OpenAI hands builders the Dots engine: Agents API enters public beta with computer use

OpenAI is opening up the engine that powers its Dots agents. At DevDay 2026 the company put its Agents API into public beta with computer-use support, giving outside developers the same managed harness Dots run on. Verified Sep 30, 2026.

#What happened

• The Agents API is in public beta. It offers hosted execution, memory, tools, and multi-agent support, and now adds computer use alongside tool search, tool calling, and context compaction.
• Computer use lets agents operate software through its UI via an OpenAI-hosted browser. Developers follow the session's events while the agent observes the interface and decides what to do next.
• OpenAI runs the Agents API harness and handles sessions, orchestration, context compaction, and recovery. For general API tasks developers can use an OpenAI sandbox, their own infrastructure, or a sandbox partner; the computer-use setup specifically requires an openai_hosted environment with desktop access enabled.
• All API developers can use the beta. Pro 500 and Enterprise users can also access Agents API computer use inside Codex and ChatGPT Work.
• The hosted browser asks the user to approve each new website origin before access.

#Why it matters

• This is the developer-facing counterpart to Dots: instead of using an always-on agent, builders can now ship their own agents on OpenAI's managed infrastructure without building the harness, memory, or recovery layers themselves.
• The pairing with Bedrock Managed Agents (announced the same day) means developers can run these agents entirely inside AWS, extending the same API to enterprise cloud environments.
• The caution is real: the beta's own guidance says origin approval alone does not confirm purchases or destructive changes, so developers must restrict what the hosted browser can reach.