Computer use goes GA, and a new browser tool ships alongside it
In brief
On August 19, 2026, Anthropic moved computer use to general availability as computer_toolset_20260801 and launched browser use as a separate client toolset. The Skills API and Files API went GA the same day. Here is what changed in the request shape, when to pick browser over computer, and what to check before you migrate.
Contents
On August 19, 2026, four things went generally available on the Claude API at once: the computer use tool, a new browser use tool, Agent Skills and the Skills API, and the Files API. All four drop their beta headers.
This is the largest single change to agent tooling since Managed Agents launched, and it changes the request shape for anyone already running computer use in beta.
Computer use: what changed
Computer use is now computer_toolset_20260801. No beta header required.
Three substantive changes beyond the GA label:
Batch actions. A turn can now carry several actions instead of one. Previously a click, a type, and a screenshot were three round trips through the model. Now they are one. For any multi-step interaction this is the difference between a workflow that feels usable and one that does not.
Zoom on by default. Previously opt-in. The model can inspect a region of the screen at higher resolution without you configuring it.
Per-member configuration through configs. Individual tools inside the toolset can be configured separately rather than the toolset being all-or-nothing.
Supported models: Claude Fable 5, Claude Mythos 5, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, and Claude Opus 4.8.
The migration is not a header removal
If you are on computer_20251124, upgrading changes both the request shape and how you handle tool results. Anthropic publishes a migration guide, and the earlier beta versions still work, so there is no forced deadline.
The thing to check before you migrate: your tool-result handling loop. Batch actions mean a single tool use block can now produce multiple results. Code written against the one-action-one-result assumption will silently drop results rather than error, which is the worst failure mode available. Test that path explicitly.
Browser use: the new one
browser_toolset_20260801 is a client toolset — the browser runs in your application, not on Anthropic's infrastructure. You host it, you drive it.
The difference from computer use is the level it operates at. Computer use looks at a screenshot of an entire desktop and clicks coordinates. Browser use works inside a browser viewport and reads the page itself: the accessibility tree, elements, forms, tabs.
That gives it capabilities screenshot-and-click cannot have:
- Element references — target an element by reference rather than by pixel coordinate
- Form input — set a field's value directly instead of clicking and typing
- Tab management — open, switch, and close tabs as first-class actions
- Download reporting — know that a download started and what it was
- Opt-in file upload
When to pick which
| Computer use | Browser use | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Whole desktop | One browser viewport |
| How it sees | Screenshots | Accessibility tree + screenshots |
| Targeting | Pixel coordinates | Element references |
| Hosting | Your VM/container | Your application's browser |
| Best for | Desktop apps, OS-level work, anything not a web page | Web apps, forms, scraping, multi-tab flows |
The practical rule: if the work happens entirely in a web page, use browser use. It is more reliable, because an element reference does not break when a layout shifts by four pixels and a coordinate does. Reach for computer use when you need the desktop — a native application, a file manager, an installer.
Most agent work people describe as "computer use" is actually browser work, and has been badly served by pixel-coordinate targeting the whole time.
Skills API GA
Agent Skills and the Skills API (/v1/skills) are generally available. No more skills-2025-10-02 beta header, including on Messages API requests that load Skills through the container parameter. Requests still sending the header keep working unchanged.
A Skill is a packaged set of instructions — a markdown file plus optional supporting files — that Claude applies automatically when a task matches. This is the mechanism most teams should be using to encode company-specific procedure, and GA means it is now safe to build a dependency on it. See building AI Skills for your team for the organisational side, and be honest with yourself about the skills graveyard problem before you write forty of them.
Related, from August 7: Managed Agents sessions can now load Skills directly from a GitHub repository. When a session mounts a repo, anything in its root .claude/skills directory is discovered at session start. That closes the loop between where Skills are versioned and where they run.
Files API GA
The Files API is GA. /v1/files endpoints and Messages API requests referencing an uploaded file no longer need files-api-2025-04-14.
Two changes arrive with the GA response format, and both matter operationally:
File expiration. Set expires_in_seconds at upload; file objects report expires_at. If you have been uploading files and never cleaning them up — which is most people — this is the mechanism that stops your file store growing without bound. Set it at upload rather than building a reaper job.
Pagination and filtering. Listing files now supports page and next_page, plus an ids[] filter.
Requests that still send the beta header keep the previous response format. That is a compatibility guarantee and also a trap: if half your codebase sends the header and half does not, you are parsing two response shapes. Pick one and migrate the whole surface.
What to do this week
- Do not rush the computer use migration. Beta versions still work. Migrate deliberately, and test batch-action result handling before you ship.
- Evaluate browser use for anything web-based you currently do with computer use. Element references over pixel coordinates is a reliability upgrade, not a lateral move.
- Drop the Skills and Files beta headers in one pass rather than incrementally, so you are not handling two response formats.
- Set
expires_in_secondson every file upload from now on. - Re-run your eval suite after each of the above. GA transitions change response shapes, and a suite that has not been audited will not catch a shape change — it will just start passing things it should not.
The wider picture
Four GA transitions in one day is a platform saying its agent surface has stopped moving. Computer use has been in beta since October 2024. Skills since October 2025. The Files API since April 2025.
For anyone building production agents, the useful signal is not the features — it is the stability commitment. You can now build on these without a beta header telling you the shape might change. That is the precondition for the kind of system a Forward Deployed Engineer can hand to a client and walk away from.
Related: MCP in production agents · Managed Agents · monitoring your Claude app