Argus

Eyes for your AI tools across every monitor. Argus is an MCP server (plus a CLI and a tray app) for Windows that lets Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Antigravity and other MCP clients see your screens. That covers the window you're looking at, any monitor, any window or any region, at full resolution when it matters.

Built from real Argus output on demo windows and a real Claude reply (how).

Named after Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed giant: one eye per monitor.

What you can say

Related MCP server: desktop-touch-mcp

Install

You need Windows 10 (1903+) or 11, uv, and at least one MCP-capable AI tool.

uv tool install argus-screens --managed-python --python 3.13
argus install      # registers Argus with the AI tools it finds; starts the tray app with Windows
argus doctor       # checks monitors, OCR, the tray and each registration

To run the latest unreleased code, install from GitHub instead: uv tool install git+https://github.com/sahildayal/argus --managed-python --python 3.13.

Then open a new session in your AI tool and say "look at what I'm looking at". Running sessions don't pick up new MCP servers, and Claude Desktop needs a quit and reopen.

argus install configures whichever of these it finds, using each tool's own mcp add command where it has one:

JSON files are backed up first (*.bak-argus-<time>). Your AI tools will ask before each capture by default. argus install --trust pre-approves Argus in Claude Code and Gemini CLI instead. Other options: --clients claude-code,vscode, --no-startup and --dry-run. argus uninstall reverses everything.

Other MCP clients (Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, JetBrains, Cline, ...): add a stdio server that runs argus-mcp. Use the full path, which where.exe argus-mcp prints:

{ "mcpServers": { "argus": { "command": "C:\\Users\\YOU\\.local\\bin\\argus-mcp.exe" } } }

Updating: uv tool upgrade argus-screens (for a GitHub install, re-run the install command with --reinstall).

Use a uv-managed Python (the --managed-python flag), not the Microsoft Store one: Store Python silently redirects writes under AppData into a private sandbox, so edits to other apps' configs would never reach them.

How "the window I'm looking at" works

When you type into a terminal or IDE, that window has focus, so it can't be the answer. Argus keeps a per-session history of which windows had focus and works out which program launched it (Windows Terminal, VS Code, Claude Desktop, ...). look then picks:

1. a hotkey mark you made in the last 2 minutes, if any;

2. otherwise the active window, if it isn't the chat itself (you switched after typing);

3. otherwise the window you used just before switching to the chat;

4. otherwise the front-most other window.

It always says why it chose that window and lists alternatives (for example the window under your mouse), so the AI can correct course.

Monitors

Monitors are numbered left to right (main row first, then any monitor above or below), and each also answers to a position word worked out from your actual layout: left, center, right, center-left, top, bottom, top-left... Also: primary, laptop, cursor (where the mouse is), active (where the focused window is), part of the model name (dell), or all. Mixed scaling and monitors left of/above the primary (negative coordinates) are handled; the layout is re-read on every call, so plugging and unplugging is fine.

Tools (MCP)

Images are sent at up to 2000 px on the long side. A 1080p monitor goes through untouched, and long sessions full of screenshots stay inside the API's limits for requests with many images. Every capture is also saved as a full-resolution PNG (path in the reply) with its metadata embedded, so zoom can reopen it later by path.

Tray app and hotkeys

argus-tray runs in the notification area (and starts with Windows after argus install).

• Ctrl+Alt+S: mark the window under the mouse (falls back to the focused window). A cyan outline flashes to show what was captured; the next look uses it.

• Ctrl+Alt+P: pause or resume Argus. While paused, every tool in every AI app refuses to capture (and the icon turns grey with a red slash).

• Menu: pause for 15 minutes, open captures/marks folders, edit settings.

Change the hotkeys in ~/.argus/config.toml, then restart the tray.

Privacy and security

Argus gives AI tools sight of your screens, so it's built to make that a deliberate choice:

• Blacked out before anything leaves Argus: password managers, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Messenger, Phone Link, Windows notification toasts, and browser tabs whose titles match banking/payments/messaging patterns. The AI sees a dark box saying "Hidden by Argus" and never the title. The defaults are a starting point, so add your own bank, sites, apps or keywords under [privacy] in ~/.argus/config.toml. Chrome doesn't put "Incognito" in its window title, so private windows can't be detected automatically.

• Pause with Ctrl+Alt+P, the tray menu, or argus pause [--minutes N].

• Retention: saved captures and marks are deleted after 7 days by default. Baselines are kept until you delete them.

• Where images go: only to the AI tool that asked for them, and so to that tool's model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, ...). Argus itself never uploads anything, has no telemetry, and makes no network requests.

• Prompt injection: anything on screen is input to the agent. A web page or document could try to steer an agent into capturing something. Keep per-capture prompts on (the default) unless you trust your setup, and pause Argus around sensitive work.

Everything personal lives in ~/.argus/ (settings, captures, marks, baselines and logs), never in this repository. Set ARGUS_HOME to move it.

CLI

The CLI is useful for scripts and tests, and for any agent that can run shell commands but doesn't speak MCP. It prints the saved PNG path for each capture; add --json for machine-readable output.

argus list                                   # monitors + windows
argus look                                   # the window behind this terminal
argus shot -m right --grid                   # a monitor, with a labeled grid
argus shot -w "localhost:3000" -o page.png   # a window, copied to page.png
argus zoom $env:USERPROFILE\.argus\captures\<date>\<file>.png --box 100,100,600,400
argus ocr -w "Windows Terminal"              # exact text
argus find "Submit" -m cursor
argus wait text --text "Compiled successfully" -w "Terminal" -t 120   # exit 0 = seen, 1 = timeout
argus baseline save login -w "localhost:3000"; argus baseline compare login
argus pause --minutes 30; argus resume; argus status

Settings: ~/.argus/config.toml

Created with comments on first run. You can set the image size sent to the AI, the grid default, the mouse marker, how fresh a mark must be for look, the hotkeys, retention, and the privacy lists. Changes apply on the next capture; hotkey changes need a tray restart.

Troubleshooting

• Start with argus doctor. It checks DPI awareness, monitors, OCR, the tray and each registration.

• The AI doesn't see Argus. Start a new session. In Claude Code, claude mcp get argus should say Connected.

• A hotkey does nothing. Another app may own it, in which case the tray shows a warning when it starts. Pick another in config.toml and restart argus-tray.

• Small text looks blurry. Ask the AI to zoom or read_text instead of guessing.

• Logs: ~/.argus/logs/server.log and ~/.argus/logs/tray.log.

Uninstall

argus uninstall [--purge]     # unregisters everywhere, removes the startup entry, stops the tray
uv tool uninstall argus-screens

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, the two test suites, and the ground rules (tests never capture the real screen; privacy defaults stay conservative).

License

MIT