atr-computer

name	atr-computer
description	Control the desktop (mouse, keyboard, screen, windows, apps) cross-platform via ATR. Take screenshots, click at coordinates, type text, drag, manage windows, launch and quit apps. Includes 'atr computer ask' — an in-process LLM agent that takes a natural-language instruction and drives the desktop end-to-end. Use for native UI testing, desktop automation, multi-monitor flows, or anything outside the browser. Pairs with atr-browser for combined web + desktop workflows.
allowed-tools	Bash(atr computer:*)

Companion skill — atr-browser controls Chromium for any in-page operation (navigate, click on web elements, fill forms, scrape). Load both when:

• You need to drag a file from the OS file manager into a browser upload zone.
• Authentication or a native dialog (1Password, system file picker) is part of the flow.
• You're delegating a high-level task that touches both — atr computer ask "..." can shell out to atr browser ... and vice versa.

Computer daemon listens on port 9334; browser daemon on 9333. Both can run simultaneously.

ATR Desktop Computer-Use Skill

This skill provides cross-platform desktop control through ATR's computer daemon. Mouse, keyboard, screen capture, window management, app launch, and an in-process LLM agent (atr computer ask) — all driven from the same atr CLI that powers atr-browser.

Architecture

Claude Code --> atr CLI --> ATR Computer Daemon --> robotgo (X11 / macOS / Windows)

The daemon enforces a configurable safety countdown before every action so the user can intervene with Ctrl+C. Read-only operations (screenshot, position, list windows) skip the countdown.

When the daemon is started without --no-gui it also surfaces the countdown in a small native overlay so MCP/Claude-Code clients (which don't see the daemon's terminal) can still interrupt visually. On Linux the overlay uses zenity (full Cancel button — clicking it aborts the action with ErrAborted); when only notify-send is available it falls back to a one-shot desktop notification (visual only — abort still works via Ctrl+C in the daemon terminal). On macOS it uses osascript display notification; on Windows it uses a PowerShell toast. If no backend can initialize, the daemon logs a warning and continues with terminal-only countdown.

Linux: X11 only in v1. Wayland is not supported yet. GUI overlay: install zenity for an abortable dialog (apt install zenity); fall back to libnotify-bin for visual-only notifications.

Getting Started

Step 1: Check status and start if needed

atr computer status

If not running:

atr computer start                           # default: per-request 3s countdown
atr computer start --countdown-mode per-app  # countdown only on first action per app
atr computer start --countdown-mode off      # no countdown (trusted batch runs)
atr computer start --countdown 1             # 1-second countdown

State and logs:

• State: ~/.atr/computer.state
• Daemon log (where countdown messages appear): ~/.atr/computer.log

Step 2: Take a screenshot

atr computer screenshot --output /tmp/desk.png
atr computer screenshot --output /tmp/region.png --region 0,0,800,600

Step 3: Drive mouse and keyboard

atr computer click 800 50
atr computer click 800 50 --double
atr computer click 800 50 --button right
atr computer move 100 100
atr computer drag --from 200,300 --to 1200,400
atr computer scroll --dy -3
atr computer hover 500 500

atr computer type "Hello, world"
atr computer key enter
atr computer chord ctrl+shift+t

Step 4: Manage windows

atr computer --json window list                          # enumerate
atr computer window active                               # focused window
atr computer window focus --title "Firefox"              # by title or app name
atr computer window minimize --title "Slack"
atr computer window maximize --title "Code"
atr computer window restore --id 12345
atr computer window close --title "Calculator"
atr computer window move --id 12345 --to 100,100
atr computer window resize --id 12345 --size 800,600

Step 5: Launch / quit apps

atr computer app launch firefox
atr computer app launch xclock
atr computer app quit firefox

Step 6: Stop the daemon

atr computer stop

Safety countdown modes

Mode	Behavior
per-request	Default. Every gated action shows a countdown.
per-app	First action against an app prompts; subsequent actions auto-approve.
off	No countdown. Explicit opt-in for trusted batches.

Aborting: press Ctrl+C in the daemon's terminal during a countdown. The action returns aborted by user.

Combined workflow with atr-browser

ATR can drive both desktop and browser in one flow. Example: end-to-end drag-and-drop between the OS file manager and a browser upload zone.

atr browser start
atr browser navigate https://example.com/upload

atr computer start --countdown-mode off
atr computer app launch nautilus
atr computer window focus --title "Files"
atr computer drag --from 200,300 --to 1200,400   # drag file into browser

atr browser screenshot --output /tmp/dnd.png

For browser-only workflows, see the atr-browser skill. For combined workflows, both daemons can run simultaneously on different ports (browser: 9333, computer: 9334).

Asking the agent (atr computer ask)

Instead of issuing one command at a time, you can describe a desktop task in plain language and let an agent loop drive the screenshots, clicks, and keystrokes:

atr computer ask "open xclock and tell me what time it shows"
atr computer ask "list the open windows that contain 'chrome' in the title"
atr computer ask --max-steps 30 --timeout 10m "open the GNOME calculator and compute 17 * 23"

The agent uses the LLM backend configured for ATR (backend: gemini-api | vertex-ai | claude-cli in ~/.atr/config.yaml). Default model aliases:

Tier	Model
flash	gemini-3.1-flash-preview
pro	gemini-3.2-pro-preview

Override per-run with the global --model flag (e.g. atr --model pro computer ask "..."). With backend: claude-cli, the model flag is ignored and Claude CLI is invoked as a subprocess.

Tools the agent can call (curated subset):

• Perception: computer_screenshot (image fed back to the LLM), computer_displays, computer_active_window, computer_list_windows, computer_position
• Actuation: computer_click, computer_type, computer_press_key, computer_key_chord, computer_focus_window, computer_window_state (minimize/maximize/restore/close), computer_launch_app

Limits and gotchas:

• The agent cannot type passwords — if a sudo / polkit prompt appears, it stops and reports the blocker.
• Each screenshot sent to the LLM costs vision tokens; with --model pro a 10-step task is measurable spend.
• The countdown gate inherits whatever the daemon was started with. For ask runs you usually want atr computer start --countdown-mode per-app so the first action against an app prompts and subsequent ones auto-approve.

Coordinates and multi-monitor

ATR uses root coordinates as the public API for clicks, moves, drags, and window positions. Root coords have a single bounding-box origin at (0, 0) covering all monitors — every visible coordinate is non-negative, matching xrandr and the X11 root window. atr computer --json window list and atr computer displays both return root coords.

For interactive use it's often easier to think in display-local pixels. Every mouse command accepts --display N, which interprets x and y as pixels relative to that display's top-left:

# Display 0 is primary (whose root origin may NOT be (0, 0) on multi-monitor setups)
atr computer click --display 0 100 200      # display-local
atr computer click 1540 200                  # root coords (equivalent on a setup where primary is at root (1440, 0))

atr computer screenshot --region X,Y,W,H is always display-local within the chosen --display.

A common workflow:

atr computer displays                                # see each display's root bounds
atr computer --json window list                      # find a window's root bounds
atr computer screenshot --display 0 --region X,Y,W,H # crop using display-local pixels
atr computer click --display 0 X Y                   # click the spot you cropped

Tips

• Use atr computer --json window list to enumerate windows, then operate on a specific ID for stability.
• For Linux, the per-app cache key is WM_CLASS (window class), so all Chrome windows share one approval.
• Screenshots return PNG bytes; set --output to a local path the user expects.
• For multi-monitor setups: prefer --display N with display-local pixels for new code; reach for absolute root coords only when relaying values from window list.