Status: Superseded in part by ADR-0079

Computer use is an optional standalone package mirroring the DSH provider seam

BotHarness gives a profile’s PersonaBots one shared Linux desktop (the Computer) that a Human can watch and take over over VNC while a PersonaBot operates it through tools. Official DSH ships a computer-use subsystem (ctx.computerUse, single exclusive provider slot, plus experimental Cua Driver providers) only from 0.1.6-alpha.1; BotHarness keeps its pinned 0.1.5-rc.2 baseline and delivers this capability as its own optional bundle.

Decision

• Computer use ships as a separate package with its own Bundle, host half and client half, installed as an independent profile layer. It is not a member of the deepseekbot umbrella and a profile without it behaves exactly as before.
• The package provides an application-defined Computer Service shaped like the official seam: one exclusive Provider registration (a second registration fails), no unified action API, no Session broker, and a Provider-owned observation/action catalog. Workflow coordination stays with the caller.
• The v1 Computer Provider runs the Computer as a local Docker container — a Linux desktop with a browser, a persistent volume, and a web VNC endpoint. Replacing the Provider with a cloud or VM Execution World must not change Consumers.
• Bot-facing capabilities come from a pinned open-source driver inside the container, invoked through a resident process rather than per-call spawning; telemetry and update checks are disabled, and the driver sits behind the Computer Service so it can be replaced.
• The official provider packages are not adopted in this package. When DSH is deliberately bumped, migrating to ctx.computerUse must keep every Consumer unchanged; that bump is its own decision with its own verification.

Considered Options

• Bump DSH to 0.1.6-alpha.x now — rejected: the official subsystem is experimental, single-slot, and still leaves provider routing, Computer ownership, and the Human viewer to us; the bump would touch every package’s engines/peer range and invalidate the current verification loop for no reduction in BotHarness work.
• Build computer use inside @botharness/core — rejected: it would force container runtime, image, and platform concerns on every profile and contradict the optional-capability shape of Memory and Channels.
• Use the official MCP provider pointed at docker exec — deferred: a promising spike, but it hard-couples us to an experimental package and an external executable’s version on a DSH line we do not pin.
• Define a unified screenshot/input action API — rejected: no current Consumer needs portability across Providers, and translating provider-specific semantics would lose the observation vocabulary (window-scoped snapshots, element tokens, structured refusals, verification results).
• One Provider slot per PersonaBot — rejected: the slot is process-wide and a Computer is shared; ownership and routing belong to BotHarness, not to the registry.

Consequences

• The build gains a second client bundle target; the package must pass the same bundle/manifest conformance and preflight checks as the others.
• A profile without the package keeps full Behaviour; the Computer Service reports unavailable rather than partially loading.
• The first tracer bullet proves a Human can see the Computer inside DSH; PersonaBot tools, Takeover, and profile-scoped ownership are later slices.
• Driver pinning, license notices, and telemetry defaults become maintenance obligations of this package.
• Migrating to the official seam later is a Provider-registration swap plus a DSH bump, not a Consumer rewrite.