mobdev

# Mobdev

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 27 tools on every device.

| | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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; Diagnose checks and fixes an iPhone's connection |
| Flows | Record what you or an agent do, replay it from the app, an agent or CI (`Mobdev flow`) |
| Test and research | [Skills](skills/README.md) for the dev loop, smoke tests, onboarding audits and competitor research |
| 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/`](macos/README.md) | The Mac app, MCP server, HTTP API and stdio bridge | SwiftUI, macOS 26+, Sparkle for updates |
| [`relay/`](relay/README.md) | Self-hosted relay for remote access | Go, one binary or Docker image |
| [`cloud/`](cloud/README.md) | mobdev.sh: website, dashboard and hosted relay | TanStack Start, Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects, D1, WorkOS |
| [`skills/`](skills/README.md) | Agent skills: dev loop, smoke tests, onboarding audits, competitor research | Markdown (`SKILL.md`) |

## Get started

[Download Mobdev](https://mobdev.sh/download) (signed, notarized, updates itself), or build it:

```sh
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`](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](https://mobdev.sh/dashboard) and
click “Open in Mobdev”, or run [your own relay](relay/README.md).

Give your agent the workflows too: `npx skills add niklas-schmidt-dev/mobdev` installs the
[skills](skills/README.md).

## Development

```sh
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
```

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.