A private Linux desktop your agent can start and drive.
Some checks need a real graphical desktop: opening a browser, running a UI test, trying a program that has no other interface. Doing that on your own screen means windows jumping around and your work interrupted. MCP XSession gives your agent a desktop of its own, running quietly in the background.
The agent starts it, connects a viewer such as MCP RDP, and then sees and drives it like a person. It is far lighter than a virtual machine, because it is a handful of ordinary programs rather than a second operating system. Your windows, focus and clipboard are never touched, and you can keep working while it runs.
What you gain over sharing your own screen.
Giving an agent your live desktop shows it everything you have open and leaves a mess behind. A disposable desktop of its own keeps your work apart from the agent's, and keeps the evidence it needs in one place.
A desktop of its own
The agent never sees your other windows or notifications, so its results do not depend on what you have open
- Typical alternative
- The agent drives your live screen
- Here
- Each session is a private desktop with its own settings and its own key
Lighter than a virtual machine
A desktop starts in moments, so you can start one per task and throw it away with nothing left behind
- Typical alternative
- A virtual machine only to get a second desktop
- Here
- A few ordinary programs with no second operating system, no disk image, no new account and no administrator rights
UI tests apart from your desktop
The agent runs UI tests while you keep working, and neither disturbs the other
- Typical alternative
- Running tests on your own screen, where they steal focus and are disturbed by what you do
- Here
- The tests run on a complete desktop in the background, with its own windows, keyboard and pointer
Reachable only from your machine
Nothing is reachable from another machine unless you choose to open it
- Typical alternative
- A remote desktop open on the network
- Here
- Each desktop answers only on your own machine, to one viewer, protected by a key
Change it while it runs
You adjust a running desktop instead of restarting your work
- Typical alternative
- Destroy and rebuild to try another size
- Here
- The agent can resize the desktop live, pause and resume it, and change its key
Recoverable after a crash
A lost desktop can be cleaned up, not only killed blind
- Typical alternative
- Orphaned processes nobody owns
- Here
- Desktops left behind after a crash can be found, taken over and finished properly
Ships with the image; add the desktop server once.
The service comes with the MAIT image and updates with it (mait-image). Each app connected to it sees only the desktops it created.
The desktops are Linux desktops. On macOS and Windows, MCP XSession runs in the managed Linux environment that AIDC Launch provides. They need a small desktop server (Xvnc) that you install there; the image does not include it, and the full getting started has the command. Sound and a window manager are optional and are skipped quietly when missing. There is no network setup, because every desktop answers only on your own machine.
You can also place it behind MCP Registry, so one entry in your agent's app reaches it.
Where it sits in the MAIT toolkit.
It creates the desktop, and a viewer lets your agent see and use it.
Where to read on.
- Get started, Use cases and Tools