Create your first desktop

Create a browser desktop, open a page, and save a screenshot.

This guide creates one Modal Sandbox. The SDK terminates it when the Python context ends.

Install and authenticate

uv add "modal-computer-use[modal]"
uv run modal setup

Create the script

Save this file as quickstart.py:

from modal_computer_use import (
    BrowserConfig,
    ComputerConfig,
    ComputerSandbox,
    ResourceConfig,
)

config = ComputerConfig(
    resources=ResourceConfig(profile="browser"),
    browser=BrowserConfig(kind="chromium"),
)

with ComputerSandbox.create(config=config) as computer:
    computer.browser.open_url("https://example.com")
    computer.mouse.move(320, 240)
    screenshot = computer.screenshots.full(show_cursor=True)
    screenshot.save("screenshot.png")
    print(
        {
            "width": screenshot.width,
            "height": screenshot.height,
            "sha256": screenshot.sha256,
        }
    )

Run the script

uv run python quickstart.py

The script writes screenshot.png in the current directory. The printed SHA-256 digest identifies the captured bytes.

Understand ownership

ComputerSandbox.create() owns the Sandbox that it creates. The context terminates that Sandbox on exit.

ComputerSandbox.attach() does not take ownership. Its context closes the local connection and keeps the existing Sandbox running.

Read Create and attach before you keep a desktop between processes.