desktop-control

Skill: desktop-control

When to Use

Use this skill when the user asks to:

• Click somewhere on the screen
• Move the mouse to a position
• Type text into an application
• Press keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys
• Read what's on the current screen (accessibility tree)
• Get information about the frontmost window
• Automate desktop interactions
• Control the computer (mouse, keyboard, screen)
• Scroll up/down in an application
• Drag and drop elements

IMPORTANT: This skill requires Accessibility permissions for the terminal/IDE. On macOS, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and enable the running application.

Bundled Scripts

Script	Type	Description
scripts/mouse.py	Python	Mouse movement, clicking, dragging, scrolling
scripts/keyboard.py	Python	Text typing, key presses, hotkeys
scripts/screen.py	Python	Screen info, capture, accessibility tree reading

All scripts auto-install pyautogui if needed.

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Mouse Control

Input Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description	Example
action	Yes	move, click, doubleclick, rightclick, drag, scroll	click
x	For most	X coordinate (pixels from left)	500
y	For most	Y coordinate (pixels from top)	300
button	No	Mouse button: left (default), right, middle	left
to_x	For drag	Destination X coordinate	700
to_y	For drag	Destination Y coordinate	400
amount	For scroll	Scroll amount (positive=up, negative=down)	-3

Script Usage

# Move mouse
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py move --x 500 --y 300

# Click at position
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py click --x 500 --y 300

# Double click
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py doubleclick --x 500 --y 300

# Right click
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py rightclick --x 500 --y 300

# Drag from one position to another
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py drag --x 100 --y 100 --to-x 500 --to-y 500

# Scroll down 3 clicks
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py scroll --amount -3

# Scroll up 5 clicks at specific position
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py scroll --x 500 --y 300 --amount 5

# Get current mouse position
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py position

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Keyboard Control

Input Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description	Example
action	Yes	type, press, hotkey	type
text	For type	Text to type	Hello World
key	For press	Key name to press	enter
keys	For hotkey	Key combination, plus-separated	command+c
interval	No	Delay between keystrokes in seconds (default: 0.02)	0.05

Script Usage

# Type text
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py type --text "Hello World"

# Type slowly
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py type --text "Hello" --interval 0.1

# Press a single key
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py press --key enter
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py press --key tab
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py press --key escape

# Keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys)
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py hotkey --keys "command+c"
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py hotkey --keys "command+shift+s"
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py hotkey --keys "alt+tab"
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py hotkey --keys "command+space"

Common Key Names

enter, return, tab, space, backspace, delete, escape, up, down, left, right, home, end, pageup, pagedown, f1-f12, command, ctrl, alt, shift, capslock

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Screen Reading

Input Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description	Example
action	Yes	info, capture, read-ui	read-ui
output	For capture	Screenshot output path	/tmp/screen.png
x, y, width, height	For capture region	Region to capture

Script Usage

# Get screen size and mouse position
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py info

# Take a screenshot
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py capture --output /tmp/screen.png

# Capture a specific region
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py capture --x 0 --y 0 --width 800 --height 600 --output /tmp/region.png

# Read the accessibility tree of the frontmost application (MOST USEFUL)
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py read-ui

# Read accessibility tree with depth limit
python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py read-ui --depth 3

The read-ui command uses AppleScript to read the accessibility tree of the frontmost application, returning window titles, buttons, text fields, menus, and other UI elements. This is the primary way to understand what's on screen before interacting.

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Typical Workflow

1. Read the screen to understand what's visible:

   python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/screen.py read-ui
   

2. Identify targets from the accessibility tree output
3. Interact using mouse/keyboard:

   python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/mouse.py click --x 500 --y 300
   python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py type --text "search query"
   python3 skills/desktop-control/scripts/keyboard.py press --key enter
   

4. Verify by reading the screen again

Example

click on the search bar
type "hello" into the text field
press command+s to save
what's on the screen right now
read the UI elements of the current window
move the mouse to the center of the screen
scroll down in this window