Cua review

Q: How do I install Cua?

Run curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/install.sh | sh. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Cua is open-source infrastructure that gives AI agents full desktops, with desktop automation drivers, local VMs, sandboxes, and computer-use benchmarks.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 25, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

Cua provides computers and automation tools for AI agents: Cua Spaces desktops, Cua Driver for operating native apps, Lume for local VMs, an SDK and CLI for sandboxes, and Cua Bench for evaluation. Cua is for developers building, running, or evaluating computer-use agents. You bring your own agent and model and run desktops on hardware you own or your own cloud.

31.4kGitHub stars
+590new stars, week of Oct 25
#3in Browser and computer use this week

Cua at a glance

Category: Browser and computer use
Maintained by: Cua (organization, @trycua on GitHub)
License: MIT
Language: Rust, TypeScript, Python
Repository: github.com/trycua/cua
Website: cua.ai
Latest release: cua-spaces-v0.16.0 on GitHub, Oct 25, 2026
First published: Jan 31, 2025

What Cua does

Cua Spaces gives agents full desktops as macOS VMs built locally on your Mac, or Linux or Omarchy images.
Cua Driver lets agents inspect and operate native desktop apps and browsers on macOS, Windows, and Linux through CLI, MCP, or typed SDKs.
Cua Driver background delivery lets agents work without moving your pointer or taking focus, when the app and platform support it.
Lume creates and manages local macOS and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon using Apple's Virtualization.Framework.
Cua Teleport moves a signed-in app such as Chrome or Slack into a Space, with sessions kept encrypted in the Cua Keyvault until you approve.
Cua Spaces multiplayer lets you and your agents share one desktop, each with your own cursor.
Cua Bench builds computer-use tasks, evaluates agents, and exports trajectories for training.

How it works

Cua runs desktops on your Mac, other machines you own, or your own AWS, Google Cloud, or Modal account. The cua SDK in Python, TypeScript, and Rust drives local VMs, containers, and machines running cua-spacesd on port 3211. The SDK has no agent layer, so you drive sandboxes from your own harness. Agents such as Claude Code or Codex connect through the Cua MCP.

How to install and start using Cua

Cua Spaces and CLI (macOS / Linux)

curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/install.sh | sh

Cua Driver (macOS / Linux)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/driver/install.sh)"

Lume

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/lume/install.sh)"

Requirements

Cua Spaces installer requires macOS 26 or later.
Lume requires Apple Silicon.
Cua Bench requires Python 3.12 or 3.13 and uv.

First steps

Run the installer; it installs the cua CLI and then runs cua auth login, which offers to set up your AI coding agents.
Create a local gVisor sandbox with cua sb create ubuntu --name dev, which is set up on first use.
Run a command inside the sandbox with cua sb exec dev uname -a, then capture it with cua sb screenshot dev.
Remove the sandbox when finished with cua sb rm dev.

Who Cua is for

Developers giving coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor control of native desktop apps.
Teams who want agents working on shared desktops on hardware they already own.
Researchers training and evaluating computer-use agents with benchmarks and trajectory export.
Developers needing local macOS VMs on Apple Silicon.

Limitations to know

Cua Spaces is source-available under FSL-1.1-MIT, not MIT, and prohibits a competing hosted service.
Cua Driver background delivery works only when the app and platform support it.
Cua Spaces on Windows is a preview, and the Swift and Kotlin SDK bindings are not yet released.
CUA-S1 is an early, source-only research release with model weights hosted separately on Hugging Face.

Is Cua growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Cua ranked #40 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #3 in Browser and computer use, with a momentum score of 78 out of 100.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for Cua
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	381
Aug 16, 2026	408
Aug 23, 2026	224
Aug 30, 2026	241
Sep 6, 2026	334
Sep 13, 2026	2.1k
Sep 20, 2026	1.9k
Sep 27, 2026	1.4k
Oct 4, 2026	1.4k
Oct 11, 2026	784
Oct 18, 2026	867
Oct 25, 2026	590

On Hacker News

Apple Silicon and macOS VMs: Faster LLM Inference with llama.cpp, 307 points and 41 comments (Aug 11, 2026)
Show HN: Drive any macOS app in the background without stealing the cursor, 192 points and 43 comments (Apr 28, 2026)
Launch HN: Cua (YC X25) – Open-Source Docker Container for Computer-Use Agents, 172 points and 73 comments (Apr 23, 2025)
Show HN: Lumier – Run macOS VMs in a Docker, 159 points and 52 comments (May 14, 2025)
Show HN: Lume 0.2 – Build and Run macOS VMs with unattended setup, 154 points and 44 comments (Jan 18, 2026)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

Cua alternatives

Other browser and computer-use agents on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Browser and computer use ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	ego liteego lite is a Chromium-based browser that lets AI agents like Claude Code or Codex run browser automation using your logged-in browser…	21k	–
#2	MoliMoli is an open-source headless browser for AI agents, built in Rust, that fetches, extracts, and automates web pages through CLI, CDP,…	21.9k	–
#4	Browser HarnessBrowser Harness is an open-source Python tool that lets Claude Code, Codex or Cursor control your real Chrome browser, logged in as you.	18.8k	3.3M
#5	Jev UltrafastJev Ultrafast is an open-source Python browser agent that picks an operation and an indexed page element per step, using TypeSafe's Jev.	24k	–
#6	StagehandStagehand is an SDK for building browser agents that automate and extract data from websites using natural language, in TypeScript,…	25.9k	3M
#7	Steel BrowserSteel Browser is an open-source browser API and sandbox that lets AI agents and apps automate the web through managed Chrome sessions.	7.9k	158.7k

All browser and computer-use agents, ranked

Recent Cua releases

cua-spaces-v0.16.0, Oct 25, 2026
cua-spaces-v0.16.0-beta.2 (pre-release), Oct 25, 2026
nightly-cua-driver-rs-v0.38.1-nightly.20261025.40174952744 (pre-release), Oct 25, 2026
nightly-lume-v0.6.2-nightly.20261025.40163278849 (pre-release), Oct 25, 2026
nightly-lume-v0.6.2-nightly.20261025.40148199991 (pre-release), Oct 25, 2026

Cua FAQ

Is Cua free and open source?

Yes. Cua's source code is on GitHub (trycua/cua) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://cua.ai/pricing) for any paid plans.

How do I install Cua?

Run curl -fsSL https://cua.ai/install.sh | sh. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Cua still maintained?

Yes. The trycua/cua repository was last updated on Oct 25, 2026, and the latest release, cua-spaces-v0.16.0 on GitHub, came out on Oct 25, 2026.

How popular is Cua?

Cua has 31.4k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 590 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 887 a week. That made it #3 among browser and computer-use agents on the Devtoolwatch Board.

What are the best alternatives to Cua?

Other browser and computer-use agents on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: ego lite (#1), Moli (#2), Browser Harness (#4), Jev Ultrafast (#5), Stagehand (#6). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Does Cua include its own AI agent?

No. Cua provides the computer and automation tools, and you bring your own agent and model. The SDK has no agent layer, so you drive sandboxes from your own harness. CUA-S1 offers small models for bounded computer-use decisions, not general planning.

Which agents can connect to Cua?

Cua connects to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, and other agents. Cua Driver connects through the CLI, MCP, or typed SDKs, and Spaces connect through the Cua MCP.

Can I use Cua Driver without Cua Spaces?

Yes. Cua Driver is open source under MIT and can be used without Spaces. Cua Driver lets an agent use native desktop apps on macOS, Windows, and Linux without taking over your cursor or keyboard.

Where do Cua Spaces run?

Cua Spaces run on your Mac, on other machines you own, and in your own cloud account on AWS, Google Cloud, or Modal. The command cua host setup makes a machine reachable through the cua.ai relay without port forwarding.

What should I use instead of deprecated Cua packages like cua-agent?

Cua recommends a coding agent with the Cua Driver MCP or sandbox.agents() in the cua SDK instead of cua-agent. Cua says not to run cuabot because it has known security issues; use Cua Driver or the cua CLI instead.

Sources

Cua README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/cua.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/cua/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].