GitHub Copilot can now control desktop apps with no API needed
A public preview feature in the GitHub Copilot app clicks through desktop software that has no API, CLI or MCP integration, with user approval and an admin kill switch built in.
GitHub added a “computer use” capability to the Copilot app on 28 October, letting the agent operate your desktop software directly rather than going through an API, command line or MCP server. It shipped in public preview on macOS and Windows, alongside Copilot projects, a new way to run agent work across several repositories in parallel managed sessions, also in preview.
Computer use reads what is on screen, clicks controls, types or edits text, and moves between applications, including ones with no integration path at all. GitHub’s own example is an expense-report workflow. Copilot asks for approval before it takes control of an app, and an organisation can switch the feature off entirely through managed settings. On macOS you also have to grant Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions before it will run. It’s turned on per account under Settings > Computer Use.
Why it matters: this closes the gap for desktop tools that were never going to get an API or an MCP server: old internal apps, licensed software with no automation hooks. It also widens what an agent can touch on your machine, which is exactly why the approval prompt and the organisation-wide kill switch matter as much as the feature itself.