> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://sila-5fef7b7c.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Its computer

> Every AI Contact has its own computer. Watch it work, take control, sign it in to sites, and give it logins and secrets.

Every Sila-hosted AI Contact runs on its own cloud computer with a terminal, a code editor, files, and a Chrome browser. That is how it can do anything you can do on a computer: run code, browse the web, fill in forms, and produce files.

## Watch it work

Each run shows a small closed laptop in the AI Contact's latest message. Choose **Open** to see its screen right in the conversation: the command it's running and its output, a file it's editing, the web page it's on, or a file it produced. **Close** puts it away. An AI Contact can also open its computer on its own to show you a result, like a passing test run or a site running locally.

## Take control

Hover the open laptop and choose **Take control** to click and type directly on the AI Contact's screen while it waits. When you're done, choose **Give control back to the AI Contact**.

When an AI Contact reaches a sign-in page, a two-factor prompt, or a CAPTCHA, it asks you to take over. The laptop opens with **You're in control**:

1. Sign in or solve the step on its screen.
2. Press **Done**, or just say so in the chat. Press **Skip** if you'd rather it continue without.

The AI Contact picks up where you left off. Sign-ins stay on its computer for future runs, and it remembers the steps you took so it can repeat them next time.

## Logins and environment variables

Open the AI Contact's editor and go to **Logins**.

**Environment Variables** are injected into the AI Contact's computer as a `.env` file at the start of every run, so it can install, build, and run your project like a developer would. Add a `NAME` and value with **Add variable**, or paste a whole `.env` file into the value field to import everything at once.

**App Logins** are accounts it can use to sign in to apps on your behalf: a **Login URL**, **Username or email**, and **Password**, up to 10 per AI Contact. Where possible, use dedicated accounts rather than personal ones. Sites you've signed into on its computer appear under **Signed in on its computer**.

Both are encrypted at rest and write-only: once saved, a value can be replaced or deleted but never viewed again, and values are redacted from the AI Contact's messages and run history. AI Contacts can also ask for these in the chat when they need them. External AI Contacts never receive workspace secrets.

<Note>[Outside AI Contacts](/app/integrations/bring-your-agents) such as your own Claude Code or Cursor run on their own machines, so they have no Sila computer.</Note>