree views
- navigates the UIA tree with raw, control, and content walkers
- supports build-cache requests for inspection, search, and navigation
- reads text, selection, and key pattern states, including caret position, annotation runs such as spelling errors, and the containing document of an inline element
- waits for focus, automation, property-changed, and structure-changed events
- performs common actions such as focus, invoke, set-value, toggle, expand/collapse, selection, window state changes, move/resize, scroll, range-value updates, view switching, docking, realizing virtualized items, and MSAA default actions
- finds items that a virtualizing list has not materialized yet by asking the container directly, so a search for the 250th row of a 300-row list works without scrolling
- reports drag and drop state (
isGrabbed, drop effects, grabbed items) so an in-progress drag can be observed, and resolves automation events to readable names such asDrag_DragStart - reads MSAA data through the LegacyIAccessible bridge, so Win32, MFC, and installer windows that expose no native UI Automation provider still report usable names, roles, states, and a runnable default action
- reads tabular controls as a cell matrix with row and column headers
- exposes the same expanded surface through CLI and MCP
- packages the CLI and MCP server inside the VS Code extension
Repository layout
src\UIAutomationMcp.ComInteropsrc\UIAutomationMcp.Servicesrc\UIAutomationMcp.CLIsrc\UIAutomationMcp.McpServersrc\UIAutomationMcp.Smokevscode-extensionmcpb— Claude Desktop bundle sources and build scriptskills— agent skills foruia-clianduia-mcp
Build and validate
dotnet build .\UIAutomationMcp.sln -c Release
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.Smoke\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\UIAutomationMcp.Smoke.exe
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe inspect --root --cache
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe find --focused --scope children --max-results 10 --cache
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe children --focused --view raw --max-results 10
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe descendants --focused --view raw --max-results 25
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe wait-event --event-kind focus --timeout-ms 500
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe action focus --focused
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