MCEC

MCEC — the Model Context Environment Controller — is eyes, hands, and a safe front door for AI agents on Windows, and the same battle-tested remote control for home-automation systems it has always been.

It is a small, self-contained native Windows daemon that a computer-use model can mount, see through, and drive: capture a window as a PNG, read its UI Automation tree, find and wait for controls, launch apps, and actuate keyboard/mouse/window input, over the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The agent surface is opt-in and off by default; the 3.0 agent features are purely additive over the classic home-automation command surface (network and serial), which is unchanged.

Install with winget: winget install Kindel.mcec — see Install.

The chapters

• Install — install with winget or the signed installer; what gets installed where, running side-by-side copies, and disposable provisioned instances for agents.
• Configuration — everything you can configure: the Settings dialog (every tab), the mcec.settings file, the command table, and logging.
• Agent Safety — the security model: the opt-in gates, the global emergency-stop hotkey, and disposable isolated session provisioning.
• Environment Controller — the agent surface: the observation, targeting, and actuation tools, the structured result envelope, and the MCP / localhost-HTTP transports.
• Home Automation & Remote Control — the classic role: listen on TCP/IP or a serial port and translate remote commands into keystrokes, text, mouse, window messages, and app launches (Control4, iRule, Crestron, and others).

See also AGENTS.md for connect-time agent guidance and the dogfood recipe (MCEC driving MCEC).

Version history

• 3.0 (2026): Rebranded to the Model Context Environment Controller. Agent automation over MCP: observation (capture/query/record), targeting (find/wait-for), actuation (invoke/launch/drag/click), emergency stop, and isolated session provisioning; all opt-in and off by default.
• 2.x (2019): Major rework: robust client/server, User Activity Monitor (occupancy sensing), Commands Window with built-in test mode, per-monitor DPI support, config in %APPDATA%.
• 1.x (2004–2017): Born as “MCE Controller” for Windows Media Center HTPCs. Grew keyboard/mouse/window-message simulation, chars: with Unicode escapes, serial support, multi-client TCP, and the .commands extension file. Moved from SourceForge to CodePlex to GitHub.

See Releases for full release notes.