agent-desktop-windows

Windows platform guide for the agent-desktop CLI. Lists per command group what works on Windows and what refuses, the first-contact gotchas (PowerShell ref quoting, minimized windows, headed-only input), and where to find shell surfaces, notifications, the cursor overlay, UIPI elevation, Chromium/Electron settle behavior and troubleshooting. Triggers on: "windows desktop automation", "UIA tree", "automate Windows app", "agent-desktop on Windows", "elevated window input blocked", "E_ACCESSDENIED", or any Windows GUI interaction task.

The observe-act loop, ref system, JSON envelope, sessions and tracing are the same on every platform. This file covers only what differs on Windows.

Requires Windows 10 1809+ / Windows Server 2019+ (x64 or ARM64). Run it in the interactive desktop session of the signed-in user. Session 0 (services and SYSTEM tasks), Server Core, the secure desktop (UAC prompts, the sign-in screen), a locked desktop and another user's session are not supported: observation, actions and capture there fail or return nothing.

Capability Table

Group	Commands	Status on Windows
Observation	snapshot, find, get, is, screenshot	Works; surfaces are window, focused, a Chromium modal reached as sheet, and an open application menu reached as menu
Surfaces	list-surfaces	Works; per-process inventory of window, focused and sheet surfaces plus a menu surface carrying item_count when a menu is open
Shell surfaces	open-system-surface	Works; raises start-menu, taskbar, system-tray, system-tray-overflow or action-center and returns the window identity snapshot --surface <kind> consumes; quick-settings returns PLATFORM_NOT_SUPPORTED naming action-center
Ref interaction	click, right-click, type, set-value, clear, select, toggle, check, uncheck, expand, collapse, scroll, scroll-to	Works; semantic delivery in headless and --headed modes alike, except right-click, which is a physical click and returns POLICY_DENIED unless --headed (type also requires focus permission and returns POLICY_DENIED under strict headless)
Multi-click and focus	double-click, triple-click, focus	Works with global --headed; focus is headed-required (A3-4, A19-5)
Keyboard and mouse	press, hover, drag, mouse-click, mouse-move, mouse-wheel	Works; cursor-moving input requires --headed; press --app synthesizes into the foreground queue after verification (fails closed headless if not already frontmost; non-interactive callers report delivered_unverified)
Held input	key-down, key-up, mouse-down, mouse-up	Fails closed with ACTION_NOT_SUPPORTED on every platform until a daemon owns held-input lifetime
App and window	launch, close-app, list-windows, list-apps, focus-window, resize-window, move-window, minimize, maximize, restore	Works; launch resolves an absolute path or a bare name, with or without .exe, under System32 or the Windows directory (A21-1), not display names
Displays	list-displays	Works
Clipboard	clipboard-get, clipboard-set, clipboard-clear	Works; typed text and image content
Wait	wait	Works for ms, --element, --window, --text, --menu, --menu-closed, --event, and --notification predicates
Notifications	list-notifications, dismiss-notification, dismiss-all-notifications, notification-action	Works over the Action Center; the commands that raise shell chrome take the foreground, so pass --headed when the center is closed
Cursor overlay	cursor-overlay	Works; enable renders a click-through overlay and data.rendered is the renderer's own pipe acknowledgement, not merely a spawned process. disable carries no rendered field. See Cursor Overlay below
System	status, permissions, version, batch, skills, session, trace	Works

First Contact

• Quote every ref in PowerShell. PowerShell reads a bare @token as its splatting operator and deletes the argument before the binary sees it, so set-value @s8f3k2p9:e1 hi fails INVALID_ARGS. Write set-value '@s8f3k2p9:e1' hi. cmd.exe and bash need no quoting.
• A window behind another window is drivable. A minimized one is not. Every element of a minimized window reports offscreen and ref actions fail. Run restore --app <image> and snapshot again. Do not use focus-window by reflex: it steals the user's foreground.
• No permission dialog exists. permissions reports automation as not_required. Elevation boundaries are the only access control.
• Chromium and Electron apps read thin before they settle. Pass --timeout-ms to snapshot instead of concluding the tree is empty.
• Headless by default. Ref actions stay semantic. Only --headed commands verify exact-window focus and synthesize physical input. alt+f4, win+l, win+d, alt+tab and modifier supersets are refused without --force.
• type needs focus permission. It is physical keystroke synthesis, so a strict-headless type returns POLICY_DENIED. It always ends delivered_unverified (verification_scope: "unavailable"): confirm with a fresh get.
• press --app writes to the foreground queue with no per-process targeting. A headless press to a non-frontmost app fails closed. A non-interactive caller (service, scheduled task, CI job) gets delivered_unverified.
• launch needs an absolute path or a bare name under System32 or the Windows directory (notepad or notepad.exe), not a display name. Use list-apps to find a running app.
• Notifications: list-notifications with the Action Center closed needs --headed. Single-item dismiss-notification and notification-action need --headed and --expected-app or --expected-title for the entry at INDEX.
• Surfaces: an open or context menu is the menu surface. Windows does not advertise a menubar surface.
• Commands that raise shell chrome take the foreground. Strict headless refuses them with POLICY_DENIED before anything is raised.
• Stateful actions run once, then verify by re-reading. delivered_verified means the readback matched. ACTION_FAILED with details.kind: "post_action_verification" means the action landed but the readback differs: read details.post_state and do not retry. A set-value the app reformats reads as failed. See references/troubleshooting.md.
• Unsigned binary warnings are expected. See references/troubleshooting.md.

What differs on Windows

• Ref actions are semantic UI Automation calls, in headless and --headed mode.
• Notifications work over the Action Center and need --headed.
• launch takes an absolute path or a bare name under System32 or the Windows directory, with or without .exe, not a display name.
• Held-input commands fail closed on every platform.
• The cursor overlay renders only for headless semantic actions.
• In key combos, cmd and meta are the Windows key, so meta+c is a shell shortcut. Write ctrl+c to copy.
• Headless type is refused with POLICY_DENIED: use set-value, or pass --headed to type through SendInput. focus also needs --headed.

References

• references/shell-and-overlay.md: open it for open-system-surface, tray and taskbar surfaces, notifications, the cursor overlay, hosted (UWP) window identity and menu detection coverage.
• references/permissions-and-elevation.md: integrity levels, UIPI, blocked combos, protected processes, the cross-process interaction lease.
• references/chromium-and-electron.md: settle timing, covered-window hazard, WPF wrong-provider trap, unnamed web content.
• references/troubleshooting.md: symptom-to-cause map, action verification outcomes, saving a document headless, install warnings.

Read any file from the binary: agent-desktop skills get agent-desktop-windows references/troubleshooting.md.