Mobile MCP

What is Mobile-mcp?

Mobile-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that facilitates mobile automation, app scraping, and development. It provides a platform-agnostic interface, allowing interaction with native iOS/Android applications and devices without requiring distinct iOS or Android knowledge. It can be used with emulators, simulators, and physical devices.

How to Use Mobile-mcp?

Mobile-mcp can be integrated with various AI assistants and clients like Cline, Cursor, Claude, VS Code, and Github Copilot. After adding the MCP server, you can instruct your AI assistant to use the available tools. For example, in Cursor's agent mode, you can use descriptive prompts to validate, test, and iterate on UI interactions, read information from the screen, and execute complex workflows.

Installation and Configuration: To set up Mobile-mcp, you need to configure it within your MCP settings file (for Cline) or use commands like claude mcp add mobile -- npx -y @mobilenext/mobile-mcp@latest for Claude Code.

Prerequisites:

Xcode command line tools
Android Platform Tools
Node.js v22+
MCP supported foundational models or agents (e.g., Claude MCP, OpenAI Agent SDK, Copilot Studio)

Running in Headless Mode: Mobile-mcp can be run with an emulator or simulator in the background when a physical phone is not connected. For Android, start an emulator and then run Mobile-mcp. For iOS, boot the simulator using xcrun simctl boot "iPhone 16" before running Mobile-mcp.

Key Features of Mobile-mcp

Fast and lightweight: Utilizes native accessibility trees for interactions, with fallback to screenshot-based coordinates when accessibility labels are unavailable.
LLM-friendly: Does not require a computer vision model in Accessibility (Snapshot).
Visual Sense: Evaluates and analyzes on-screen content to determine the next action, falling back to screenshot-based analysis if structured data is absent.
Deterministic tool application: Reduces ambiguity by prioritizing structured data over purely screenshot-based approaches.
Extract structured data: Enables extraction of structured data from any visible content on the screen.

Use Cases of Mobile-mcp

Native app automation: For testing or data-entry scenarios on iOS and Android.
Scripted flows and form interactions: Automating tasks without manual control of simulators/emulators or physical devices.
Automating multi-step user journeys: Driven by an LLM.
General-purpose mobile application interaction: For agent-based frameworks.
Agent-to-agent communication: For mobile automation and data extraction.

Example Prompts for Workflows:

Searching for a video, commenting, liking, and sharing it.
Downloading an app, registering, setting up a workout, and rating the app.
Searching in Substack, reading, highlighting, commenting, and saving an article.
Reserving a workout class and setting a timer.
Finding a local event and setting up a calendar event.
Checking weather forecast and sending a message via WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack.
Scheduling a meeting in Zoom and sharing the invite via email.

FAQ about Mobile-mcp

Q: What devices does Mobile-mcp support? A: Mobile-mcp supports iOS and Android physical devices, simulators, and emulators.

Q: What are the core components of Mobile-mcp's architecture? A: Mobile-mcp's architecture involves interaction with mobile devices, agents, and LLMs, leveraging accessibility snapshots and coordinate-based taps.

Q: Where can I find more detailed information and setup guides? A: More details, setup, configuration, and debugging related questions can be found on the Mobile-mcp wiki page.

Mobile Next - MCP server for Mobile Development and Automation | iOS, Android, Simulator, Emulator, and physical 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 physical 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.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c4e89c4f-cc71-4424-8184-bdbc8c638fa1

🚀 Mobile MCP Roadmap: Building the Future of Mobile

Join us on our journey as we continuously enhance Mobile MCP! Check out our detailed roadmap to see upcoming features, improvements, and milestones. Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the future of mobile automation.

👉 Explore the Roadmap

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 physical 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

🚀 Fast and lightweight: Uses native accessibility trees for most interactions, or screenshot based coordinates where a11y labels are not available.
🤖 LLM-friendly: No computer vision model required in Accessibility (Snapshot).
🧿 Visual Sense: Evaluates and analyses what’s actually rendered on screen to decide the next action. If accessibility data or view-hierarchy coordinates are unavailable, it falls back to screenshot-based analysis.
📊 Deterministic tool application: Reduces ambiguity found in purely screenshot-based approaches by relying on structured data whenever possible.
📺 Extract structured data: Enables you to extract structred data from anything visible on screen.

🏗️ Mobile MCP Architecture

📚 Wiki page

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

Installation and configuration

Setup our MCP with Cline, Cursor, Claude, VS Code, Github Copilot:

{
  "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:

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

🛠️ 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 intereactions, read information from screen, go through complex workflows. Be descriptive, straight to the point.

✨ Example Prompts

Workflows

You can specifiy 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.

Prerequisites

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

Xcode command line tools
Android Platform Tools
node.js v22+
MCP supported foundational models or agents, like Claude MCP, OpenAI Agent SDK, Copilot Studio

Simulators, Emulators, and Physical Devices

When launched, Mobile MCP can connect to:

iOS Simulators on macOS/Linux
Android Emulators on Linux/Windows/macOS
Physical iOS or Android 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.

Running in "headless" mode on Simulators/Emulators

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

For example, on Android:

Start an emulator (avdmanager / emulator command).
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"

Mobile MCP Overview