AlexGladkov/claude-in-mobile

What is mcp-devices / claude‑in‑mobile?

A modular command‑line server that lets an Anthropic Claude‑based AI agent interact with real devices – Android phones, iOS devices, browsers, desktop apps, Flutter‑Aurora, and HarmonyOS – as if they were part of its “mind”.

The project used to be shipped as a single npm package called claude-in-mobile. Starting with version 4.0 the core was renamed mcp-devices and split into a thin base plus optional platform plugins. The original all‑in‑one package still exists for users who prefer a single install.

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How it works

1. Install the base server (npm i -g mcp-devices).
2. Add the platform(s) you need – e.g. npm i -g @mcp-devices/plugin-android and then enable it with mcp-devices install android.
3. Point your MCP‑compatible client (Claude’s “Mobile Control Protocol” client) at the server by adding a JSON entry:

   { "mcpServers": { "mobile": { "command": "mcp-devices" } } }
   

4. Ask Claude to perform actions such as “take a screenshot of my Android device”; the server forwards the request to the device via the appropriate tooling (ADB, Xcode, Chrome, etc.) and returns the result.

A native Rust CLI (mcp-devices-cli) is also provided for shell scripts, installed via Homebrew, to avoid name clashes with the npm command.

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What you can do with it

Capability	Example actions
Drive apps	Capture screenshots, simulate taps/swipes/typing, launch apps, query UI hierarchy, run shell commands, manage permissions, transfer files
Live debugging	Set breakpoints, step through code, inspect variables, evaluate expressions (Android JDWP, iOS LLDB) – provided by an optional debug plugin
Testing	Visual‑regression checks, accessibility audits, performance profiling, sensor or network condition simulation

The core ships with ~20 built‑in tool modules (e.g., screenshot, tap, UI‑tree) and the debug plugin adds deeper inspection capabilities.

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Installation options

Edition	When to choose it	Install command
claude-in-mobile (all‑in‑one)	Want zero configuration, everything bundled	npm i -g claude-in-mobile
mcp-devices (modular)	Want a slimmer footprint and only the platforms you actually use	npm i -g mcp-devices + platform plugins

Platform plugins are separate npm packages (@mcp-devices/plugin-android, @mcp-devices/plugin-ios, …). After installing a plugin you enable it with mcp-devices install <name>.

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Who might use this

• Developers building AI‑powered assistants that need to control a phone, tablet, or desktop as part of a workflow.
• QA engineers who want to script UI interactions on real devices via an LLM.
• Researchers exploring embodied AI agents that can act on physical or simulated devices.

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Where to find more info

• Docs – a set of markdown files under docs/modules/ covering each platform, the built‑in tools, and the debug plugin.
• CLI help – mcp-devices --help (Node) or mcp-devices-cli --help (Rust).
• Health check – mcp-devices doctor validates that required external tools (ADB, Xcode, Chrome, etc.) are present.

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TL;DR

mcp-devices (formerly claude-in-mobile) is a Node‑based server that exposes a Mobile Control Protocol so Claude‑style LLM agents can drive real devices—take screenshots, tap, debug, test—through a set of optional platform plugins. Install the base, add the plugins you need, point your Claude client at it, and start issuing natural‑language commands to your hardware.