​
Overview

Skylight instances are designed for programmatic control, meaning you don’t need a physical mouse or keyboard to operate the desktop. To enable this, the Interactions API provides a variety of endpoints for performing actions on the virtual machine. The API can be used for manual Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or integrated into computer-use agents (for more information, see Agents).

​
Available Operations

​
screenshot

Take a screenshot of the virtual desktop.

# Take a screenshot 
screenshot = skylight.interact.screenshot(instance_id="<id>").image
# Returns a base64 encoded image that can be saved or processed

screenshot returns a JSON with an ‘image’ key. The value is a Base64-encoded JPEG image of the instance screenshot (1366x768).

​
click

Perform a click operation at specified coordinates or current position.

InputTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
xinteger | nullNonullX coordinate to click at
yinteger | nullNonullY coordinate to click at
buttonenumNo"left"Mouse button to use ("left", "right", "middle")
clicksintegerNo1Number of clicks (range: 1-10)
intervalnumber | nullNo0Time between clicks in seconds (range: 0-1)
# Simple left click at coordinates
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=400)

# Right click
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=400, button="right")

# Middle click
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", button="middle")

# Double click
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=400, clicks=2)

# Click at current position (no x,y specified)
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>")

# Click with 0.5 second interval between clicks
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=400, clicks=2, interval=0.5)

click returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
move

Move the mouse to the specified coordinates.

InputTypeRequiredDescription
xintegerYesX coordinate to move to
yintegerYesY coordinate to move to
# Move mouse to coordinates
skylight.interact.move(instance_id="<id>", x=100, y=200)

move returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
drag

Perform a drag operation along a path of coordinates.

InputTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
pathobject[]Yes-List of points to drag through, each with x and y coordinates
buttonenumNo"left"Mouse button to use ("left", "right", "middle")
stepinteger | nullNonullStep size for drag movements (range: 1-100)
# Drag from one point to another
skylight.interact.drag(instance_id="<id>", path=[
    {"x": 100, "y": 200},
    {"x": 300, "y": 400}
])

# Specify step size for more granular movement
skylight.interact.drag(instance_id="<id>", path=[
    {"x": 100, "y": 200},
    {"x": 300, "y": 400}
], step=10)

# Use a different mouse button
skylight.interact.drag(instance_id="<id>", path=[
    {"x": 100, "y": 200},
    {"x": 300, "y": 400}
], button="right")

drag returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
scroll

Scroll at the specified coordinates.

InputTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
xintegerYes-X coordinate to scroll at
yintegerYes-Y coordinate to scroll at
scroll_xintegerNo0Horizontal scroll amount
scroll_yintegerNo0Vertical scroll amount
stepinteger | nullNo-Step size for scroll movements (range: 1-100)
# Scroll down
skylight.interact.scroll(instance_id="<id>", x=400, y=300, scroll_y=100)

# Scroll up
skylight.interact.scroll(instance_id="<id>", x=400, y=300, scroll_y=-100)

# Scroll right
skylight.interact.scroll(instance_id="<id>", x=400, y=300, scroll_x=100)

# Scroll left
skylight.interact.scroll(instance_id="<id>", x=400, y=300, scroll_x=-100)

# Scroll with steps
skylight.interact.scroll(instance_id="<id>", x=400, y=300, scroll_y=100, step=5)

scroll returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
type

Type the specified text with optional delay between keystrokes.

InputTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
textstringYes-Text to type
intervalnumber | nullNo0.05Time between keystrokes in seconds (range: 0.01-0.5)
# Type text with default interval between keystrokes
skylight.interact.type(instance_id="<id>", text="Hello World")

# Type with custom interval between keystrokes (in seconds)
skylight.interact.type(instance_id="<id>", text="Hello World", interval=0.1)

type returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
keypress

Press the specified keys simultaneously.

InputTypeRequiredDescription
keysstring[]YesList of keys to press simultaneously
# Press Enter key
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["Enter"])

# Press Ctrl+C
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["ctrl", "c"])

# Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["ctrl", "alt", "delete"])

keypress returns a JSON with two keys: ‘status’ (e.g. “Success”) and ‘message’.

​
get_file

Get a URL to download the file.

# Get a file from the VM
download_url = skylight.interact.get_file(instance_id="<id>", request_body={"key": "/path/to/file.txt"})
# Returns a presigned URL to download the file

get_file returns a JSON with two keys: ‘download_url’ and ‘expires_in’.

​
install

Install additional software packages using the Chocolatey package manager. install takes in a list of Chocolatey package names to install. A complete list of available packages can be found at https://community.chocolatey.org/packages.

# Install packages
result = skylight.interact.install(instance_id="<id>", packages=["googlechrome", "vscode"])

The install endpoint returns a JSON with these properties:

PropertyDescriptionExample
statusStatus of the operation"success"
messageHuman-readable status message"Operation completed successfully"
stateState of the instance"running"
command_idCommand ID for tracking installation progress"cmd-123456" or null

​
Practical Examples

​
Open an application

# Move mouse to Start button and click
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=20, y=980)

# Type the application name
skylight.interact.type(instance_id="<id>", text="Word")

# Press Enter to launch
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["Enter"])

​
Drag and drop

# Drag a file to a new location
skylight.interact.drag(instance_id="<id>", path=[
    {"x": 200, "y": 300},  # Starting position (file location)
    {"x": 500, "y": 400}   # Ending position (destination)
])

​
Copy and paste

# Click to position cursor
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=400)

# Type some text
skylight.interact.type(instance_id="<id>", text="This is some sample text.")

# Select all text (Ctrl+A)
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["ctrl", "a"])

# Copy text (Ctrl+C)
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["ctrl", "c"])

# Click somewhere else
skylight.interact.click(instance_id="<id>", x=300, y=500)

# Paste text (Ctrl+V)
skylight.interact.keypress(instance_id="<id>", keys=["ctrl", "v"])

​
Downlad files

# Get a file from the VM
download_url = skylight.interact.get_file(instance_id="<id>", request_body={"key": "C:/Users/Administrator/Documents/example.txt"})

# Download the file using the URL
import requests
response = requests.get(download_url)
with open("example.txt", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)