Prerequisites and API Setup

Before building Computer Use agents, you need to set up your development environment with the right tools and API access.

Required Software

Software	Version	Purpose
Python	3.10+	SDK and scripts
Docker	Latest	Sandboxed environment
Anthropic SDK	0.40+	API client

Getting Your API Key

1. Go to console.anthropic.com
2. Navigate to API Keys
3. Create a new key with a descriptive name
4. Store it securely (never commit to git)

# Set your API key as environment variable
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

Installing the Anthropic SDK

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install the SDK
pip install anthropic>=0.40.0

Verify Installation

from anthropic import Anthropic

client = Anthropic()

# Test API connection
response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
    max_tokens=100,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)

print(response.content[0].text)

Computer Use Beta Access

Computer Use requires the beta header:

response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
    max_tokens=4096,
    betas=["computer-use-2025-01-24"],
    # ... rest of parameters
)

Cost Considerations

Component	Cost Factor
Screenshots	Image tokens (varies by resolution)
Tool calls	Standard output tokens
Long sessions	Context window usage

Tip: Use 1024x768 resolution during development to minimize costs. Scale up for production.

Next, we'll set up Docker for a sandboxed development environment. :::