Most automation stacks rely on brittle selectors, hardcoded IDs, or fragile APIs that break when a UI changes. You want agents that can see the screen and act like a human. The Coasty Computer Use API lets you spin up a real cloud desktop in seconds, then drive it with a computer use agent. This guide shows how to provision machines on demand with the /v1/machines endpoint, then run a task on that machine.
How it works
Provisioning a cloud machine is a single POST to /v1/machines. You pass a machine_id, a task description, and an optional cua_version. The server allocates a cloud VM and returns its ID. You can then start, stop, or snapshot the machine. After starting, the agent can use the /v1/runs endpoint to drive the computer use agent on that machine. The machine is billed per step when a task runs on it.
curl -X POST https://coasty.ai/v1/machines \
-H "X-API-Key: $COASTY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"machine_id": "my-prod-machine-001",
"task": "Open Chrome and navigate to https://example.com",
"cua_version": "v3"
}'Key fields and pricing
- machine_id (string) , unique identifier for the provisioned machine.
- task (string) , description of the task the agent will perform on the machine.
- cua_version (string) , version of the computer use agent (default v3, v4 adds a pass/fail verifier).
- POST /v1/machines incurs no charge.
- Task runs on the machine are billed $0.05 per agent step.
- You can start, stop, and snapshot machines via additional API calls.
POST /v1/machines spins up a real cloud desktop that your computer use agent can drive, with zero setup.
Where this beats brittle automation
Traditional automation depends on stable selectors and documented APIs. When UI changes, tests break. With a cloud machine, your agent sees the exact visual state of the screen. It can use vision to locate buttons, fill forms, and handle dynamic layouts. This makes your agents self-healing and more resilient to changes. You no longer need to maintain fragile selector maps.
You can now provision cloud machines on demand and run computer use agents that manipulate real UI elements. Next, try running a task with POST /v1/runs on your provisioned machine. Get your API key at https://coasty.ai/developers and start building production-ready agents.
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