Cua is an open-source framework that enables AI agents to control full operating systems within high-performance, lightweight virtual containers. It delivers up to 97% native CPU speed on Apple Silicon and works with any language models.
When we started building Computer-Use AI agents we quickly realised that for them to be genuinely useful, they must interact with your system's native applications. But giving full access to your host device is risky - and not ideal. How can AI agents interact with operating systems, desktop applications, and browsers without jeopardizing security or sacrificing performance?
Today, we're thrilled to introduce Cua: an open-source framework that lets AI agents control full operating systems within secure, high-performance virtual containers.
Cua brings together three powerful components into one unified framework stack:
Lume - Our high-performance Virtualization layer leverages Apple's Virtualization.Framework to spin up macOS or Linux environments.
Computer-Use Interface - This layer lets any process or AI agent - no matter which framework it's built on (like AutoGen, LangGraph, etc.) - see the screen and interact with Lume VMs just like a human would. It supports actions such as clicking, typing, scrolling, and extracting the visual accessibility tree.
Computer-Use Agent - A general agent framework to run intelligent workflows within these VMs. It's compatible with popular LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, UI-Tars, as well as open-source tools like Ollama, LM Studio, and OpenRouter.
AI agents built with Cua operates within a virtual environment to:
Navigate and interact with any application's interface
Read screen content and perform keyboard/mouse actions
Switch between applications and self-debug when needed
Operate in a secure sandbox with controlled file access
All of this happens inside a fully isolated virtual container, ensuring your host system, files, and sensitive data remain completely safe - while you continue using your device uninterrupted.
But we didn’t stop there. We’ve also launched a cloud platform for Cua, enabling developers to spin up and control these remote containers via API - no need to run anything locally. This makes it easy to scale and deploy secure, cloud-hosted agents that interact with real OS environments - perfect for testing, remote execution, or powering AI-first products.
From CAD software to Photoshop, from Tableau to legacy tools with no APIs, Cua opens up entirely new possibilities for human-AI collaboration.
We built Cua because we believe AI should enhance the tools we already use - not replace them. It should operate alongside us, securely, transparently, and on our terms.
The journey is just beginning, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll build!
Cua
When we started building Computer-Use AI agents we quickly realised that for them to be genuinely useful, they must interact with your system's native applications. But giving full access to your host device is risky - and not ideal. How can AI agents interact with operating systems, desktop applications, and browsers without jeopardizing security or sacrificing performance?
Today, we're thrilled to introduce Cua: an open-source framework that lets AI agents control full operating systems within secure, high-performance virtual containers.
Cua brings together three powerful components into one unified framework stack:
Lume - Our high-performance Virtualization layer leverages Apple's Virtualization.Framework to spin up macOS or Linux environments.
Computer-Use Interface - This layer lets any process or AI agent - no matter which framework it's built on (like AutoGen, LangGraph, etc.) - see the screen and interact with Lume VMs just like a human would. It supports actions such as clicking, typing, scrolling, and extracting the visual accessibility tree.
Computer-Use Agent - A general agent framework to run intelligent workflows within these VMs. It's compatible with popular LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, UI-Tars, as well as open-source tools like Ollama, LM Studio, and OpenRouter.
AI agents built with Cua operates within a virtual environment to:
Navigate and interact with any application's interface
Read screen content and perform keyboard/mouse actions
Switch between applications and self-debug when needed
Operate in a secure sandbox with controlled file access
All of this happens inside a fully isolated virtual container, ensuring your host system, files, and sensitive data remain completely safe - while you continue using your device uninterrupted.
But we didn’t stop there. We’ve also launched a cloud platform for Cua, enabling developers to spin up and control these remote containers via API - no need to run anything locally. This makes it easy to scale and deploy secure, cloud-hosted agents that interact with real OS environments - perfect for testing, remote execution, or powering AI-first products.
From CAD software to Photoshop, from Tableau to legacy tools with no APIs, Cua opens up entirely new possibilities for human-AI collaboration.
We built Cua because we believe AI should enhance the tools we already use - not replace them. It should operate alongside us, securely, transparently, and on our terms.
The journey is just beginning, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll build!
Check out our website at cua.sh
GitHub repo at github.com/trycua/cua