Changelog

All notable changes to Atlas are documented here. The format follows Keep a Changelog and the project adheres to Semantic Versioning. Each release section summarizes the changes in that version.

0.1.1 - 2026-11-05

The first update after launch. Setup no longer does its heaviest work while you unlock your account after switching back from the helper, Compose Desktop apps now take clicks and typing in the helper, commands no longer finish late because of a rare process race, reopening Atlas from its icon shows the viewer when none of its windows are open, and agents get one-window screenshots and one-call value readouts so they finish tasks in fewer, cheaper turns. The docs now say plainly what the helper shares with your account. Update with atlas update.

Thanks to @INGHRTY, first-time contributor, for making Atlas's app icon open the viewer in #52, and to Wojciech Gryglas (@wgryglas) for the detailed report and Swing probe in #51.

Thanks also to everyone who reported problems and asked questions on X and Reddit after launch.

• Setup waits until you're back in your own account: a Mac froze for one person while they unlocked their account after switching back from the helper during setup. Atlas started its end-to-end check, which starts input in the helper and takes a test screenshot, the moment the helper left the screen, while they were still at the login window. Setup now reads nothing while the login window has the screen and starts the check only once you have been back in your own account, unlocked, for a moment; atlas init waits the same way. Two system tools setup checks every second and a half, codesign and launchctl, now have time limits. (#54)
• A clear answer for apps that run in one account at a time: atlas open of an app such as Tailscale while it's open in your account told the agent to check that the app exists. Atlas now says the app runs in one account at a time and is open in another, and tells the agent not to retry it or quit yours. (#54)
• Compose Desktop apps accept clicks and typing: a Compose Multiplatform desktop window reports a focused element that no longer exists, so Atlas could not tell where keyboard focus was and refused every click and keystroke with focus-changed, sending nothing. Atlas now asks once more, and when the element is still gone it judges the focused window instead, as it already does for apps with no focused element. Any other failure to read focus still refuses, so input never lands in a window Atlas cannot account for. (#53, part of #51)
• Known limit: Java and Compose windows can show an old picture: in the helper, Java (Swing) and Compose windows take input and their state is right, but the picture on screen stays old until the window is resized, and a resize can show an earlier layout. macOS doesn't show new frames drawn with Metal or OpenGL in a login that isn't on screen. In our tests the pictures update while a signed-in Screen Sharing session to the helper is open. Otherwise, read the app's state with atlas elements --app NAME --values. (#51)
• Finished commands report on time: on macOS a process that another part of Atlas started at the same moment could inherit both ends of a command's output pipe and hold it open, so a command that had finished was reported late and its cleanup could be recorded as an unknown outcome, which blocks agents until atlas restart. Atlas now starts every process and creates every pipe one at a time, held only for the instant of the start. (#48)
• Opening Atlas from its icon shows the viewer: opening Atlas from Applications, Launchpad or the Dock while it was already running did nothing, which looked like the app failing to open. It now opens the viewer when none of Atlas's windows are open. Opening a set-up Atlas that is not running also opens the viewer now, instead of only starting the menu bar item. (#52)
• Screenshot one window: atlas screenshot --app NAME --window N captures just that window, and --region now works together with --app to crop part of an app. Smaller pictures cost an agent fewer tokens per look. (#50)
• Read a whole form in one call: atlas elements --values lists each element's role, name, value and state (disabled, focused, selected, a menu item's mark) instead of its position. --name can be repeated to read several fields at once, and the reply says which names matched nothing. --page keeps only what a web page shows, without the browser's own toolbar and tabs, and --window N limits the listing to one window. (#50)
• Screenshots through MCP: a new take_screenshot tool returns the picture inside the tool reply, so hosts that show images see it without opening a file. It runs atlas screenshot with the same checks and record, and never changes where another chat's untargeted clicks go. (#50)
• Each web page gets its own browser window: atlas open --app "Google Chrome" URL opens the page in a new window when Chrome is already running, so two agents' pages never share one window. The same applies to Chrome Canary, Chromium, Brave and Microsoft Edge. (#50)
• Agents finish in fewer turns: the bundled Atlas skill now tells agents to chain known steps, prove a step by reading its value back, and take a screenshot only when text cannot show the result. The MCP status reply gives the model only the facts it acts on; the full status goes to Atlas's embedded view. (#50)
• Docs: what the helper shares: a new section in Using Atlas lists what the helper has of its own (pointer, clipboard, files, keychain) and what it shares with your account (speakers, network, CPU and the process list). It gives the helper's memory use, says that sound from the helper plays on your speakers with no helper-only mute yet, and explains what happens with apps you also use, such as Slack, a password manager or Tailscale. (#55)
• Docs: your files: the README and Using Atlas now say how an agent copies in only the files an app needs and brings results back with atlas collect, and that the helper can read what every account on your Mac can, including /Users/Shared, most external drives and folders in your home that aren't private, with the one command that makes a folder private. (#55)

Addresses part of #51.

0.1.0 - 2026-11-04

The first release. Atlas gives AI agents a hidden second desktop on your Mac: a separate macOS login, the helper, where they open apps, click, type and take screenshots while you keep working on your own desktop. Requires macOS 14 or later and an administrator account for setup.

• A desktop of its own for agents: the helper is an ordinary standard account that stays signed in off screen. Apps, windows, screenshots and input all stay there; Atlas posts input only into the helper's session and refuses when the helper is on screen. It is not a virtual machine: it shares the Mac's hardware and network.
• Guided setup: curl -fsSL https://atlas.insanearts.io/install.sh | sh checks the download's checksum, Developer ID signature and notarization, installs Atlas.app and the atlas command, and opens a setup window that creates or picks the helper account and walks through the Accessibility and Screen Recording approvals with normal macOS consent. atlas init does the same in a terminal, atlas doctor says when the helper is ready, and atlas update keeps Atlas current.
• Works with your agent: connects Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, opencode, Pi and Cursor from Settings > Agents or atlas agents install, with a skill that teaches the agent to use Atlas, an MCP connection and session hooks. atlas agents project adds Atlas's section to a project's AGENTS.md.
• See and act by name: atlas screenshot captures the display, one app or a region and says when nothing changed. atlas elements lists accessibility elements, and agents click them by name or by reference, press, check or set them through Accessibility without moving the pointer, and atlas wait for windows and element states. Clicks, typing, keys, scrolls and drags are refused when another app would receive them.
• Watch and take over: a menu bar panel with a small live screen, a full viewer with Screen, Activity, Apps and Screenshots tabs, an embedded view inside the Claude and Codex apps and Cursor, and atlas monitor --terminal for Kitty-graphics terminal panes. Take Control lets you use the helper with your own mouse and keyboard, Give Back or Control-Shift-Esc returns it, and Stop cancels agent input until you resume.
• Several agents at once: changes to the helper happen one at a time, and a command waits its turn for up to 30 seconds. Atlas tells agent sessions apart, and atlas activity lists what each one did.
• Files in and results out: atlas open copies an app the helper cannot read, atlas environment copies a reviewed snapshot of chosen files into the helper and can roll it back, atlas collect brings results out, and atlas cleanup --apply stops a task's jobs, rolls back its unchanged copies and moves its installs aside. Apps are closed with atlas close, and data an app made in the helper can remain.
• Safe on failure: an action whose outcome is unknown is held and blocks further input until it is recovered with atlas restart, so an agent never repeats a click or keystroke that may already have landed.