Clawd Cursor vs open-computer-use

Clawd Cursor gives AI agents local control of desktop applications for GUI tasks where a native API or command-line interface is unavailable. It builds a screen map from accessibility data and OCR, assigning stable element IDs and confidence scores; screenshots are used only when needed. Agents can click and type, and actions can be checked against an expected outcome. The maker says every tool call goes through one safety layer and describes the software as local, localhost-only by default, and without telemetry. It supports Windows, macOS 12 or later, and Linux X11 or Wayland. Connections use stdio MCP or an HTTP MCP daemon at 127.0.0.1:3847/mcp. Listed hosts include Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenClaw, and Zed. The tool offers seven recommended compound tools and 98 granular tools for compatibility and debugging; the maker says it works with any model. It is free and MIT licensed. Installation requires Node.js 20 or later. Desktop control needs one-time consent; macOS also requires Accessibility permission, while Screen Recording is optional for vision fallback.

open-computer-use is a free, MIT-licensed local MCP server that lets AI agents inspect and operate desktop applications through accessibility interfaces. Its nine core tools cover app discovery, accessibility-tree and screenshot capture, clicking, scrolling, dragging, typing, key presses, secondary actions, and control-value changes. The project says it runs entirely on the user’s machine and uses the accessibility layer for core app actions without taking over the physical mouse and keyboard. Setup documentation covers Codex CLI and App, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and opencode, with manual configuration for other MCP clients. A ZCode plugin installs the skill and connects an MCP server. macOS 14 or later requires Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions. Windows and Linux use a signed-in desktop session, and Linux requires AT-SPI2. Additional window-level tools are currently available on Windows, while macOS and Linux support is in progress. Password managers are refused; app launching, focus changes, and global input injection require explicit environment-variable gates. The project warns that high-privilege automation should be used only on authorized machines.