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Computer use gives your Fleet agent access to an isolated virtual computer. The agent can write and execute code, manage files, install packages, and call authenticated external APIs without exposing credentials to the language model.
Computer use is available on the Plus and Enterprise plans.

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Computer modes

Choose how the virtual computer is shared across an agent’s conversation threads:

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Configure computer use

The computer mode is set when the agent is created and cannot be changed afterward. To switch modes, create a new agent.
1

Open the Create agent dialog

In the Fleet left navigation, under My Agents, click and select either Create with AI or Blank agent. Enter a name for your agent.
2

Enable computer use

Under Should your agent use a computer?, select Yes, then choose Shared computer or Computer per thread. If you select No (the default), the agent is created with no computer access.
3

Set the base snapshot (optional)

Expand Advanced to choose a Snapshot for new computers.
4

Create the agent

Click Create Agent.

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Access profiles

Use access profiles to let your agent call authenticated external APIs without putting credentials in the prompt or exposing them to the language model. Outbound HTTP requests to matching hosts are routed through a proxy that injects the configured headers before forwarding. A profile contains one or more Custom rules. Each rule specifies:
  • Match Hosts: The target hostnames the rule applies to. Use * as a wildcard (for example, *.example.com matches api.example.com).
  • Source Type and Provider: The credential source. Choose Connection for user-delegated OAuth, or Workspace Secret for static API keys.
  • Inject Headers: The HTTP headers the proxy adds to matched requests. Use template values such as {access_token} to reference the credential (for example, Authorization: Bearer {access_token}).
A profile also has a Network scope that controls outbound traffic for the agent’s computer. The default is None (all traffic allowed).

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Add an access profile

1

Create the access profile

Go to the Fleet Integrations tab and navigate to the Computer section. Click + Create profile and follow the prompts to configure the host patterns and credentials.
2

Attach the profile to an agent

In the agent editor, click the Computer node. Click + Add next to Access profiles and select the profile you created.
3

Save changes

Click Save changes.

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Computer lifecycle

Each agent has two lifecycle settings that control how long a computer stays active and how long it is kept after it stops. Configure both in the settings popover.
  • Idle timeout: When the computer has not received any commands for this duration, it pauses and the disk is archived. The agent can resume the same computer later without losing data. Default: 15 minutes.
  • Stopped computer cleanup: After a computer has been stopped for this duration, it is permanently deleted along with all disk data. Default: 14 days.
Stopped computer cleanup applies only to Computer per thread mode. Shared computers are not deleted automatically.

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Choose a base snapshot

A snapshot is the disk image used to boot the computer. When no snapshot is selected, Fleet uses the platform default, system/default:latest. The current default starts from ubuntu:26.04 and includes Python 3, Node.js 24, Go, Git, Docker, a browser, and document-processing libraries. For the full tool list and the other system snapshots, see Understand system snapshots. To change the snapshot for an existing agent, set Snapshot in the settings popover, as described in Configure lifecycle and snapshot. To build or capture your own snapshot, see Sandbox snapshots, and include the components listed in Prepare a custom image for Fleet.
Snapshot changes apply only to new computers for the agent. The single shared computer in Shared computer mode keeps its original snapshot for its lifetime.

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Configure lifecycle and snapshot

The snapshot, idle timeout, and stopped computer cleanup for an agent are all set in the Computer lifecycle section of the settings popover.
1

Open the settings popover

In Fleet, open the agent and click the settings icon in the agent editor.
2

Set the lifecycle fields

Scroll to the Computer lifecycle section. Set the Snapshot, Idle timeout, and, for Computer per thread mode, Stopped computer cleanup.
3

Save changes

Click Save changes.

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Prepare a custom image for Fleet

A custom snapshot replaces the default filesystem; it does not inherit the default tools. Include the dependencies for the Fleet capabilities your agents use, even when starting from a minimal Linux image. If python-pptx or python-docx is missing, the skill installs the pinned version into a virtual environment under /tmp, which requires Python’s venv module and access to PyPI. If anydoc is missing, the converter runs it with npx, which requires npm and access to the npm registry. The Excel skill has no install fallback. Preinstall every component in images that run without package registry access. To see the versions the default image includes in your release, start a sandbox from system/default:latest and run:
Run the same commands in a sandbox started from your custom snapshot to confirm it is ready for Fleet. Also check that the document libraries import and the hardened XML parser is active:
Your image does not need to use Ubuntu or include every development tool from the default image. If you use another distribution, provide compatible packages and their native dependencies. system/default:latest is a snapshot reference, not a container image URI for a Dockerfile FROM instruction. Build your own container image, then create a snapshot from it. To audit the default or a named system snapshot, follow Inspect the default snapshot filesystem in self-hosted deployments using your deployed sandbox-host image.
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