Control any iOS device or simulator over a simple JSON-RPC API. Tap, swipe, stream video, inspect the UI, from any language, over localhost.

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
  • Starting the Server
  • JSON-RPC API
  • Streaming Endpoints
• Architecture
• Building
• Testing
• Communication
• License

• Interactive automation — Tap, swipe, long-press, type text, press hardware buttons (home, lock, volume)
• App control — Launch, terminate, and detect the foreground app by bundle ID
• Live screen visibility — MJPEG and H264 streaming at configurable FPS, bitrate, and quality
• UI inspection — Full accessibility tree dumps for element targeting
• Screenshots — PNG or JPEG capture with configurable quality
• System control — Get/set orientation, open URLs, query screen size and scale
• Broadcast audio/video — ReplayKit extension with H264 video and Opus audio over TCP
• Flexible transport — JSON-RPC 2.0 over WebSocket or HTTP, from any language

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mobile-next/devicekit-ios.git
cd devicekit-ios

# Build unsigned IPA for real devices
make ipa-unsigned

# Build XCUITest runner for simulators
make sim-zip

Once the server is running at 127.0.0.1:12004, make your first call:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:12004/rpc \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"device.screenshot","params":{},"id":1}'

Returns a base64-encoded PNG of the current screen.

DeviceKit runs as an XCUITest. Once installed and launched on a device or simulator, it starts a server on 127.0.0.1:12004.

Endpoints:

All methods follow the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification.

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "device.io.tap",
  "params": { "x": 100, "y": 200, "deviceId": "any" },
  "id": 1
}

GET /mjpeg?fps=10&quality=25&scale=100

GET /h264?fps=30&bitrate=4000000&quality=60&scale=50

The ReplayKit broadcast extension provides system-level screen and audio capture over TCP, independent of the JSON-RPC server.

Tests run against a live XCUITest server on a booted simulator. You need one simulator running — the test harness picks the first booted device automatically.

# Install test dependencies (one-time)
cd tests && npm install && cd ..

# Run tests with code coverage
make test-coverage

# View coverage report as HTML
make coverage-html

devicekit-ios/
  DeviceKit/                    # Host app (SwiftUI, triggers broadcast picker)
  DeviceKitTests/               # XCUITest runner (automation server)
    JSONRPC/                    #   JSON-RPC protocol + 15 method handlers
    Streamer/                   #   MJPEG and H264 HTTP streaming
    XCTest/                     #   Private API wrappers (touch synthesis, accessibility)
    H264Stream/                 #   Screenshot-based H264 streaming
  BroadcastUploadExtension/     # ReplayKit extension (H264 + Opus over TCP)
  h264-codec/                   # Swift package: H264 encoder (VideoToolbox)
  opus-codec/                   # Swift package: Opus encoder (wraps libopus)

• FlyingFox — Lightweight HTTP and WebSocket server
• libopus — Audio codec (vendored as C source in opus-codec/)

Questions, issues, or ideas? Open an issue — all feedback is welcome.

Want to contribute? PRs are appreciated. Check open issues for good first tasks.

DeviceKit iOS is released under the Apache 2.0 License. See LICENSE for details.