For Claude and ChatGPT, on your own computer
Claude Desktop quietly ships with computer use. Most people never find it, and the ones who do watch it take a screenshot, guess where to click, miss, and try again. Stead hands Claude the page itself: your logged-in Chrome and your desktop apps, read as text, so it clicks the right thing the first time and checks its own work. Same Claude, same plan, finally fast.
Double-click the file (or drag it into Claude Desktop's Settings → Extensions). Click Install, tick I agree to the terms, and it's on. No AI does the installing, so there's nothing for Claude to second-guess. Nothing to run, so Windows won't block it. Windows only for now; you'll need the free Claude app.
On a Mac? Install it this way.
Built-in vs Stead
| Claude's built-in computer use | With Stead | |
|---|---|---|
| How it sees | A screenshot every step | The page and app as text: every button, field and link by name |
| How it clicks | Guesses a spot on the picture | Clicks the actual element, and rescues the click when a site hides it |
| Desktop apps | Screenshots of the window | Buttons and menus by name; reads the document back to check edits |
| While it works | Takes over your screen and mouse | Works in its own Chrome window; you keep using your computer |
| Your logins | Your everyday browser, live | A separate Chrome profile: log in once, your own browser untouched |
| Which AI | Claude only | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT desktop and Codex |
Claude in Chrome (Anthropic's browser extension) reads pages too, and Stead works alongside it. It doesn't reach your desktop apps or work in ChatGPT, and it shares your everyday browser.
Watch it work
What it does
A Chrome profile just for Claude. Log into Google, your school portal or your email once, and Claude can use them from then on.
Forms hide their real checkboxes behind styled fakes. Stead reads why a click failed and fixes it the way a person would.
Notepad, Word, File Explorer, Settings, file dialogs and right-click menus, used through their buttons and menus by name. It reads the document back to check its own edits.
Connect Telegram once. A text becomes a job on your computer, with your logins and your files, and the answer comes back as a text. Reminders reach your phone too.
"Remind me the day before." "Every weekday at 7, check what's due." Reminders and scheduled jobs run on your computer while it's on, and catch up when it wakes.
Your details for forms, your preferences, the people in your life, kept as plain notes you can read, edit or delete line by line. Passwords and card numbers are never saved.
Why it works
A page looks like it has a checkbox, but the real one is hidden and a styled label sits on top. An automation tool either can't see the real control or refuses to click something off screen, so it tries again, and again. Stead reads the reason in the error and does what a person would: clicks the label, sends the click past the overlay, waits for the animation to stop.
| Test | Before | With Stead |
|---|---|---|
| Tricky form controls that work | 3 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Notes into a Google Doc: steps | 27 | 8 |
| Failed clicks along the way | 3 | 0 |
| Time to finish | 94 s | 43 s |
Measured September 24, 2026 on Windows 11 with Claude. "Before" is the same browser tools without the rescue layer and playbook. Every rescue is logged on your machine so you can check it yourself.
Safety
Pricing
Yes. Stead adds the hands; Claude does the thinking on the plan you already have.
Windows today. The browser part works anywhere Chrome does; Mac desktop control is next.
It stays on your computer: your Chrome profile and a folder of notes at ~/.stead. Nothing phones home.
Dots run on their own cloud computer and start at $100 a month. Stead works on your computer, with your own Chrome logins and files, on the plan you already have. Dots keep going with the laptop closed; Stead needs your computer on.