glovebox-mcp

A sandboxed computer-use MCP server — let an AI agent drive a real browser and desktop apps (mouse, keyboard, screenshots, vision grounding), confined to a nested X11 window so it can never touch your real screen, files, or other apps.

Like a lab glovebox: the agent reaches in and manipulates real applications, sealed off from everything else. Bring the sandbox up, log into whatever sites or apps you want to automate inside that window, and the agent operates only there — you can watch it live and close it instantly.

Speaks the Model Context Protocol, so it works with MCP clients like Claude Code. Your host can run Wayland; the sandbox gives the agent a real X server to drive.

An agent driving a real browser in the sandbox — gliding the cursor, inserting a unicode name (Nadja Kovačič), typing, and submitting. All confined to a nested X11 window.

Why a nested X11 sandbox?

• Most desktop automation (xdotool, PyAutoGUI) is X11-only, but many modern desktops run Wayland.

• Xephyr provides a real X server inside a single window (DISPLAY :1). Everything the agent does — clicks, typing, screenshots — is confined to that window, not your real desktop.

• You stay in control: watch it live, pkill Xephyr to close everything.

Related MCP server: taw-computer

Requirements

• Linux — the sandbox nests a real X server (Xephyr), so it works even on Wayland hosts (via Xwayland). Not macOS/Windows. Developed on Ubuntu; any modern Linux with the packages below.

• Python 3.10+ and uv (used for the virtualenv).

• System packages — xserver-xephyr (Xephyr), openbox, scrot, x11-utils, xdotool, wmctrl, xclip (+ tesseract-ocr for basic). On Debian/Ubuntu the installer auto-installs them via apt (sudo); on Fedora/Arch it prints the matching dnf/pacman command. The MCP server itself is distro-agnostic — any Linux with these tools works.

• A browser in the sandbox (Chromium or Chrome).

• NVIDIA GPU (≥6 GB VRAM) — only for the local vision mode.

Install

Pick a vision backend and run its one-liner (clone → install). Each one installs the system packages (auto via apt on Debian/Ubuntu) and the Python deps for that mode, and writes a ready-to-paste mcp-config.json with your paths.

none — no local models; your agent reads screenshots itself (lightest, instant):

git clone https://github.com/segentic-lab/glovebox-mcp && cd glovebox-mcp && ./install.sh none

basic — Tesseract OCR grounding (parse_screen → text + coordinates, CPU-only):

git clone https://github.com/segentic-lab/glovebox-mcp && cd glovebox-mcp && ./install.sh basic

local — OmniParser on an NVIDIA GPU (parse_screen → text + icons, pixel-precise; ~4 GB weights, ≥6 GB VRAM):

git clone https://github.com/segentic-lab/glovebox-mcp && cd glovebox-mcp && ./install.sh local

Your choice is written to .vision-mode (override per run with the GLOVEBOX_VISION env var).

Works with any MCP client / harness

Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or your own agent — it's a standard MCP server, not tied to any one host. Two compatibility notes: basic/local return element coordinates as text, so they work even with text-only agents; none relies on the client passing the tool's screenshots to a multimodal model (fine for Claude Code, Cursor, and other image-capable MCP clients).

Quickstart

1. Start the sandbox (leave it running):

   ./start-display.sh              # 1440×900 Xephyr window with a browser
   ./start-display.sh 1920x1080    # …or pass a screen size (or set $RES)

   Log into any sites or apps you want to automate in that window.

2. Register the server with your MCP client. install.sh already wrote mcp-config.json with your real install path — copy its glovebox block into your client's MCP config:

   { "mcpServers": { "glovebox": {
       "command": "/abs/path/to/glovebox-mcp/.venv/bin/python",   // filled in by install.sh
       "args":    ["/abs/path/to/glovebox-mcp/server.py"],
       "env":     { "DISPLAY": ":1" }
   } } }

   Restart the client so it loads the server.

3. Ask the agent to screenshot / click / type — it operates only on the :1 window.

Driving it with an AI agent? Paste AGENTS.md into the agent's system prompt — it teaches the observe → act → verify loop, grounding, the upload/unicode gotchas, and when to stop.

Tools

Every control tool takes instance=N and optional observe / settle_ms (see below). In local mode OmniParser is lazy-loaded on first parse_screen (~6 s once, then ~2 s/parse).

Structured, honest responses

Every tool returns JSON: {"ok": true, "action": "click", "instance": 1, "detail": "clicked (10,20) button 1", …}. Failures come back with the MCP isError flag set and the same JSON shape embedded in the error text — {"ok": false, "error": "…", "fix": "…"} — where fix names the call that unblocks you (e.g. a click on a dead instance says to run list_instances() / launch_app(); an unknown element id says to re-run parse_screen()). Silent no-ops are treated as failures too: an invalid keysym, a zero scroll, closing an instance that isn't running, or non-ASCII typing without xclip all error instead of pretending success. screenshot() returns a PNG image; observe="screenshot"|"parse" returns [json, image] in one call.

Vision backend (selectable)

GLOVEBOX_VISION env var, or the .vision-mode file, or default local:

Switch anytime with ./install.sh <mode> (installs only what that mode needs).

Multi-instance (a fleet of app windows)

Every control tool takes instance=N (default 1 = the start-display.sh sandbox). Spin up more — each its own Xephyr display/window on the host desktop:

• launch_app(command, name?, size?) → starts the next free :N running any GUI app (chromium, gimp, inkscape, xterm, …). Chromium auto-gets X11 flags, a per-instance profile, a remote-debugging port, and D-Bus isolation. Returns the instance id.

• list_instances() · close_instance(n).

Because each display has its own cursor, multiple agents can drive different instances in parallel — one window each. The only shared resource is the GPU for local-mode parse_screen (it just queues). The host display for new windows is GLOVEBOX_HOST_DISPLAY (default :0); XAUTHORITY is auto-discovered.

One-call action + observe

click · click_element · type_text · press_keys · scroll · drag · double_click take observe (none default · screenshot · parse) and settle_ms. With observe="screenshot" the action returns its result and the resulting screen in a single call (with settle_ms to let the page update first) — no separate screenshot round-trip. Default none keeps routine steps cheap; opt into screenshot/parse on the steps that change the page (navigations, submits).

Files & uploads

Each instance gets a staging folder files/<N>/ inside the install dir — a stable place to drop files for that instance (readable by native apps and, since it's under $HOME, by snap Chromium too). list_files(instance) shows the folder and its contents.

• Browser <input type=file> → upload_file(path, instance) (via CDP). The nested file picker is invisible to automation and hangs snap Chromium, so never click an upload button expecting a dialog.

• Native apps (GIMP, Inkscape, editors) → open_file(path, instance, app="gimp"), or just drive the app's own Open dialog — unlike the browser's, it's a real visible window you can type a path into (Ctrl+L in a GTK file chooser).

• Saving / downloads → apps run as your user, so they can save anywhere you can write. launch_app Chromium instances are pre-configured to download and "save as" into files/<N>/; point native apps' Save dialogs there too, then list_files(instance) to see the results.

Maintenance (local mode)

install.sh clones OmniParser, downloads the v2 weights, and applies two patches automatically:

• PaddleOCR made optional (this uses easyocr): OmniParser/util/utils.py's from paddleocr import PaddleOCR is wrapped in try/except and the module-level paddle_ocr = PaddleOCR(...) is guarded with … if PaddleOCR is not None else None.

• transformers is pinned to 4.49.0 — newer releases break Florence-2's remote config.

If you upgrade OmniParser manually, re-apply the PaddleOCR patch. Weights live in OmniParser/weights/.

Stop

pkill Xephyr      # closes the sandbox (browser + WM + display)

Safety

• The agent's input and vision are scoped to the sandbox display — it does not see or control your real desktop.

• The server process runs as your user (shell/file access, like any MCP server); only its GUI control is sandboxed to the Xephyr window. For OS-level isolation from your files, run it inside a VM or container.

• You can watch everything live and close it instantly with pkill Xephyr.

• Automate responsibly — only sites and services you are authorized to use.

Files

• server.py — the MCP server (all tools).

• install.sh — mode-aware installer (none / basic / local).

• start-display.sh — launches the Xephyr sandbox (display + window manager + browser).

• AGENTS.md — drop-in tool-usage instructions for the AI agent (paste into its system prompt).

• mcp-config.json — a ready-to-paste MCP client config snippet.

Credits

local vision mode uses Microsoft's OmniParser (cloned and weights downloaded by install.sh, under its own license). Screen capture uses mss; input is driven with xdotool. Not affiliated with Microsoft.

Contributing

Shipped as-is under MIT. Issues and PRs are welcome, but this is maintained by one person — no support or response time is guaranteed. If it's useful to you, a ⭐ helps.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.