feat: expose OpenWork UI control MCP bridge

[benjaminshafii]

Summary

• Adds a provider-neutral window.__openworkControl action registry for semantic OpenWork UI state/action discovery.
• Registers domain-owned session/composer/status actions so external controllers can list sessions, open/rename/delete sessions, type/send/stop composer drafts, read transcript/latest messages, and navigate app surfaces.
• Adds the private localhost OpenWork UI bridge plus packages/openwork-ui-mcp so MCP clients can call ui_status, ui_snapshot, ui_list_actions, and ui_execute_action.

Scope

This PR intentionally excludes built-in Realtime, microphone permissions, Realtime server endpoints, and Feature Preview UI. Those are split into the follow-up draft PR.

Verification

• pnpm install --lockfile-only ✅
• pnpm install ✅
• node --check packages/openwork-ui-mcp/index.mjs ✅
• node --check apps/desktop/electron/main.mjs ✅
• pnpm --filter @openwork/app typecheck ✅

How to test

Package checks

git checkout feat/openwork-ui-control-mcp
cd packages/openwork-ui-mcp
npm install --ignore-scripts
node --check index.mjs
npm publish --dry-run --access public

Local Electron bridge

Launch OpenWork desktop locally, then confirm one discovery file exists:

ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.differentai.openwork/openwork-ui-control.json"
ls "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.differentai.openwork.dev/openwork-ui-control.json"

Test the bridge directly:

DISCOVERY="$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.differentai.openwork.dev/openwork-ui-control.json"
BASE_URL=$(jq -r .baseUrl "$DISCOVERY")
TOKEN=$(jq -r .token "$DISCOVERY")

curl "$BASE_URL/health"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$BASE_URL/snapshot"
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$BASE_URL/actions"
curl -X POST "$BASE_URL/execute" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"actionId":"composer.set_text","args":{"text":"Testing OpenWork UI MCP"}}'

Expected: /health returns ok: true, /actions includes actions like composer.set_text, composer.send, and session.list_sessions, and composer.set_text visibly updates the desktop composer. Unauthorized raw HTTP requests should return 401.

MCP client flow

From the repo root:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node packages/openwork-ui-mcp/index.mjs

In the inspector, call:

1. ui_status
2. ui_snapshot
3. ui_list_actions
4. ui_execute_action with:

{
  "actionId": "composer.set_text",
  "args": {
    "text": "Hello from MCP"
  }
}

Optionally send it with:

{
  "actionId": "composer.send"
}

A successful end-to-end pass means OpenWork desktop is running, MCP status is connected, snapshot shows route/actions, composer.set_text visibly updates the composer, and session.list_sessions returns sessions. Use the underscore MCP tool names (ui_snapshot, ui_list_actions, ui_execute_action).

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
openwork-app	Ready	Preview, Comment	May 4, 2026 8:07pm
openwork-den	Ready	Preview, Comment	May 4, 2026 8:07pm
openwork-den-worker-proxy	Ready	Preview, Comment	May 4, 2026 8:07pm
openwork-landing	Ready	Preview, Comment, Open in v0	May 4, 2026 8:07pm
openwork-share	Ready	Preview, Comment	May 4, 2026 8:07pm

[github-actions]

The following comment was made by an LLM, it may be inaccurate: