Give your agent a Windows PC
Elsebox is a Windows machine in the cloud that your AI agent drives over MCP: it sees the screen, clicks and types, runs PowerShell and moves folders between your Mac and the machine. You can watch and use the same machine live, in the browser or in the Mac app.
Quick start
- Create an account — 2 free Standard hours, no card.
- Copy your API key from Getting started (a key is shown in full once; make more on API keys).
- Add Elsebox to your agent with that key, below. Node.js 18 or newer runs it.
- Ask: “Port this project to Windows and test it.”
The key gives the agent every machine of your account. To bind an agent to one machine instead, set ELSEBOX_URL, ELSEBOX_TOKEN and ELSEBOX_CERT_SHA256 from that machine’s connect details.
Connect by URL (no key)
Apps that take an MCP server by its address sign in with your Elsebox account instead of a key. Add https://elsebox.dev/api/mcp and allow it when Elsebox asks. You can disconnect it any time under API keys.
A connector has every tool except moving folders from your computer: it runs on our servers and cannot see your disk. The agent clones the project on the machine with git, or copies single files with upload_file / download_file. For folder sync from your Mac, use the key setup above.
Machines
Your agent creates machines when it needs them; they show up under Machines in the dashboard, where you can start, stop and delete them. A machine nobody uses for half an hour goes to sleep on its own. Its disk stays, so files are there when it wakes. Deleting a machine deletes its disk.
Machines run Windows with a 1920×1080 desktop and sound, in Frankfurt and N. Virginia. They are CPU only — built for builds, tests and UI checks, not for games or GPU work.
Watching a machine
On Machines, Watch opens a running machine in the browser: video and sound, your mouse and keyboard. The laptop button next to it opens the same machine in the Elsebox Mac app: full screen, the lowest delay, and files you drop onto the window land on the machine’s desktop.
MCP tools
With an API key the agent manages machines:
| machines | The machines of the account: name, state, size, address, id. |
| machine_create | A new machine from the Elsebox image, `name` and `size` (light, standard, power). Ready in about six minutes. |
| wait_until_running | Waits until a machine is running, then picks it for the tools below. |
| machine_start | Starts a stopped or sleeping machine. Ready in a minute or two. |
| machine_stop | Stops a machine. Its disk and files stay. |
| machine_delete | Deletes a machine with its disk, for good. Agents call it only when you ask. |
| use_machine | Picks which running machine the tools below drive. |
…and drives the one it picked (on its own, when exactly one is running):
| screenshot | The screen, at most 1280 px wide. Every x/y the other tools take is in its pixels. |
| click | Click at a point (left, right or middle, single or double). |
| move | Move the mouse without clicking. |
| drag | Press at one point, release at another. |
| scroll | Scroll the wheel at a point. |
| type | Type text into whatever has focus. Any Unicode. |
| key | A key or shortcut: "enter", "ctrl+c", "win+r", "alt+f4". |
| run | A PowerShell script in the desktop session, with exit code, stdout and stderr. Up to 30 minutes. |
| wait | Wait before looking again. |
| sync_to_machine | Copy a folder from your Mac to the machine. Only new and changed files travel. |
| sync_to_mac | Copy a folder from the machine back to your Mac, the same way. |
Files and folders
sync_to_machine sends a project folder to the machine and sync_to_mac brings results back. Both compare SHA-256 on each side, so only what changed travels. .git, node_modules and build output are skipped unless asked. Nothing is deleted on either side unless the agent passes delete. One file can be up to 256 MB.
Hours and billing
Plans include Standard hours a month; Light counts as half, Power as two. Time counts by the minute while a machine runs — a sleeping or stopped machine costs no hours. When hours run out, machines pause until the next month, a bigger plan, or overage at $0.015 per Standard minute, which you switch on in Usage & billing.
| Plan | Price | Standard hours | Machines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | $0 | 2 once | 1 |
| Starter | $15 / month | 10 | 1 |
| Pro | $29 / month | 20 | 1 |
| Power | $79 / month | 50 | 2 |
| Team | $45 per seat / month | 30 per seat, pooled | 2 |
Yearly billing is ten months’ price for twelve. Payments go through Polar; cancel any time.
Keys and security
Every machine has its own secrets. The agent on the machine speaks HTTPS with its own certificate; the MCP server pins that certificate and sends the machine’s token only after the fingerprint matches. API keys are stored as hashes, shown in full once, and can be revoked on the API keys page at any time — agents using a revoked key stop at once, machines are not touched.