Mobdev
Mac app that lets AI agents drive iPhones, iOS simulators and Android: tap, type, install, logs.
Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.
What it does
- Reads
- Writes
- High impact
Not assessed yet.
What it costs
FreeOdel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.
Runs locally
This server runs on your machine over stdio, but its source registry didn't list a distribution package. Check the source repository for setup instructions.
Mobile development, all in one app. Free and open source.
Mobdev is a small native Mac app that puts your iPhones, iOS simulators and Android devices in one list and gives you and your AI agent everything to work with them. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client get the same 47 tools on every device, and scripts get them on the command line.
| AI control | Screenshots, taps, swipes, typing, opening apps, tapping visible text (on-device OCR); the UI tree and tapping by accessibility identifier on simulators, Android and Developer Mode iPhones. observe lists the screen as numbered marks to tap; agents scroll until something shows and wait until the screen settles instead of guessing |
| Device state | Location and routes, permissions, push notifications, dark mode and text size, language, a clean status bar, Face ID, an app's data, the clipboard and orientation, set by a tool instead of in Settings (simulators and Android, some on iPhones) |
| Build and run | Install builds, launch apps with arguments and environment, open deep links, by agent or in the app's Apps area |
| Debug | Logs and crash reports of the apps you launch, screen recordings on demand; Diagnose checks and fixes an iPhone's connection |
| Tests and flows | A project folder with your app's tests: agents write and run them, the app shows the results, CI runs them with Mobdev test or the GitHub Action, with JUnit output and a Markdown summary for the job and the pull request. Record what you or an agent do and replay it as a flow |
| Command line | Mobdev <tool> key=value runs any tool from a terminal or script, for agents without MCP |
| Test and research | Skills for the dev loop, smoke tests, bug reproduction, store screenshots, onboarding audits and competitor research |
| Guard rails | Agents cannot open or launch the apps you block, such as banking or mail |
| Live mirror | Click, swipe and type on any device from the Mac |
| Remote | Agents on other machines reach your devices through a hosted or self-hosted relay |
The iPhone needs nothing installed. Mobdev reads its screen over the USB cable and taps and types through Bluetooth, posing as a keyboard and pointer: no developer mode, no jailbreak, and every app works. Turn on Developer Mode only to install and debug your own builds, or for the UI tree. Booted simulators need Xcode, Android emulators and phones need adb. Keep building with Xcode, Gradle or XcodeBuildMCP; Mobdev takes over once there is a build.
iPhone ──USB screen──▶ Mobdev.app ◀── MCP / HTTP ── agents on this Mac
◀─Bluetooth HID─ │
└── WebSocket ──▶ relay ◀── agents anywhere (optional)
Repository
| Folder | What | Stack |
|---|---|---|
macos/ | The Mac app, MCP server, HTTP API and stdio bridge | SwiftUI, macOS 26+, Sparkle for updates |
relay/ | Self-hosted relay for remote access | Go, one binary or Docker image |
cloud/ | mobdev.sh: website, dashboard and hosted relay | TanStack Start, Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects, D1, WorkOS |
skills/ | Agent skills: dev loop, smoke tests, bug reproduction, store screenshots, onboarding audits, competitor research; with .claude-plugin/ also a Claude Code plugin | Markdown (SKILL.md) |
actions/test/ | GitHub Action that runs Mobdev tests and flows on a simulator | Composite action, Bash |
packaging/homebrew/ | Homebrew cask, for a tap that does not exist yet | Ruby |
Get started
Download Mobdev (signed, notarized, updates itself), or build it:
cd macos
MOBDEV_VARIANT=release scripts/build-app.sh
open build/Mobdev.app
Then plug in the iPhone, pair it over Bluetooth and turn on AssistiveTouch with Snap to Item off.
The app walks through it; details are in macos/README.md. Without an iPhone,
choose Simulators and Android Only on the welcome page.
Remote access is optional. Create an access token at mobdev.sh and click “Open in Mobdev”, or run your own relay.
Give your agent the workflows too. In Claude Code, the Mobdev plugin adds the MCP server and the skills in one go:
/plugin marketplace add niklas-schmidt-dev/mobdev
/plugin install mobdev@mobdev
Other agents get the skills with npx skills add niklas-schmidt-dev/mobdev and the MCP server as
shown in macos/README.md.
In GitHub Actions, uses: niklas-schmidt-dev/mobdev/actions/test@main runs your app's tests or a
flow on an iOS simulator and puts the results in the job summary; see
actions/test.
Homebrew (once the tap exists)
packaging/homebrew/mobdev.rb is a cask for a tap that does not
exist yet. To publish it, the maintainer creates the public repository
niklas-schmidt-dev/homebrew-tap, runs packaging/homebrew/update-cask.sh <version> after a
release (it downloads that release's DMG and fills in version and sha256), and commits the result
there as Casks/mobdev.rb. Then:
brew install --cask niklas-schmidt-dev/tap/mobdev
installs Mobdev.app into /Applications and a mobdev command. The app keeps updating itself
through Sparkle, so brew upgrade leaves it alone unless run with --greedy; the cask still
needs the script and a commit for each release to install the newest version.
Development
cd macos && swift test && scripts/build-app.sh # Mac app: builds "Mobdev Dev"
cd relay && go vet ./... && go test -race ./... # self-hosted relay
cd cloud && bun install && bun run typecheck && bun run test && bun run build
claude plugin validate . # Claude Code plugin and marketplace
shellcheck actions/test/action.sh packaging/homebrew/update-cask.sh # GitHub Action, cask script
The Swift tests build and start the Go relay to test remote access end to end. Everything runs
without an iPhone: a fake phone renders real text so OCR, tap_text and coordinates are covered.
Shipping
Every push to main ships what changed, through GitHub Actions:
| Change in | Workflow | Result |
|---|---|---|
cloud/ | cloud.yml | Tests, D1 migrations, deploy of mobdev.sh; relay.mobdev.sh only when the relay changed |
macos/ | macos.yml | Tests, universal build, Developer ID signature, notarization, DMG with a designed install window (macos/scripts/dmg-settings.py), GitHub release mac-v<version>. mobdev.sh/appcast.xml then offers it and installed apps update through Sparkle |
relay/ | relay.yml | Tests, ghcr.io/niklas-schmidt-dev/mobdev-relay for amd64 and arm64 |
The app version is macos/VERSION plus the workflow run number. The update window and the GitHub
release show what's new, collected from Release-Note: lines in the commit messages since the
previous release:
Release-Note: New: All Devices shows every iPhone connected to your Macs.
Start a note with New:, Improved: or Fixed:; commits without one are not listed. Repository secrets:
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN, CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID, DEVELOPER_ID_P12, DEVELOPER_ID_P12_PASSWORD,
APPLE_API_KEY (base64 .p8), APPLE_API_KEY_ID, APPLE_API_ISSUER_ID, SPARKLE_PRIVATE_KEY.
The Sparkle key's backup is the "mobdev" item in the maintainer's keychain; losing it means
installed apps can no longer be updated.
Status
Early release. Verified on hardware: USB screen capture, Bluetooth pairing, MCP, OCR and remote access through both relays, taps, swipes and scrolling with AssistiveTouch, and typing with the German layout, on iOS 27. Several iPhones on one Mac each get their own Bluetooth connection, which has not been tried with two iPhones at once yet. Every tool is verified on an iOS 27 simulator (Xcode 27) and an Android 16 emulator; Android phones use the same adb path but have not been tried yet.
MIT licensed. Independent project; not affiliated with Apple, TapKit or MobAI.
