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Every bot in Cortex Bot can have a computer of its own: an isolated cloud computer with a graphical Linux desktop, a browser, a shell and a file system. The Computer tab of an open bot is the rail where you watch that desktop while the bot works, and where you take the mouse and keyboard back when you want to do something yourself. This page covers starting and waking the computer, what the rail shows while a turn runs, taking and handing back control, recording a session on the Videos tab, hibernation, and what the computer is allowed to reach.

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Start the computer

A bot’s computer is created with the bot, but it is not kept running for nothing. The rail tells you which state it is in and offers exactly one sensible action.
1

Open the Computer tab

Open a bot you own and choose Computer. An open bot has Messages, Computer, Videos and VNC tabs.
2

Start or wake it

If the rail says No computer yet, with the hint Start a Cloud computer to open a live desktop., choose Start computer. If it says Computer is asleep, with Wake it to resume the desktop., choose Wake the computer or Resume.
3

Wait for the desktop

You will see Starting the computer… while the machine comes up, then Connecting to the desktop stream… for a few seconds while the view is joined. The rail then reads Live.
4

Watch it work

The live screen shows what the bot sees and does: pages it opens, controls it clicks, files it edits.
You do not usually have to do any of this before giving the bot a task, because a turn that needs the desktop starts it again first. When that does not work the bot says so, with Could not wake the computer in its activity, and Wake the computer on the rail is then your move.

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What the rail shows

Live and Off are the two words for the stream itself. Between them sit the honest intermediate states, which is the point of the rail: it never paints a fake desktop. Screenshots are the fallback and never the normal mode. If you are looking at stills, the live stream could not be joined on that view.

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Take control

The desktop has one writer at a time. Take control hands the mouse and keyboard to you and the rail confirms You have control. Hand back returns them to the bot. While the bot holds them you see {name} is still working., and handing control away is acknowledged with You handed back control. Taking control is the right move when the bot is stuck on something only you can do, such as a screen it should not be clicking through on its own. For a password, a one-time code or a captcha, do not type it into the thread: the bot raises Cortex needs you and the value you enter there is delivered to the computer rather than posted as a message.
The Bot workspace during a computer takeover, with the bot paused and a control for handing the desktop back.

Interface preview

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Record a session

The Videos tab is the bot’s Recordings list. A recording captures the full screen, the path the pointer took and zooms on its clicks, which makes it the clearest way to review what a routine did overnight.
1

Check the computer is awake

Recording needs a running computer: Recording needs the computer to be awake. Only the bot’s owner can record it.
2

Start

On Videos, choose Record. The tab shows Recording… while it runs.
3

Stop and play

Choose Stop recording. The finished recording is listed with its length and size and a Play action.
With nothing recorded yet the tab reads No recordings yet. If a recording cannot be produced you get Encoding failed rather than a broken file. The separate Record / replay and Teach a task recorders turn a demonstration into a reusable skill instead of a video. See Teach from a demonstration.

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Sleep, hibernation and recreate

An idle computer hibernates on its own to save resources, and Hibernation is a toggle on the bot’s settings. There is nothing to clean up after a job: leave the bot alone and its computer puts itself away, then wakes on the next turn that needs it.
Recreate rebuilds the machine. Treat anything the bot left on its desktop as gone, and deleting the bot retires its computer with it.

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What the computer can reach

A bot’s computer reaches the network through an allow list, not the open internet. The rule is stated on the bot’s own Egress and activity panel: Hosts on the allow list may be reached. Everything else is refused, and the blocked ranges are refused before this list is read. With nothing on the list the bot reaches nothing at all, so adding the first domain is what turns egress on. Some addresses can never be allowed whatever the list says: instance metadata, loopback and the private network are refused first, and a hostname that resolves to one of those is refused as well. The panel also carries an Activity feed of the bot’s own events, such as Asked you a question, Waiting for your approval, Could not wake the computer and A recording finished. It is an event feed rather than a request log, so it does not record destinations.
Editing that allow list is not available yet. The list you see is what the deployment holds, and adding or removing a domain from this panel does not persist. Browsing the computer’s workspace files from the rail is not available yet either.

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One computer, one bot

Each bot has exactly one computer, and it is always the cloud computer Cortex runs for it. Its disk, its desktop and its recordings belong to that bot alone, so one bot cannot see another’s screen or files, and a bot’s desktop cannot see a Cortex Code workspace. Choosing a different machine to run work on, your own computer or a host you keep, is a Cortex Code control rather than a Bot one. See Machines and SSH hosts.