SloppyNode

SloppyNode is Sloppy's local computer-control executor. The reusable Swift library lives in Packages/SloppyComputerControl; Sloppy can call that library in-process, while the standalone sloppy-node command wraps the same implementation behind a small JSON protocol.

Use standalone sloppy-node when another app, helper, or external process needs local computer control. The macOS client can bundle a helper on macOS; iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS remain remote clients.

Install standalone node

macOS

bash scripts/install-sloppy-node.sh

Or with Homebrew:

brew tap teamsloppy/sloppy https://github.com/TeamSloppy/Sloppy
brew install --cask teamsloppy/sloppy/sloppy-node

Windows

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/install-sloppy-node.ps1

Add the printed install directory to PATH if sloppy-node is not found in a new terminal.

Verify

printf '{"action":"status","payload":{}}' | sloppy-node invoke --stdin

On Windows PowerShell:

'{"action":"status","payload":{}}' | sloppy-node invoke --stdin

JSON protocol

The v1 process API is intentionally small:

sloppy-node invoke --stdin

It reads a NodeActionRequest JSON object from stdin and writes a NodeActionResponse JSON object to stdout. Supported actions:

• status
• exec
• computer.click
• computer.typeText
• computer.key
• computer.screenshot

Sloppy integration

The sloppy server uses SloppyComputerControl in-process by default for its computer.* tools. Set SLOPPY_NODE_PATH to force those tools through a standalone node process instead:

SLOPPY_NODE_PATH=/path/to/sloppy-node sloppy run

This keeps local Sloppy fast while preserving the process boundary for helpers, clients, and remote-control deployments.

Permissions

macOS requires explicit permissions before a process can control input or capture the display:

• Accessibility: click and key events.
• Input Monitoring: keyboard event delivery on some systems.
• Screen Recording: screenshots.

Grant permissions to the built sloppy-node binary, the app-bundled helper, or the terminal app that launches it, then restart the launcher before retrying.

Windows support uses the active desktop session. Clicks, keyboard input, and screenshots only work reliably when sloppy-node runs in an interactive user session.

Linux currently builds the shared package but returns unsupported_platform for computer-control actions.