Mobile Next - MCP server for Mobile Development and Automation | iOS, Android, Simulator, Emulator, and Real Devices

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables scalable mobile automation, development through a platform-agnostic interface, eliminating the need for distinct iOS or Android knowledge. You can run it on emulators, simulators, and real devices (iOS and Android). This server allows Agents and LLMs to interact with native iOS/Android applications and devices through structured accessibility snapshots or coordinate-based taps based on screenshots.

Works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Antigravity — or any MCP-compatible client.

mobile-next-mcp-video.mp4

Main use cases

How we help to scale mobile automation:

• 📲 Native app automation (iOS and Android) for testing or data-entry scenarios.
• 📝 Scripted flows and form interactions without manually controlling simulators/emulators or real devices (iPhone, Samsung, Google Pixel etc)
• 🧭 Automating multi-step user journeys driven by an LLM
• 👆 General-purpose mobile application interaction for agent-based frameworks
• 🤖 Enables agent-to-agent communication for mobile automation usecases, data extraction

Main Features

• 🚀 Accessibility-first — fast and cheap: drives apps from the native accessibility tree (no vision model, no image tokens), falling back to screenshots + coordinates only when needed.
• 📱 One API, every target: the same tools work across iOS and Android — simulators, emulators, and real devices.
• 🧠 No platform expertise required: no XCUITest, no Espresso, no per-platform glue — describe the goal and the agent does it.
• 🧰 Full device control: taps, swipes, and gestures; app install/launch/terminate; screen recording; hardware buttons; deep links; orientation.
• 📊 Structured, deterministic output: reads real UI elements and extracts structured data, cutting the ambiguity of screenshot-only approaches.

🎯 Platform Support

Target	Supported	Setup
iOS Simulator	✅	Xcode + a booted simulator (xcrun simctl)
iOS Real Device	✅	go-ios + WebDriverAgent + tunnel
Android Emulator	✅	Android SDK + running emulator (adb)
Android Real Device	✅	adb + USB debugging enabled & authorized

🔧 Available MCP Tools

Device Management

• mobile_list_available_devices - List all available devices (simulators, emulators, and real devices)
• mobile_get_screen_size - Get the screen size of the mobile device in pixels
• mobile_get_orientation - Get the current screen orientation of the device
• mobile_set_orientation - Change the screen orientation (portrait/landscape)

App Management

• mobile_list_apps - List all installed apps on the device
• mobile_launch_app - Launch an app using its package name
• mobile_terminate_app - Stop and terminate a running app
• mobile_install_app - Install an app from file (.apk, .ipa, .app, .zip)
• mobile_uninstall_app - Uninstall an app using bundle ID or package name

Screen Interaction

• mobile_take_screenshot - Take a screenshot to understand what's on screen
• mobile_save_screenshot - Save a screenshot to a file
• mobile_list_elements_on_screen - List UI elements with their coordinates and properties
• mobile_click_on_screen_at_coordinates - Click at specific x,y coordinates
• mobile_double_tap_on_screen - Double-tap at specific coordinates
• mobile_long_press_on_screen_at_coordinates - Long press at specific coordinates
• mobile_swipe_on_screen - Swipe in any direction (up, down, left, right)
• mobile_start_screen_recording - Start recording the device screen to a video file
• mobile_stop_screen_recording - Stop the active screen recording and save the video

Input & Navigation

• mobile_type_keys - Type text into focused elements with optional submit
• mobile_press_button - Press device buttons (HOME, BACK, VOLUME_UP/DOWN, ENTER, etc.)
• mobile_open_url - Open URLs in the device browser

Crash Reports

• mobile_list_crashes - List crash reports available on the device
• mobile_get_crash - Get the full content of a crash report by its ID

🏗️ Mobile MCP Architecture

📚 Wiki page

More details in our wiki page for setup, configuration and debugging related questions.

Prerequisites

What you will need to connect MCP with your agent and mobile devices:

• Xcode command line tools
• Android Platform Tools
• node.js v20+
• MCP supported foundational models or agents, like Claude MCP, OpenAI Agent SDK, Copilot Studio

For iOS real devices (simulators and Android don't need these), you'll also need go-ios, WebDriverAgent installed on the device, and an iOS device tunnel. See the wiki for setup.

Installation and configuration

Standard config works in most of the tools:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Amp

Add via the Amp VS Code extension settings screen or by updating your settings.json file:

"amp.mcpServers": {
  "mobile-mcp": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"
    ]
  }
}

Amp CLI:

Run the following command in your terminal:

amp mcp add mobile-mcp -- npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest

Antigravity 2

Antigravity doesn't have a CLI command to add MCP servers, so add it manually. Edit ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Cline

To setup Cline, just add the json above to your MCP settings file.

More in our wiki

Claude Code

Use the Claude Code CLI to add the Mobile MCP server:

claude mcp add mobile-mcp -- npx -y @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest

Claude Desktop

Follow the MCP install guide, use json configuration above.

Codex

Use the Codex CLI to add the Mobile MCP server:

codex mcp add mobile-mcp npx "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"

Alternatively, create or edit the configuration file ~/.codex/config.toml and add:

[mcp_servers.mobile-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"]

For more information, see the Codex MCP documentation.

Copilot

Use the Copilot CLI to interactively add the Mobile MCP server:

/mcp add

You can edit the configuration file ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": "npx",
      "tools": [
        "*"
      ],
      "args": [
        "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For more information, see the Copilot CLI documentation.

Cursor

Click the button to install:

Or install manually:

Go to Cursor Settings -> MCP -> Add new MCP Server. Name to your liking, use command type with the command npx -y @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest. You can also verify config or add command like arguments via clicking Edit.

Gemini CLI

Use the Gemini CLI to add the Mobile MCP server:

gemini mcp add mobile-mcp npx -y @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest

Goose

Click the button to install:

Or install manually:

Go to Advanced settings -> Extensions -> Add custom extension. Name to your liking, use type STDIO, and set the command to npx -y @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest. Click "Add Extension".

Kiro

Follow the MCP Servers documentation. For example in .kiro/settings/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

opencode

Follow the MCP Servers documentation. For example in ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Open Windsurf settings, navigate to MCP servers, and add a new server using the command type with:

npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest

Or add the standard config under mcpServers in your settings as shown above.

Read more in our wiki! 🚀

✅ Verify it works

Once the server is configured, ask your agent to list devices:

list available devices

You should get back your running simulators, emulators, and connected devices. If you do, Mobile MCP is wired up correctly. If the list is empty, make sure a simulator or emulator is running (see Prerequisites) — for more help, check the wiki.

SSE Server Mode

By default, Mobile MCP runs over stdio. To start an SSE server instead, use the --listen flag:

npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest --listen 3000

This binds to localhost:3000. To bind to a specific interface:

npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest --listen 0.0.0.0:3000

Then configure your MCP client to connect to http://<host>:3000/mcp.

Authorization

To require Bearer token authorization on the SSE server, set the MOBILEMCP_AUTH environment variable:

MOBILEMCP_AUTH=my-secret-token npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest --listen 3000

When set, all requests must include the header Authorization: Bearer my-secret-token.

🛠️ How to Use 📝

After adding the MCP server to your IDE/Client, you can instruct your AI assistant to use the available tools. For example, in Cursor's agent mode, you could use the prompts below to quickly validate, test and iterate on UI interactions, read information from screen, go through complex workflows. Be descriptive, straight to the point.

✨ Example Prompts

Workflows

You can specify detailed workflows in a single prompt, verify business logic, setup automations. You can go crazy:

Search for a video, comment, like and share it.

Find the video called " Beginner Recipe for Tonkotsu Ramen" by Way of
Ramen, click on like video, after liking write a comment " this was
delicious, will make it next Friday", share the video with the first
contact in your whatsapp list.

Download a successful step counter app, register, setup workout and 5-star the app

Find and Download a free "Pomodoro" app that has more than 1k stars.
Launch the app, register with my email, after registration find how to
start a pomodoro timer. When the pomodoro timer started, go back to the
app store and rate the app 5 stars, and leave a comment how useful the
app is.

Search in Substack, read, highlight, comment and save an article

Open Substack website, search for "Latest trends in AI automation 2025",
open the first article, highlight the section titled "Emerging AI trends",
and save article to reading list for later review, comment a random
paragraph summary.

Reserve a workout class, set timer

Open ClassPass, search for yoga classes tomorrow morning within 2 miles,
book the highest-rated class at 7 AM, confirm reservation,
setup a timer for the booked slot in the phone

Find a local event, setup calendar event

Open Eventbrite, search for AI startup meetup events happening this
weekend in "Austin, TX", select the most popular one, register and RSVP
yes to the event, setup a calendar event as a reminder.

Check weather forecast and send a Whatsapp/Telegram/Slack message

Open Weather app, check tomorrow's weather forecast for "Berlin", and
send the summary via Whatsapp/Telegram/Slack to contact "Lauren Trown",
thumbs up their response.

• Schedule a meeting in Zoom and share invite via email

Open Zoom app, schedule a meeting titled "AI Hackathon" for tomorrow at
10AM with a duration of 1 hour, copy the invitation link, and send it via
Gmail to contacts "team@example.com".

More prompt examples can be found here.

Running & configuration

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Example
MOBILEMCP_AUTH	Require a Bearer token on the SSE server — every request must then send Authorization: Bearer <token>.	MOBILEMCP_AUTH=my-secret-token
MOBILEMCP_DISABLE_TELEMETRY	Disable anonymous usage telemetry.	MOBILEMCP_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1
MOBILEMCP_ALLOW_UNSAFE_URLS	Allow mobile_open_url to open non-standard URL schemes (blocked by default).	MOBILEMCP_ALLOW_UNSAFE_URLS=1

Simulators, Emulators, and Real Devices

When launched, Mobile MCP can connect to:

• iOS Simulators on macOS/Linux
• Android Emulators on Linux/Windows/macOS
• iOS or Android real devices (requires proper platform tools and drivers)

Make sure you have your mobile platform SDKs (Xcode, Android SDK) installed and configured properly before running Mobile Next Mobile MCP.

Telemetry

Mobile MCP collects anonymous usage telemetry via PostHog. To disable it, set the MOBILEMCP_DISABLE_TELEMETRY environment variable:

MOBILEMCP_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 npx @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest

For json configurations:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobile-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MOBILEMCP_DISABLE_TELEMETRY": "1"
      }
    }
  }
}

Running in "headless" mode on Simulators/Emulators

When you do not have a real device connected to your machine, you can run Mobile MCP with an emulator or simulator in the background.

For example, on Android:

1. Start an emulator (avdmanager / emulator command).
2. Run Mobile MCP with the desired flags

On iOS, you'll need Xcode and to run the Simulator before using Mobile MCP with that simulator instance.

• xcrun simctl list
• xcrun simctl boot "iPhone 16"

🧩 Part of Mobile Next

Mobile MCP is one piece of a toolkit for driving real mobile devices:

• mobilewright — "Playwright for mobile." When you're ready to turn agent-driven exploration into repeatable, deterministic tests for iOS and Android, graduate to mobilewright.
• mobilecli — the universal device CLI that Mobile MCP is built on: control devices, simulators, and emulators from the command line or a JSON-RPC API.
• Mobile Next Cloud — run all of it against real iOS and Android devices in the cloud, on demand.

🚀 Roadmap

We're continuously improving Mobile MCP. See what we're building next in ROADMAP.md — priorities are shaped heavily by community feedback, so tell us what you'd like to see.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome — code, docs, bug reports, and ideas.

• ⭐ Star the repo — the easiest way to help others discover Mobile MCP.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md for how to build, test, and open a pull request.
• Browse open issues to find something to work on.
• Questions and ideas are also welcome in our Slack community.

Please also review our Code of Conduct.

Thanks to all contributors ❤️

We appreciate everyone who has helped improve this project.