Mobdev

Mobdev for Mac

The Mobdev app: your iPhones, iOS simulators and Android devices in one window, for you and your AI agent. Free, open source, about 2 MB, no account.

Mobdev reads the iPhone screen over the USB cable, the way QuickTime does. With Developer Mode on the iPhone and Xcode on the Mac, it builds Mobdev Runner, a small UI test, and keeps it running on the iPhone: the runner taps, swipes, types any text, presses keys and buttons and reads the UI tree, over the same cable. iPhones without Developer Mode are driven over Bluetooth instead, with the Mac posing as a keyboard and pointer; nothing is installed on them. Booted simulators and Android devices take the same tools. Agents get an MCP server and a small HTTP API. An optional relay lets agents elsewhere reach the devices.

              USB cable: screen frames (like QuickTime)

┌─────────┐ ◀──────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────────┐ │ Mac │ │ iPhone │ │ Mobdev │ ────────────────────────────────────────────────▶ │ │ │ │ Developer Mode: Mobdev Runner over the cable │ │ │ │ (XCUITest: taps, swipes, keys, text, UI tree) │ │ │ │ ────────────────────────────────────────────────▶ │ │ └─────────┘ without it: Bluetooth LE keyboard + pointer └────────┘ ▲ ▲ (AssistiveTouch turns the pointer into taps) │ └── MCP / HTTP on 127.0.0.1 │ └── optional outgoing connection to a relay (see ../relay)

Requirements

• A Mac running macOS 26 or later (the interface uses Liquid Glass). Developed on macOS 27 with Swift 6.4.
• An iPhone and a USB data cable. Charge-only cables give power and no picture.
• To control the iPhone: Developer Mode on it and Xcode on the Mac, signed in with an Apple Account (a free one works). Without Developer Mode: Bluetooth LE on the Mac and AssistiveTouch on the iPhone.
• To build: Xcode 26 or later (Swift 6.2+, macOS 26 SDK).

Build and run

cd macos

MOBDEV_VARIANT=release scripts/build-app.sh # builds build/Mobdev.app (ad hoc signature) open build/Mobdev.app # allow Camera (and Bluetooth without Developer Mode) when macOS asks

macOS treats the iPhone screen like a camera, hence the Camera prompt. To sign with a certificate, set CODESIGN_IDENTITY; UNIVERSAL=1 builds for Apple silicon and Intel. With an ad hoc signature macOS may ask for the permissions again after each rebuild.

Without MOBDEV_VARIANT=release the script builds Mobdev Dev (build/Mobdev Dev.app) for development. It is a separate app that runs next to an installed Mobdev without changing it: bundle ID dev.mobdev.mac.dev, its own settings and secrets in ~/Library/Application Support/dev.mobdev.mac.dev, port 4687, the mobdev-dev:// URL scheme (so dashboard links keep opening the installed app), the MCP name mobdev-dev, an amber icon and no automatic updates. Both apps share the Mac's Bluetooth, and each starts its own Mobdev Runner on an iPhone in Developer Mode, so quit one before testing input on an iPhone.

Set up the iPhone (once)

On first launch a setup assistant walks through these steps and checks each off as soon as the Mac detects it. It asks for camera access on the page that explains it, and for Bluetooth access only on the way without Developer Mode. Open it again with Mobdev › Set Up iPhone…. Without an iPhone, choose Simulators and Android Only on the welcome page: nothing asks for camera or Bluetooth access until you set one up.

1. Plug it in, unlock it and tap Trust. If the Mac asks to allow the accessory, click Allow. The screen appears in Mobdev.
2. Turn on Developer Mode: Settings › Privacy & Security › Developer Mode, tap Restart, and after the restart tap Turn On and enter the passcode. The switch appears once the iPhone was connected to Xcode (Window › Devices and Simulators). Mobdev reads it from Xcode's device list.
3. Sign in to Xcode with your Apple Account (Xcode › Settings › Apple Accounts; a free account works). Mobdev picks the newest team of the Apple Development certificates in your keychain.
4. Mobdev builds Mobdev Runner and starts it on the iPhone by itself (see Developer Mode control on iPhones); the first build takes a minute or two. If iOS asks, turn on Settings › Developer › Enable UI Automation. With a free account, trust your developer certificate once: Settings › General › VPN & Device Management.
5. Set Auto-Lock to Never while agents work. The phone must stay unlocked.

Without Developer Mode

Choose Without Developer Mode in the setup assistant. Mobdev then taps and types through Bluetooth, posing as a keyboard and pointer, and installs nothing on the iPhone. The same way serves an iPhone whose Developer Mode Control is turned off, and, when the iPhone is paired, stands in while Mobdev Runner is still starting.

1. On the iPhone open Settings > Bluetooth and tap this Mac under Other Devices to pair. iOS lists it by the Mac's name (System Settings › General › Sharing), not as “Mobdev”. An iPhone on the same Apple Account can miss the Mac, because it already knows it from Handoff and trusts the Bluetooth services it cached. Until an iPhone pairs, Mobdev rebuilds its Bluetooth services after 8 seconds and then at doubling intervals up to every 2 minutes, which makes iOS look again. Show on iPhone Again in the setup does it right away.
2. Turn on Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch. iOS then shows a pointer and turns clicks into taps. On the same page turn off Snap to Item and keep Perform Touch Gestures on. With Snap to Item on, iOS moves the pointer onto the nearest item and every swipe becomes a tap on it. Mobdev checks this without clicking before the first swipe and after a drag in the mirror, shows the result as Pointer in the device panel and in status, and swipe refuses while the pointer snaps.
3. In Mobdev pick the keyboard layout that matches Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard on the iPhone (U.S. or German).

iOS hides its on-screen keyboard while a Bluetooth keyboard is connected, with or without the cable. After five minutes without input Mobdev lets go of Bluetooth, so the iPhone shows its own keyboard again; the next tap or key from Mobdev connects again within a few seconds (MOBDEV_BLUETOOTH_REST_SECONDS changes the five minutes). For ten minutes after an iPhone or iPad is plugged in without pairing, Mobdev stays connected so that it can still pair; Show on iPhone Again connects again after that. Moving the mouse over the mirror connects right away and keeps Bluetooth awake, so the first click goes through without delay. Until the iPhone has connected all of its inputs again, Mobdev refuses input rather than send a click without the pointer move before it.

The mirror in the app is live: click to tap, drag to swipe, swipe with two fingers on the trackpad (sideways too), scroll with the wheel (a sideways wheel or Shift scrolls sideways), and type while it has focus. Over Bluetooth the pointer follows the mouse as it moves; through Mobdev Runner each tap, swipe and scroll goes out when the button or the fingers lift, and typing in short bursts. ⌘V types the Mac clipboard on the phone. The inspector on the right shows what is still missing, Activity lists every agent action, and Settings (⌘,) holds the keyboard layout and API token.

• Apps (in the inspector) lists the apps installed for development, or all of them. Drop an .app, .ipa or .apk on it to install; launch, stop and remove apps; follow an app's console live, open its crash reports and try deep links. It uses the same tools as agents, so it needs Developer Mode and Xcode for an iPhone, and nothing for simulators and Android.
• Diagnose… (under the setup steps and in the device info) checks the cable, the picture, the iPhone's USB screen interface, macOS's screen capture helper, Developer Mode, Mobdev Runner, Bluetooth and AssistiveTouch, and offers the fix for each, such as restarting a stuck capture helper or building the runner again. Bluetooth and AssistiveTouch count only without the runner.
• Projects (at the top of the sidebar) hold an app's tests, flows, screenshots, map, recordings and runs in a folder of its repository; see Projects.
• App Store Connect (in the sidebar, after a key in Settings) shows your apps' builds, TestFlight groups, versions and reviews; see App Store Connect.
• Record and Run Flow… (in the activity header) record and replay flows; see below.
• Inspect (in the toolbar) lays an inspector over the screen: the element under the pointer is outlined with its role, label and identifier, and a click copies the step that taps it, such as {"tap_element":{"id":"login"}}, instead of tapping the device. Simulators, Android, and iPhones with Mobdev Runner.
• Settings › Agents lists apps agents may not open; see Security and privacy.

Connect an agent

The app shows ready-to-copy configurations with the right paths. The stdio variants need no token: Mobdev mcp reads it locally and starts the app in the background if needed. It reaches the app over a Unix socket in the app's data directory rather than the TCP port, so another user on the Mac cannot pose as the app and collect the token.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user mobdev -- /Applications/Mobdev.app/Contents/MacOS/Mobdev mcp

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.mobdev]

command = "/Applications/Mobdev.app/Contents/MacOS/Mobdev" args = ["mcp"]

Claude Desktop, Cursor and other clients:

{ "mcpServers": { "mobdev": { "command": "/Applications/Mobdev.app/Contents/MacOS/Mobdev", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

Clients that speak Streamable HTTP can also use http://127.0.0.1:4686/mcp with Authorization: Bearer (copy it in the app). The server supports MCP 2026-07-28 and the earlier initialize-based versions from 2024-11-05 to 2025-11-25.

Tools

Coordinates are pixels of the image screenshot returns (long edge 1280 px, origin top-left). Actions return a fresh screenshot over MCP unless screenshot is false. With more than one device, pass device (an id or name from list_devices) to pick one. Without it, Mobdev uses the only device, or the connected iPhone when simulators or Android devices run next to it.

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