Mobile Device MCP

Mobile Device MCP

An MCP server that lets AI agents control iOS and Android devices (tap, scroll, type, take screenshots, read UI trees, and run code). Works with multiple devices at the same time.

How It Works

Three-layer architecture:

1. On-device servers — Lightweight HTTP servers running on each mobile device (UIAutomator on Android, XCUITest on iOS) that expose the accessibility tree and accept interaction commands.
2. UI tree filter — Normalizes raw UI trees from both platforms into a unified flat element list.
3. MCP server — The external interface. Handles device discovery, bootstrapping, port allocation, and proxies requests to on-device servers.

Devices are bootstrapped on first use — the server installs the driver app, allocates a port, starts the on-device server, and polls until it's healthy. After that, all tool calls are proxied over localhost HTTP with per-device bearer token auth.

Tools

Tool	Description
list_devices	List available iOS and Android devices
screenshot	Capture the device screen (JPEG)
uitree	Get the UI element tree as a flat list, with optional search and limit. Off-screen elements are excluded unless include_invisible: true
tap	Tap at screen coordinates
double_tap	Double-tap at screen coordinates
long_press	Long-press at screen coordinates (configurable duration)
scroll	Swipe from start to end coordinates
type_text	Type text into the focused element
press_button	Press a hardware/navigation button (home, back, enter, volumeUp/Down, dpadUp/Down/Left/Right/Center)
launch_app	Launch an app by bundle ID / package name
terminate_app	Force-stop an app
list_apps	List installed apps
install_app	Install an app from a host-local file (.apk for Android, .app for iOS simulator, .app/.ipa for iOS device). Replaces existing installs
run_code	Execute sandboxed JavaScript on-device (see run_code below)

run_code

Agents can pass code that looks like UIAutomator or XCUITest, both being Javascript under the hood. The sandbox restricts (Android) potentially dangerous Java operations and only allows (iOS) some XCUITest-ish commands

• Android: Rhino engine with UIAutomator bindings — uiDevice (click, swipe, find elements, press keys, read display info), By (selectors), Until (wait conditions), console.log()
• iOS: JavaScriptCore with XCUITest bindings — app (query elements, tap, type, swipe), springboard, device, openApp(bundleId), sleep(ms), console.log()

Both platforms automatically kill runaway scripts (infinite loops) and create a fresh sandbox per call.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (for running via npx)
• Android: Android SDK with adb on PATH
• iOS Simulator: Xcode with xcrun, simctl
• iOS Real Device: Xcode with xcodebuild, devicectl, and iproxy (from libimobiledevice)
• Building from source: Bun runtime, Gradle (Android), Xcode (iOS)

Installation

Claude Code

claude mcp add mobile-device-mcp -- npx -y @srmorete/mobile-device-mcp@latest

Or with custom ports:

claude mcp add mobile-device-mcp -e MDMS_PORT_ANDROID=20000 -e MDMS_PORT_IOS=21000 -- npx -y @srmorete/mobile-device-mcp@latest

Modifying .mcp.json (Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-device-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@srmorete/mobile-device-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MDMS_PORT_ANDROID": "18000",           # optional
        "MDMS_PORT_IOS": "19000"                # optional
      }
    }
  }
}

Building from Source

git clone <repo-url>
cd mobile-device-mcp
bun install

# Build drivers for both platforms and pack tarball
./scripts/build.sh

The build script compiles the on-device drivers (Android APKs via Gradle, iOS test bundle via xcodebuild), copies them to drivers/, and creates an npm tarball.

To run locally during development:

bun run start           # Start the MCP server
bun test                # Run the test suite

Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
MDMS_PORT_ANDROID	18000	Base port for Android on-device servers
MDMS_PORT_IOS	19000	Base port for iOS on-device servers

Ports are assigned sequentially — first Android device gets 18000, second gets 18001, and so on. Same for iOS starting at 19000.

Acknowledgements

Mobile Device MCP server stands on the shoulders of giants such as mobile-mcp and Maestro. Used as inspiration but reframed the current approach to be multi-device and with seamless Native/WebView support (especially on Android).

License

MIT