Show HN: Playwright-style SDK for automating Windows GUI apps

1 week ago 4

paint051225.mp4

Automate desktop apps like a browser. AI-native GUI automation for Windows. Fast, reliable, agent-ready.

⚡ TL;DR — Hello World Example

Skip the boilerplate. This is the fastest way to feel the magic.

pip install maturin cd bindings/python maturin develop

import terminator desktop = terminator.Desktop() desktop.open_application('calc') seven = desktop.locator('name:Seven') seven.click()

cd bindings/nodejs npm install npm run build

const { Desktop } = require('./bindings/nodejs/index.js'); const desktop = new Desktop(); await client.openApplication('notepad') await client.locator('name:Edit').typeText('hello world')

Terminator is the Playwright-style SDK for automating Windows GUI apps.

🪟 Built for Windows, works on macOS (partial)
🧠 Designed for AI agents, not humans
⚡ Uses OS-level accessibility (not vision)
🧩 TS, Python, and Rust support
📈 80ms UI scans, 10000x speedup via compiled workflows

The benchmark test illustrates how fast Terminator can query the UI. It finds all edit elements in about 80 ms, showcasing a big speed advantage over vision-based tools.

This form-filling app can read & fill 1000 inputs forms as soon as you see them in <1s end-to-end using Gemini.

Check out Terminator in action:

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

Vercel AI SDK Example: Learn how to use Terminator with AI in the PDF-to-Form example.
MCP: Discover how to Vibe Work using MCP.

Technical Details & Debugging

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

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.

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.

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

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