Install

VS Code extension (recommended) — install trsdn.uia-mcp from the Marketplace (code --install-extension trsdn.uia-mcp), or install the UIAutomationMcp-<version>.vsix from the latest release. Self-contained; bundles the MCP server, the CLI, and both agent skills.

Claude Desktop — download uia-mcp-<version>.mcpb from the latest release and double-click it.

npm — uia-mcp ships the MCP server with the .NET runtime bundled, so it needs no prerequisites:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "uia-mcp": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "uia-mcp"] }
  }
}

NuGet .NET tools

powershell

dotnet tool install --global UIAutomationMcp.McpServer   # MCP server -> uiamcp-server
dotnet tool install --global UIAutomationMcp.CLI         # CLI        -> uiamcp

Standalone ZIP — UIAutomationMcp-MCP-Server-<version>-windows.zip contains the self-contained MCP server and CLI; no .NET runtime required.

Requires Windows and an interactive desktop session. UI Automation cannot run headless.

Lineage

This repository is part of the broader MCP automation lineage and intentionally keeps attribution to earlier work by Stefan Brönner.

It also keeps the historical reference to Excel MCP as a related sibling project in that lineage, even though this repository itself is focused on Windows UI Automation.

What it does

boots a typed UI Automation client through Interop.UIAutomationClient
reads rich desktop-root and focused-element metadata, including bounds, runtime IDs, and supported patterns
resolves elements from native window handles and screen coordinates
searches UIA trees by name, class name, automation id, framework id, control type, and process id
enumerates immediate children from raw, control, or content tree views
enumerates descendants from raw, control, or content tree views
navigates the UIA tree with raw, control, and content walkers
supports build-cache requests for inspection, search, and navigation
reads text, selection, and key pattern states, including caret position, annotation runs such as spelling errors, and the containing document of an inline element
waits for focus, automation, property-changed, and structure-changed events
performs common actions such as focus, invoke, set-value, toggle, expand/collapse, selection, window state changes, move/resize, scroll, range-value updates, view switching, docking, realizing virtualized items, and MSAA default actions
finds items that a virtualizing list has not materialized yet by asking the container directly, so a search for the 250th row of a 300-row list works without scrolling
reports drag and drop state (isGrabbed, drop effects, grabbed items) so an in-progress drag can be observed, and resolves automation events to readable names such as Drag_DragStart
reads MSAA data through the LegacyIAccessible bridge, so Win32, MFC, and installer windows that expose no native UI Automation provider still report usable names, roles, states, and a runnable default action
reads tabular controls as a cell matrix with row and column headers
exposes the same expanded surface through CLI and MCP
packages the CLI and MCP server inside the VS Code extension

Repository layout

src\UIAutomationMcp.ComInterop
src\UIAutomationMcp.Service
src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI
src\UIAutomationMcp.McpServer
src\UIAutomationMcp.Smoke
vscode-extension
mcpb — Claude Desktop bundle sources and build script
skills — agent skills for uia-cli and uia-mcp

Build and validate

powershell

dotnet build .\UIAutomationMcp.sln -c Release
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.Smoke\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\UIAutomationMcp.Smoke.exe
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe inspect --root --cache
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe find --focused --scope children --max-results 10 --cache
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe children --focused --view raw --max-results 10
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe descendants --focused --view raw --max-results 25
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe wait-event --event-kind focus --timeout-ms 500
.\src\UIAutomationMcp.CLI\bin\Release\net9.0-windows\uiamcp.exe action focus --focused