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Computer Use for agents

macOSUpdated September 2026 · 3 min read

Computer Use for agents lets Claude Code, OMP, and other MCP agents control Mac apps and Chrome with the Computer Use runtime that ships inside ChatGPT Desktop. The agent’s own model decides every action. CodexUse does not send prompts to a Codex model.

Read this first. This is not an official OpenAI integration. It runs OpenAI’s bundled runtime outside ChatGPT Desktop, and that runtime can change with any ChatGPT update. You are responsible for how agents use it.

Set it up

Open Settings → Computer Use. The screen checks the runtime when it opens.

Computer Use needs ChatGPT Desktop with Computer use turned on once in its settings.
Browser is optional. Turn on browser use enables ChatGPT Desktop’s browser connector. After the next ChatGPT Desktop start, turn on the ChatGPT extension in Chrome, Edge, or Brave.
Add to your agents adds the server to Claude Code and OMP. For another MCP agent, copy the config the screen shows.

Restart an agent after adding the server. In Claude Code, claude mcp get codexuse-cua shows the entry.

How it works

Each agent starts CodexUse’s codexuse-cua MCP server over stdio when it needs it. The server starts the signed Computer Use runtime from ChatGPT Desktop and exposes three tools:

computer operates native macOS apps.
browser operates Chrome, Edge, or Brave through the ChatGPT browser extension.
reset clears the runtime’s JavaScript bindings.

The server keeps one session per agent process. After two idle minutes, or when the agent exits, it ends the session, closes the tabs the agent created unless the agent handed them off, and releases screen sharing.

Approvals

CodexUse approves every app and site an agent asks to use. Neither the agent nor you sees an approval prompt, and CodexUse asks the runtime to keep each approval, so the same app is not asked about again later. Agents act with your macOS permissions, so add the server only to agents you trust.

A site’s sign-in challenge still needs you, because nobody else can sign in for you. CodexUse shows it to the agent when the agent supports MCP elicitation, as Claude Code does. Otherwise, as with OMP, it shows a macOS dialog. With no signed-in desktop session, the challenge is declined.

The server checks the CodexUse license before its first tool call. When CodexUse is locked, every tool returns the reason and the runtime does not start.

Troubleshooting

“Codex Computer Use is not set up”: open ChatGPT Desktop, turn on Computer use in its settings, and check again.
No browser listed: follow the next step the screen shows, then open the browser with the ChatGPT extension turned on.
An agent does not show the tools: restart the agent after adding the server.

Agent entries store the app’s location. The installed app updates stale entries when it starts, and it does not add entries while it runs from a disk image.