Shop for Raspberry Pi parts on Amazon with Claude
Anthropic has introduced a new feature in Claude called Computer Use. Task: Anthropic has introduced a new feature in Claude called Computer Use. When enabled, it allows Claude to take control of your computer, moving the mouse and using screenshots to decide where to click. I took it for a spin to see what it could do. Using Claude Computer Use Letting Claude loose on my Mac I wanted to see what Claude Computer Use could do, so I enabled it on my Mac, which is running the Claude desktop app. Currently, Computer Use is still only available on macOS, although Windows support is supposed to be on the way. It's in research preview and is available to Pro and Max users in Cowork and Claude Code. Enabling Computer Use was simple to do, although in typical fashion, when I asked Claude how to do it, the chatbot didn't think it was possible. I had to tell it to look it up before it would acknowledge that the feature exists. I went to Settings, selected General under Desktop app, and toggled Computer Use on. I then granted permissions for accessibility and screen recording. You can choose to block Computer Use from specific apps if you're worried about Claude getting into the app where you store the nuclear codes and destroying all mankind. I got Claude to do my shopping I didn't trust it with my money Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek | Manu Padilla/Shutterstock A lot of people are using Computer Use for coding tasks, but I wanted to try it out on more general tasks. I decided to see if Claude could help with some shopping. I asked Claude to search Amazon to find all the components I'd need to build a local voice assistant for Home Assistant. I asked it to look at review scores and to check reviews, if necessary, to ensure that the products it was selecting were suitable for the project. I told Claude to add all the products it chose to the basket, but didn't sign into my Amazon account in case Claude suddenly decided to spend thousands of dollars on tech. Claude immediately got to work. I was asked to grant permission to read and make edits on the Amazon website, and then I watched in real-time as it started to search for a Raspberry Pi. It found a Raspberry Pi, but then stopped the process to ask me if I wanted a basic USB mic and speaker, or a more capable ReSpeaker HAT. I answered the questions, and Claude carried on, adding the Raspberry Pi to my basket by clicking the appropriate buttons exactly as I would have done myself. Computer Use isn't fast It's a dull watch The biggest takeaway as I sat and watched my computer working by itself was that it was incredibly slow. This isn't like in sci-fi where the robot picks up the book, flicks the pages for a second, and has read the entire thing. The whole process was far slower than if I'd been doing it by hand. Speed isn't really the point, however. Computer Use lets you hand off jobs so that you don't have to do them yourself, and you can go and get on with other things. I would say it took around 15 minutes for Claude to find the products and add everything to the basket. The final result was pretty impressive. It had added everything I needed to the basket, and when I took a look at the choices, they all had reasonable review scores and would have been fit for purpose. Claude did stop to ask me for confirmation on specific points now and then, but the questions it asked were all reasonable. Another frustration was that I kept hitting the tool call limit for the session. I only needed to click the Continue button for Claude to carry on, but it stops this from being something you can start and leave unattended to run through to completion, which would make it far more useful. Honestly, I could have done the same job much quicker myself. Being able to just ask Claude to find some products and add them to my basket is genuinely useful, however, although I still don't trust it enough to let it actually click the buy button. Claude can handle repetitive tasks It just does them very slowly The next thing I tried was an app that I can't directly control through any API or MCP. The Draw Things app is an image generation tool that you can use to generate images locally without having to upload your face to OpenAI when you want to put yourself in a Studio Ghibli movie. I wanted to see if I could use Claude to iterate on a prompt until it matched a complicated yoga pose. I asked Claude to keep generating images and iterating on the prompt until it got something that matched.; tools: Claude computer use. Human role: The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.; limitations: Computer Use is currently in research preview for Pro/Max users on macOS only. Performance is slow, often hitting session tool call limits that require manual intervention. There are significant security risks, including potential exposure of personal data via system dialogs and lack of trust for financial transactions. The feature is not suitable for unattended execution..
Tools
Published on Agent Work Atlas:
Overview
Anthropic has introduced a new feature in Claude called Computer Use.
Workflow
Anthropic has introduced a new feature in Claude called Computer Use. When enabled, it allows Claude to take control of your computer, moving the mouse and using screenshots to decide where to click. I took it for a spin to see what it could do. Using Claude Computer Use Letting Claude loose on my Mac I wanted to see what Claude Computer Use could do, so I enabled it on my Mac, which is running the Claude desktop app. Currently, Computer Use is still only available on macOS, although Windows support is supposed to be on the way. It's in research preview and is available to Pro and Max users in Cowork and Claude Code. Enabling Computer Use was simple to do, although in typical fashion, when I asked Claude how to do it, the chatbot didn't think it was possible. I had to tell it to look it up before it would acknowledge that the feature exists. I went to Settings, selected General under Desktop app, and toggled Computer Use on. I then granted permissions for accessibility and screen recording. You can choose to block Computer Use from specific apps if you're worried about Claude getting into the app where you store the nuclear codes and destroying all mankind. I got Claude to do my shopping I didn't trust it with my money Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek | Manu Padilla/Shutterstock A lot of people are using Computer Use for coding tasks, but I wanted to try it out on more general tasks. I decided to see if Claude could help with some shopping. I asked Claude to search Amazon to find all the components I'd need to build a local voice assistant for Home Assistant. I asked it to look at review scores and to check reviews, if necessary, to ensure that the products it was selecting were suitable for the project. I told Claude to add all the products it chose to the basket, but didn't sign into my Amazon account in case Claude suddenly decided to spend thousands of dollars on tech. Claude immediately got to work. I was asked to grant permission to read and make edits on the Amazon website, and then I watched in real-time as it started to search for a Raspberry Pi. It found a Raspberry Pi, but then stopped the process to ask me if I wanted a basic USB mic and speaker, or a more capable ReSpeaker HAT. I answered the questions, and Claude carried on, adding the Raspberry Pi to my basket by clicking the appropriate buttons exactly as I would have done myself. Computer Use isn't fast It's a dull watch The biggest takeaway as I sat and watched my computer working by itself was that it was incredibly slow. This isn't like in sci-fi where the robot picks up the book, flicks the pages for a second, and has read the entire thing. The whole process was far slower than if I'd been doing it by hand. Speed isn't really the point, however. Computer Use lets you hand off jobs so that you don't have to do them yourself, and you can go and get on with other things. I would say it took around 15 minutes for Claude to find the products and add everything to the basket. The final result was pretty impressive. It had added everything I needed to the basket, and when I took a look at the choices, they all had reasonable review scores and would have been fit for purpose. Claude did stop to ask me for confirmation on specific points now and then, but the questions it asked were all reasonable. Another frustration was that I kept hitting the tool call limit for the session. I only needed to click the Continue button for Claude to carry on, but it stops this from being something you can start and leave unattended to run through to completion, which would make it far more useful. Honestly, I could have done the same job much quicker myself. Being able to just ask Claude to find some products and add them to my basket is genuinely useful, however, although I still don't trust it enough to let it actually click the buy button. Claude can handle repetitive tasks It just does them very slowly The next thing I tried was an app that I can't directly control through any API or MCP. The Draw Things app is an image generation tool that you can use to generate images locally without having to upload your face to OpenAI when you want to put yourself in a Studio Ghibli movie. I wanted to see if I could use Claude to iterate on a prompt until it matched a complicated yoga pose. I asked Claude to keep generating images and iterating on the prompt until it got something that matched.
Reported result
Claude successfully added suitable products to the Amazon basket in approximately 15 minutes, though the process was slower than manual execution. For image generation, it required eight iterations to achieve the correct yoga pose. However, the agent unexpectedly attempted to export images, revealing contact names in the system share sheet, indicating a privacy risk.
Human role
The original post does not say how a person stayed involved.
Limitations
Computer Use is currently in research preview for Pro/Max users on macOS only. Performance is slow, often hitting session tool call limits that require manual intervention. There are significant security risks, including potential exposure of personal data via system dialogs and lack of trust for financial transactions. The feature is not suitable for unattended execution.
Try it
Act as a cautious automation assistant using Claude Computer Use on macOS. My goal is to [replaceable: e.g., find specific tech components on Amazon or iterate on local image generation prompts]. 1. **Setup**: Ensure Computer Use is enabled in Settings > General. Grant necessary accessibility and screen recording permissions. 2. **Safety Check**: Do NOT log into any accounts or enter payment details. I will handle authentication manually. 3. **Task Execution**: - For shopping: Search for [replaceable: product list]. Check review scores. Add items to the cart. Stop and ask me if there are ambiguous choices (e.g., specific hardware variants). - For creative tasks: Use [replaceable: app name] to generate [replaceable: target output]. Iterate on prompts until the result matches [replaceable: criteria]. 4. **Monitoring**: Watch the screen. If the agent hits a tool limit, I will click 'Continue'. If the agent attempts to open system dialogs (like Share or Save), immediately pause and verify no sensitive data is exposed. 5. **Verification**: Before finishing, show me the final state (e.g., cart contents or generated image) for my approval. If inputs are missing, ask for clarification. Do not proceed with any action that spends money or sends data externally without explicit confirmation.
Source reports are not independently verified. Publication date is the catalog publication date, not the original article date.