Migrating from the Computer SDK

Computer SDK is deprecated

cua-computer is deprecated and will no longer receive new features. All new development is happening in cua-sandbox. This guide shows you how to migrate.

Why the change?

The old Computer SDK (cua-computer) required you to separately provision a sandbox (via the CLI or cloud dashboard) and then connect to it with a Computer object. This split made the API more confusing than necessary — two packages to install, two different concepts to understand.

The new Sandbox SDK (cua-sandbox) unifies everything: one package creates the sandbox, controls it, and cleans it up. The API surface is also cleaner — sub-objects (sb.mouse, sb.keyboard, sb.shell) instead of a flat computer.interface.* namespace.

Package rename

# Before
pip install cua-computer

# After
pip install cua

Import and instantiation

Before:

from computer import Computer

computer = Computer(
    os_type="linux",
    provider_type="cloud",
    name="my-sandbox-name"
)
await computer.run()

After:

from cua import Sandbox, Image

# Ephemeral (create + destroy automatically)
async with Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.linux()) as sb:
    ...

# Connect to an existing sandbox by name
async with Sandbox.connect("my-sandbox-name") as sb:
    ...

Method mapping

Computer SDK	Sandbox SDK
`await computer.run()`	Handled by `Sandbox.ephemeral()` / `.create()` / `.connect()`
`await computer.disconnect()`	`await sb.disconnect()`
`await computer.stop()`	`await sb.delete()`
`await computer.interface.screenshot()`	`await sb.screenshot()`
`await computer.interface.left_click(x, y)`	`await sb.mouse.click(x, y)`
`await computer.interface.right_click(x, y)`	`await sb.mouse.right_click(x, y)`
`await computer.interface.double_click(x, y)`	`await sb.mouse.double_click(x, y)`
`await computer.interface.move(x, y)`	`await sb.mouse.move(x, y)`
`await computer.interface.scroll(x, y, clicks)`	`await sb.mouse.scroll(x, y, dy=clicks)`
`await computer.interface.type_text("text")`	`await sb.keyboard.type("text")`
`await computer.interface.key("Enter")`	`await sb.keyboard.press("Return")`
`await computer.interface.get_screen_size()`	`await sb.screen.size()`

Provider mapping

The old SDK used a provider_type string to select the runtime. The new SDK uses Image factory methods and the local flag.

Computer SDK `provider_type`	Sandbox SDK
`"cloud"`	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.linux())` (default)
`"docker"` with Linux image	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.linux(), local=True)`
`"docker"` with QEMU Linux	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.linux(kind="vm"), local=True)`
`"docker"` with QEMU Windows	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.windows(), local=True)`
`"docker"` with QEMU Android	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.android(), local=True)`
`"lume"`	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.macos(), local=True)`
`"windows_sandbox"`	`Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.windows(), local=True)`
`use_host_computer_server=True`	`from cua import Localhost; Localhost.connect()`

Before and after — full example

Before:

import asyncio
from computer import Computer

computer = Computer(
    os_type="linux",
    provider_type="docker",
    image="trycua/cua-xfce:latest"
)

async def main():
    await computer.run()
    try:
        screenshot = await computer.interface.screenshot()
        await computer.interface.left_click(100, 100)
        await computer.interface.type_text("Hello!")
    finally:
        await computer.disconnect()

asyncio.run(main())

After:

import asyncio
from cua import Sandbox, Image

async def main():
    async with Sandbox.ephemeral(Image.linux(), local=True) as sb:
        screenshot = await sb.screenshot()
        await sb.mouse.click(100, 100)
        await sb.keyboard.type("Hello!")

asyncio.run(main())

Agent SDK

The Agent SDK (cua-agent) currently uses cua-computer internally. Migration of the agent SDK to cua-sandbox is in progress. For now, you can use both packages side by side — cua-sandbox for sandbox control and cua-agent for AI agent orchestration.

Getting help

If you run into anything not covered here, open an issue or check the Sandbox SDK Reference.

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