Claude KVM

Claude KVM

Remote Access, Artificial Intelligence

claude-kvm.ai

Claude KVM is an MCP tool that controls remote desktop environments over VNC. It consists of a thin JS proxy layer (MCP server) and a platform-native Swift VNC daemon running on your macOS system.

Claude KVM Demo Claude KVM Demo Mac

Live Test Runs

• Integration Test
• Mac Integration Test
• Mac Calculator Test
• Mac Scientific Calculator Test
• Mac Safari Browsing Test
• Mac Drag & Drop Test
• Mac Chess Test
• Mac Chess Direct Test
• Mac Phantom-WG Install Test

Architecture

graph TB
    subgraph MCP["MCP Client (Claude)"]
        AI["Claude"]
    end

    subgraph Proxy["claude-kvm · MCP Proxy (stdio)"]
        direction TB
        Server["MCP Server<br/><code>index.js</code>"]
        Tools["Tool Definitions<br/><code>tools/index.js</code>"]
        Server --> Tools
    end

    subgraph Daemon["claude-kvm-daemon · Native VNC Client (stdin/stdout)"]
        direction TB
        CMD["Command Handler<br/><i>PC Dispatch</i>"]
        Scale["Display Scaling<br/><i>Scaled ↔ Native</i>"]

        subgraph Screen["Screen"]
            Capture["Frame Capture<br/><i>PNG · Crop · Diff</i>"]
            OCR["OCR Detection<br/><i>Apple Vision</i>"]
        end

        subgraph InputGroup["Input"]
            Mouse["Mouse<br/><i>Click · Drag · Move · Scroll</i>"]
            KB["Keyboard<br/><i>Tap · Combo · Type · Paste</i>"]
        end

        VNC["VNC Bridge<br/><i>LibVNCClient 0.9.15</i>"]

        CMD --> Scale
        Scale --> Capture
        Scale --> Mouse
        Scale --> KB
        Capture -.->|"framebuffer"| VNC
        Mouse -->|"pointer events"| VNC
        KB -->|"key events"| VNC
    end

    subgraph Target["Target Machine"]
        VNC_Server["VNC Server<br/><i>:5900</i>"]
        Desktop["Desktop Environment"]
        VNC_Server --> Desktop
    end

    AI <-->|"stdio<br/>JSON-RPC"| Server
    Server <-->|"stdin/stdout<br/>PC (NDJSON)"| CMD
    VNC <-->|"RFB Protocol<br/>TCP :5900"| VNC_Server

    classDef proxy fill:#1a1a2e,stroke:#16213e,color:#e5e5e5
    classDef daemon fill:#0f3460,stroke:#533483,color:#e5e5e5
    classDef target fill:#1a1a2e,stroke:#e94560,color:#e5e5e5

    class Server,Tools proxy
    class CMD,Scale,VNC,Capture,Mouse,KB daemon
    class VNC_Server,Desktop target

Layers

PC (Procedure Call) Protocol

Communication between the proxy and daemon uses the PC protocol over NDJSON:

Request:      {"method":"<name>","params":{...},"id":<int|string>}
Response:     {"result":{...},"id":<int|string>}
Error:        {"error":{"code":<int>,"message":"..."},"id":<int|string>}
Notification: {"method":"<name>","params":{...}}

Coordinate Scaling

The VNC server's native resolution is scaled down to fit within --max-dimension (default: 1280px). Claude works more consistently with scaled coordinates — the daemon handles the conversion in the background:

Native:  4220 x 2568  (VNC server framebuffer)
Scaled:  1280 x 779   (what Claude sees and targets)

mouse_click(640, 400) → VNC receives (2110, 1284)

Screen Strategy

Claude minimizes token cost with a progressive verification approach:

diff_check       →  changeDetected: true/false     ~5ms    (text only, no image)
detect_elements  →  OCR text + bounding boxes      ~50ms   (text only, no image)
cursor_crop      →  crop around cursor              ~50ms   (small image)
screenshot       →  full screen capture             ~200ms  (full image)

detect_elements uses Apple Vision framework for on-device OCR. Returns text content with bounding box coordinates in scaled space — enables precise click targeting without consuming vision tokens.

Installation

Requirements

• macOS (Apple Silicon / aarch64)
• Node.js (LTS)

Daemon

brew tap ARAS-Workspace/tap
brew install claude-kvm-daemon

MCP Configuration

Create a .mcp.json file in your project directory:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-kvm": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "claude-kvm"],
      "env": {
        "VNC_HOST": "192.168.1.100",
        "VNC_PORT": "5900",
        "VNC_USERNAME": "user",
        "VNC_PASSWORD": "pass",
        "CLAUDE_KVM_DAEMON_PATH": "/opt/homebrew/bin/claude-kvm-daemon",
        "CLAUDE_KVM_DAEMON_PARAMETERS": "-v"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

MCP Proxy (ENV)

Daemon Parameters (CLI)

Additional arguments passed to the daemon via CLAUDE_KVM_DAEMON_PARAMETERS:

"CLAUDE_KVM_DAEMON_PARAMETERS": "--max-dimension 800 -v"

Runtime Configuration (PC)

All timing and display parameters are configurable at runtime via the configure method. Use get_timing to inspect current values.

Set timing:

{"method":"configure","params":{"click_hold_ms":80,"key_hold_ms":50}}

{"result":{"detail":"OK — changed: click_hold_ms, key_hold_ms"}}

Change display scaling:

{"method":"configure","params":{"max_dimension":960}}

{"result":{"detail":"OK — changed: max_dimension","scaledWidth":960,"scaledHeight":584}}

Reset to defaults:

{"method":"configure","params":{"reset":true}}

{"result":{"detail":"OK — reset to defaults","timing":{"click_hold_ms":50,"combo_mod_ms":10,"cursor_crop_radius":150,"double_click_gap_ms":50,"drag_min_steps":10,"drag_pixels_per_step":20,"drag_position_ms":30,"drag_press_ms":50,"drag_settle_ms":30,"drag_step_ms":5,"hover_settle_ms":400,"key_hold_ms":30,"max_dimension":1280,"paste_settle_ms":30,"scroll_press_ms":10,"scroll_tick_ms":20,"type_inter_key_ms":20,"type_key_ms":20,"type_shift_ms":10},"scaledWidth":1280,"scaledHeight":779}}

Get current values:

{"method":"get_timing"}

{"result":{"timing":{"click_hold_ms":80,"combo_mod_ms":10,"cursor_crop_radius":150,"double_click_gap_ms":50,"drag_min_steps":10,"drag_pixels_per_step":20,"drag_position_ms":30,"drag_press_ms":50,"drag_settle_ms":30,"drag_step_ms":5,"hover_settle_ms":400,"key_hold_ms":50,"max_dimension":1280,"paste_settle_ms":30,"scroll_press_ms":10,"scroll_tick_ms":20,"type_inter_key_ms":20,"type_key_ms":20,"type_shift_ms":10},"scaledWidth":1280,"scaledHeight":779}}

Tools

All operations are performed through a single vnc_command tool:

Screen

Mouse

Keyboard

Detection

Returns text elements with bounding box coordinates in scaled space:

{"method":"detect_elements"}

{"result":{"detail":"13 elements","elements":[{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Finder","w":32,"x":37,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"File","w":15,"x":84,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Edit","w":19,"x":112,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"View","w":22,"x":143,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":11,"text":"Go","w":15,"x":179,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Window","w":35,"x":207,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":11,"text":"Help","w":22,"x":255,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":11,"text":"8•","w":26,"x":1161,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Fri Feb 20 22:19","w":80,"x":1189,"y":6},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Assets","w":32,"x":1202,"y":97},{"confidence":1,"h":9,"text":"Passwords.kdbx","w":74,"x":1181,"y":168},{"confidence":1,"h":93,"text":"PHANTOM","w":633,"x":322,"y":477},{"confidence":1,"h":32,"text":"YOUR SERVER, YOUR NETWORK, YOUR PRIVACY","w":629,"x":325,"y":568}],"scaledHeight":717,"scaledWidth":1280}}

Configuration

Control

Authentication

Supported VNC authentication methods:

• VNC Auth — password-based challenge-response (DES)
• ARD — Apple Remote Desktop (Diffie-Hellman + AES-128-ECB)

macOS is auto-detected via the ARD auth type 30 credential request. When detected, Meta keys are remapped to Super (Command key compatibility).

"Claude" is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.

Copyright (c) 2026 Riza Emre ARAS — MIT License