terminator 🤖

Terminator is the fastest, AI-first, computer use SDK. It's designed to interact with native GUI applications on Windows using a Playwright-like API, like parsing a website. By leveraging OS-level accessibility APIs, Terminator is significantly faster and more reliable for AI agents than vision-based approaches, and can interact with background applications.

⚠️ Experimental ⚠️: Terminator is under active development. Expect bugs and breaking changes. Please report issues – we aim to fix them quickly!

OS Support

Operating System	Support Status	Key Characteristics
Windows	✅ Active Focus	Full features, best performance, actively developed & documented.
macOS	🟡 Partial	Core functionality available; community-driven, less documented.
Linux	❌ No Support	Not currently supported.

Key Features

• AI-First & Agentic: Built from the ground up for modern AI agents and workflows.
• Blazing Fast & Reliable: Uses OS-level accessibility APIs, making it much faster and more robust than vision-based tools.
• Playwright-Style API: Offers a familiar, powerful, and developer-friendly interface.
• Cross-Platform (Windows Focus): Automate native GUI applications on Windows (primary) and macOS.
• Deep UI Introspection: Enables detailed understanding and control of complex UI elements.
• Background App Interaction: Capable of interacting with applications even if they are not in focus.

Demos

Check out Terminator in action:

• 📹 Desktop Copilot that autocompletes your work in real time
• 📹 AI Agent that process 100 insurance claims in 5 minutes
• 📹 Technical Overview Video
• 📹 Technical Overview: PDF to Windows Legacy App Form

Documentation

For detailed information on features, installation, usage, and the API, please visit the Official Documentation.

Quick Start

Get up and running with Terminator:

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/mediar-ai/terminator
   cd terminator

2. Set up the server:
   • Windows: Download & unzip the pre-built server using PowerShell:

     powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\setup_windows.ps1

   • macOS: Compile the server using Rust/Cargo (ensure Rust and Xcode Command Line Tools are installed):

     cargo build --release --package server

3. Run the server:
   • Windows:

     ./server_release/server.exe --debug

   • macOS:

     ./target/release/examples/server --debug

4. Run an example client (in a separate terminal): Navigate to the example directory, install dependencies, and run:

   cd examples/hello-world
   npm i
   npm run dev
   # Then, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser

For more details, see the Getting Started Guide in the docs.

Explore Further

• Vercel AI SDK Example: Learn how to use Terminator with AI in the PDF-to-Form example.
• MCP (Mediar Control Plane): Discover how to Vibe Work using MCP.

Technical Details & Debugging

Key Dependencies

• Windows: uiautomation-rs
• macOS: Native macOS Accessibility API (exploring cidre as an alternative)

Debugging Tools

• Windows:
  • Accessibility Insights for Windows
  • FlaUInspect: A recommended alternative for inspecting UI Automation properties on Windows.
    • Install: choco install flauinspect or download from FlaUI/FlaUInspect releases.
    • Usage: Launch FlaUInspect.exe, hover or click on elements to see properties like AutomationId, Name, and ControlType. This is great for debugging selectors.

contributing

contributions are welcome! please feel free to submit issues and pull requests. many parts are experimental, and help is appreciated. join our discord to discuss.

businesses

if you want desktop automation at scale for your business, let's talk