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

MCP Appium is an intelligent MCP (Model Context Protocol) server designed to empower AI assistants with a robust suite of tools for mobile automation. It streamlines mobile app testing by enabling natural language interactions, intelligent locator generation, and automated test creation for both Android and iOS platforms.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Configuration
• Available Tools
• Plugin API
• Client Support
• Usage Examples
• Contributing
• License

🚀 Features

• Cross-Platform Support: Automate tests for both Android (UiAutomator2) and iOS (XCUITest).
• AI-Powered Element Finding: Locate UI elements using natural language descriptions powered by vision models - no need for complex XPath or selectors.
• Intelligent Locator Generation: AI-powered element identification using priority-based strategies.
• Interactive Session Management: Easily create and manage sessions on local mobile devices.
• Smart Element Interactions: Perform actions like clicks, text input, screenshots, and element finding.
• Automated Test Generation: Generate Java/TestNG test code from natural language descriptions.
• Page Object Model Support: Utilize built-in templates that follow industry best practices.
• Flexible Configuration: Customize capabilities and settings for different environments.
• Multilingual Support: Use your native language - AI handles all interactions naturally in any language (English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.).

📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

System Requirements

• Node.js (v22 or higher)
• npm or yarn
• Java Development Kit (JDK) (8 or higher)
• Android SDK (for Android testing)
• Xcode (for iOS testing on macOS)

MCP Appium supports two driver modes:

• Embedded local drivers: when appium_session_management creates an android or ios session without remoteServerUrl, MCP Appium uses the bundled appium-uiautomator2-driver or appium-xcuitest-driver dependency directly. You still need the platform toolchains below, but you do not need to install a global Appium server or run appium driver install uiautomator2 / appium driver install xcuitest for this mode.
• Remote WebDriver/Appium server: when remoteServerUrl is provided to action=create or action=attach, MCP Appium uses the webdriver client to talk to that existing server. In this mode the remote server is responsible for its installed drivers, plugins, device access, and capability handling. Use this mode for platform=general; embedded local creation is available only for Android and iOS.

Mobile Testing Setup for embedded local drivers

Android

1. Install Android Studio and the Android SDK.
2. Set the ANDROID_HOME environment variable.
3. Add the Android SDK tools to your system's PATH.
4. Enable USB debugging on your Android device.
5. Install the Android platform tools/build tools and keep adb available on PATH.

iOS (macOS only)

1. Install Xcode from the App Store.
2. Install the Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install.
3. Install iOS simulators through Xcode.
4. For real device testing, enable Developer Mode on the device and sign in to your Apple ID in Xcode (Settings → Accounts). Use appium_prepare_ios_real_device to download and sign WebDriverAgent in a single call - it will guide you through provisioning profile selection and return capabilities for session startup.

🛠️ Installation

Standard config works in most of the tools::

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "appium-mcp": {
      "disabled": false,
      "timeout": 100,
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["appium-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "ANDROID_HOME": "/path/to/android/sdk",
        "CAPABILITIES_CONFIG": "/path/to/your/capabilities.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

In Cursor IDE

The easiest way to install MCP Appium in Cursor IDE is using the one-click install button:

This will automatically configure the MCP server in your Cursor IDE settings. Make sure to update the ANDROID_HOME environment variable in the configuration to match your Android SDK path.

Or install manually:

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

Here is the recommended configuration:

{
  "appium-mcp": {
    "disabled": false,
    "timeout": 100,
    "type": "stdio",
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["appium-mcp@latest"],
    "env": {
      "ANDROID_HOME": "/Users/xyz/Library/Android/sdk"
    }
  }
}

Note: Make sure to update the ANDROID_HOME path to match your Android SDK installation path.

With Gemini CLI

Use the Gemini CLI to add the MCP Appium server:

gemini mcp add appium-mcp npx -y appium-mcp@latest

This will automatically configure the MCP server for use with Gemini. Make sure to update the ANDROID_HOME environment variable in the configuration to match your Android SDK path.

With Claude Code CLI

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

claude mcp add appium-mcp -- npx -y appium-mcp@latest

This will automatically configure the MCP server for use with Claude Code. Make sure to update the ANDROID_HOME environment variable in the configuration to match your Android SDK path.

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Note: For embedded local Android/iOS sessions, MCP Appium already includes the UiAutomator2 and XCUITest driver packages. The system-level requirements are the platform toolchains (ANDROID_HOME, Java, Android SDK tools, Xcode/iOS signing or simulator setup). For remote sessions, configure those requirements on the remote Appium/WebDriver server instead.

Variable	Required	Description
CAPABILITIES_CONFIG	Optional	Absolute path to a capabilities.json file with per-platform capability presets
SCREENSHOTS_DIR	Optional	Directory where screenshots and screen recordings are saved. Defaults to the current working directory
NO_UI	Optional	Set to true or 1 to disable HTML UI components — faster responses, fewer tokens. See NO_UI Mode
APPIUM_MCP_ON_CLIENT_DISCONNECT	Optional	Session cleanup when the MCP client disconnects: delete_all (default) deletes MCP-owned Appium sessions (safeDeleteAllSessions); skip keeps those sessions across disconnects (e.g. HTTP/stream clients that reconnect). Attached/remote sessions are not removed by this path. See MCP disconnect behavior.
APPIUM_MCP_WDA_APP_PATH	Optional	Absolute path to a pre-extracted WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app bundle. When set, prepare_ios_simulator skips all GitHub downloads and uses this bundle directly — useful in environments where external downloads are blocked
REMOTE_SERVER_URL_ALLOW_REGEX	Optional	Regex pattern that remote Appium server URLs must match. Defaults to ^https?://
AI_VISION_ENABLED	Optional	Set to true to register the appium_ai tool (vision-based element finding). When unset or false, the AI tool is not registered and the LLM has no way to invoke vision-based finding. Requires AI_VISION_API_BASE_URL and AI_VISION_API_KEY to also be set, otherwise the server fails to start.
AI_VISION_API_BASE_URL	Required when AI_VISION_ENABLED=true	Base URL of the OpenAI-compatible vision model API
AI_VISION_API_KEY	Required when AI_VISION_ENABLED=true	API key for the vision model provider
AI_VISION_MODEL	Optional	Vision model name (default: Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct)
AI_VISION_COORD_TYPE	Optional	Coordinate type: normalized (default) or absolute
AI_VISION_IMAGE_MAX_WIDTH	Optional	Max image width in pixels before compression (default: 1080)
AI_VISION_IMAGE_QUALITY	Optional	JPEG quality 1–100 for compressed screenshots sent to the vision API (default: 80)
APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED	Optional	Set to true (or 1/yes/on) to register the documentation tools (appium_documentation_query, appium_skills). Opt-in and disabled by default. Requires the optional @appium/mcp-documentation package (embeddings cache + ML stack) to be installed separately; when unset it is never downloaded. See Documentation Tools (opt-in).
SENTENCE_TRANSFORMERS_MODEL	Optional	Hugging Face model used for semantic search in Appium documentation queries (default: Xenova/all-MiniLM-L6-v2). Only applies when APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED is set.
APPIUM_MCP_PERSIST_REMOTE_SESSIONS_PATH	Optional	Directory path for persisted attached remote session info. When set, attached remote sessions are stored as JSON files in that directory and can be rehydrated after restart.
APPIUM_MCP_EVIDENCE	Optional	Set to true or 1 to attach a structured action evidence record (locator, resolved element id, context, timing, normalized error code) to appium_find_element and appium_gesture responses as an application/vnd.appium.evidence+json resource block, for CI/debugging. Disabled by default; responses are unchanged when unset.
APPIUM_MCP_OTEL_ENABLED	Optional	Set to true to enable OpenTelemetry tracing (disabled by default).
APPIUM_MCP_OTEL_INCLUDE_ARGUMENT_VALUES	Optional	Set to true to include sanitized non-sensitive argument values in spans; disabled by default because values may contain sensitive data.
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME	Optional	Service name reported to the OpenTelemetry collector (example: appium-mcp).
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT	Optional	OTLP/HTTP traces endpoint (example: http://127.0.0.1:4318/v1/traces).
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER	Optional	Trace sampling strategy; parentbased_always_on samples new root traces and follows parent decisions.
OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES	Optional	Comma-separated key=value pairs attached as resource attributes to every span (example: testcase.id=my-test-123,team=platform).

OpenTelemetry tracing

OpenTelemetry tracing is disabled by default. Set APPIUM_MCP_OTEL_ENABLED=true to initialize the Node.js OpenTelemetry SDK before the MCP server is constructed. The SDK uses standard OTEL_* environment variables, for example:

APPIUM_MCP_OTEL_ENABLED=true
# Optional: include sanitized non-sensitive argument values in spans.
# APPIUM_MCP_OTEL_INCLUDE_ARGUMENT_VALUES=true
# Optional: attach custom key=value pairs to every span (e.g. test case ID, team name).
# OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=testcase.id=my-test-123,team=platform
OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=appium-mcp
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_TRACES_ENDPOINT=http://127.0.0.1:4318/v1/traces
OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER=parentbased_always_on

(Please check the official document as well)

When enabled, appium-mcp creates spans for MCP tool calls, prompt loads, resource reads, and resource template reads. Error status is recorded for thrown operation errors and MCP tool results marked with isError. Span attributes intentionally avoid raw screenshots, XML page source, prompts, credentials, and other high-cardinality or sensitive payloads.

For local trace inspection, use the Jaeger setup in tools/telemetry:

npm run telemetry:jaeger:start

Then open http://127.0.0.1:16686 and run appium-mcp with the environment values in tools/telemetry/jaeger.env.

Capabilities

Create a capabilities.json file to define your device capabilities:

{
  "android": {
    "appium:app": "/path/to/your/android/app.apk",
    "appium:deviceName": "Android Device",
    "appium:platformVersion": "11.0",
    "appium:automationName": "UiAutomator2",
    "appium:udid": "your-device-udid"
  },
  "ios": {
    "appium:app": "/path/to/your/ios/app.ipa",
    "appium:deviceName": "iPhone 15 Pro",
    "appium:platformVersion": "17.0",
    "appium:automationName": "XCUITest",
    "appium:udid": "your-device-udid"
  },
  "general": {
    "platformName": "mac",
    "appium:automationName": "mac2",
    "appium:bundleId": "com.apple.Safari"
  }
}

Set the CAPABILITIES_CONFIG environment variable to point to your configuration file.

Platform names and "general" mode

• You can pass any platform name to appium_session_management (action=create).
• If the platform is ios or android, the server builds capabilities for that platform (including selected device info when local).
• If the platform is any other value, it is treated internally as general:
  • The session will use the provided capabilities exactly as given, or
  • If CAPABILITIES_CONFIG is set, it will merge with the general section from your capabilities file.
• This allows custom setups and non-standard platforms to work without changing server logic.

Integrator notes (sessions, transport, logging)

For CI, device farms, or multi-session setups:

Multi-session and sessionId

The process keeps one active Appium session; tools use it when sessionId is omitted. If a tool call does not include a sessionId, it will target the active session instead of a specific one. If more than one session exists (see appium_session_management with action=list), pass sessionId on every tool call that must target a specific session. Do not assume the active session is stable if other clients or flows can create, select, or delete sessions.

Session persistence

If APPIUM_MCP_PERSIST_REMOTE_SESSIONS_PATH is set, MCP Appium persists attached remote sessions to that directory as JSON files. The path may be absolute or relative to the current working directory. Each session is stored under a canonical filename derived from a hash of the sessionId; older legacy filenames are migrated, and duplicate files for the same session are removed when the directory is read. When a persisted attached session is used again, the server tries to reattach to the remote Appium session; unreachable entries are pruned automatically.

Client disconnect

When the MCP client disconnects, the server deletes only MCP-owned sessions it is tracking (Appium deleteSession for each, via safeDeleteAllSessions). Attached sessions (ownership=attached) are intentionally left on the remote Appium server. Transports that drop often—httpStream behind proxies, idle timeouts, or flaky clients—can wipe owned automation in one go under the default policy. stdio is usually safer for a single long-lived operator; if you use httpStream, expect reconnects to require new owned sessions where applicable.

Remote Appium, CI, and device farms

For grids, cloud labs, or CI, prefer remoteServerUrl plus explicit capabilities on appium_session_management (action=create)—for example appium:udid, app path or id, platform version—rather than depending on local discovery. select_device is geared toward local ADB / simulator picking; use it as a dev convenience, not the main path for allocated remote devices.

Tool logging and argument size

Tool calls are logged with argument redaction implemented via JSON.stringify. Oversized payloads (especially long base64 strings, e.g., screenshot/image payloads, and also very large capabilities objects) cost CPU and log volume. Prefer CAPABILITIES_CONFIG and avoid passing large inline blobs in tool arguments when possible.

Screenshots

Set the SCREENSHOTS_DIR environment variable to specify where screenshots are saved. If not set, screenshots are saved to the current working directory. Supports both absolute and relative paths (relative paths are resolved from the current working directory). The directory is created automatically if it doesn't exist.

Screen Recording

Screen recordings are saved as MP4 files to the same directory as screenshots (SCREENSHOTS_DIR, or os.tmpdir() if not set).

• iOS: Requires ffmpeg to be installed and available on PATH. The default codec is libx264 with yuv420p pixel format for QuickTime compatibility.
• Android: Uses the built-in screenrecord command via UiAutomator2. No additional dependencies required.

To start recording, call appium_screen_recording with action="start". You may provide timeLimit in seconds to limit the maximum recording duration, but the start call still returns immediately. To finalize the recording, save the video, and receive the file path, call appium_screen_recording again with action="stop".

AI Vision Element Finding

Configure AI-powered element finding using vision models. When enabled, a separate tool — appium_ai — is registered alongside appium_find_element. It exposes action=find_element, which locates UI elements from natural-language descriptions and returns a coordinate UUID (ai-element:x,y:bbox) that can be passed to appium_gesture (tap / double_tap / long_press).

This feature is opt-in. When AI_VISION_ENABLED is unset or false, the appium_ai tool is not registered and the LLM has no way to invoke vision-based finding — keeping appium_find_element purely traditional. This deliberate gating prevents the model from defaulting to a slow, paid vision call when a stable locator (accessibility id, resource-id, etc.) would do the job.

Required Environment Variables:

{
  "appium-mcp": {
    "env": {
      "ANDROID_HOME": "/path/to/android/sdk",
      "AI_VISION_ENABLED": "true",
      "AI_VISION_API_BASE_URL": "https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
      "AI_VISION_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
    }
  }
}

If AI_VISION_ENABLED=true is set without both API vars, the server fails to start with a clear error message — misconfiguration is surfaced immediately rather than mid-test.

Optional Environment Variables:

See the Environment Variables table above for the full list of AI_VISION_* options and their defaults.

Supported Vision Model Providers:

Based on benchmark testing, the following models are recommended:

1. Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

   • Provider: Alibaba Cloud DashScope
   • Accuracy: 100%
   • Speed: 12649ms
   • API: https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1

2. gemini-3-flash-preview

   • Provider: Google AI
   • Accuracy: 100%
   • Speed: 17353
   • API: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta

More models benchmarked can be found here.

Performance Features:

• Image Compression: Automatically compresses screenshots to reduce API latency and token costs (50-80% size reduction)
• Result Caching: Caches results for 5 minutes using a module-level LRU cache (max 50 entries) that persists across tool calls, avoiding redundant API calls for identical screenshot + instruction pairs
• Coordinate Handling: In normalized mode (default), the model returns 0–1000 range coordinates that are automatically scaled to absolute pixel coordinates using the original image dimensions — independent of any image compression. In absolute mode, image resizing is disabled so the model's returned pixel coordinates always map directly to the original screen dimensions.

Performance Optimization

NO_UI Mode

Set the NO_UI environment variable to true or 1 to disable UI components and improve performance:

{
  "appium-mcp": {
    "env": {
      "NO_UI": "true",
      "ANDROID_HOME": "/path/to/android/sdk"
    }
  }
}

Benefits:

• Significantly Faster Response Times: UI rendering and data processing are completely skipped, resulting in 50-80% faster tool responses depending on the operation.
• Major Token Savings: Eliminates 500-5000+ tokens per request by removing HTML UI components from responses, dramatically reducing LLM API costs.
• Massive Bandwidth Reduction:
  • Screenshots: Saves 1-5MB of base64-encoded image data per screenshot
  • Page source: Saves 50-200KB+ of duplicated XML data in HTML UI
  • Locators: Saves 10-100KB+ of element data in interactive UI
  • Device/App lists: Saves 5-50KB of HTML UI per selection
• Lower Memory Usage: Client applications consume less memory without HTML rendering and embedded data.
• Perfect for Headless Environments: Ideal for CI/CD pipelines, automated testing scripts, batch operations, or any scenario where visual UI feedback is not required.
• Better Scalability: Reduced resource consumption allows handling more concurrent sessions.

Affected Tools:

The following tools return lightweight text-only responses when NO_UI is enabled:

• appium_screenshot - Screenshot files are still saved to disk, but base64 data is not embedded in responses
• appium_get_page_source - Returns XML as text without interactive inspector UI
• generate_locators - Returns locator data as JSON without interactive UI
• select_device - Returns device list as text without picker UI
• appium_session_management (action=create) - Returns session info as text without dashboard UI
• appium_context - Returns context list as text with action=list without switcher UI
• appium_app_lifecycle (action=list) - Returns app list as JSON without interactive UI

When to Enable NO_UI:

• ✅ Automated test execution in CI/CD pipelines
• ✅ Batch processing multiple devices/sessions
• ✅ Cost-sensitive LLM API usage (reduces token consumption by 60-90%)
• ✅ Network-constrained environments
• ✅ Scripted automation where human interaction is not needed
• ❌ Interactive debugging and exploration (keep UI enabled for better experience)

Documentation Tools (opt-in)

The documentation tools — appium_documentation_query (RAG search over the Appium docs) and appium_skills — live in a separate package, @appium/mcp-documentation, that carries a multi-megabyte embeddings cache and pulls in a heavy ML stack (@xenova/transformers, @langchain/*). To keep the default install lean, this package is not a runtime dependency of appium-mcp and is never downloaded unless you opt in. It is declared as an optional peer dependency.

Enabling the tools is a two-step opt-in:

1. Install the optional package (in the same project/environment as appium-mcp):

npm install @appium/mcp-documentation

Installing it with your own package manager dedupes against appium-mcp's existing dependencies, so only the genuinely new code is added.

2. Set APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED in your MCP server config:

{
  "appium-mcp": {
    "env": {
      "APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED": "true",
      "ANDROID_HOME": "/path/to/android/sdk"
    }
  }
}

Behavior:

• Unset / not truthy (default): the documentation tools are not registered, and nothing related to them (cache, embeddings, ML dependencies) is loaded.
• Truthy (true/1/yes/on): the server registers the documentation tools if @appium/mcp-documentation is installed. If the flag is set but the package is not installed, the server starts normally without the documentation tools and logs a hint to run npm install @appium/mcp-documentation.

The gate is governed by the env var, not by mere presence of the package: with APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED unset, the tools stay hidden even if the package happens to be installed.

Pre-installing it that way also avoids the first-run download delay.

MCP disconnect behavior

By default (APPIUM_MCP_ON_CLIENT_DISCONNECT unset or delete_all), when the MCP client disconnects, this server deletes every MCP-owned Appium session (the same sessions safeDeleteAllSessions targets) so embedded drivers are not left running after a short-lived assistant run. Attached sessions (ownership=attached) are unchanged by this teardown.

HTTP and streamable MCP clients may disconnect briefly (reconnect, reload, proxy). If that tears down drivers you still need, set APPIUM_MCP_ON_CLIENT_DISCONNECT to skip in your MCP server env (same pattern as NO_UI above). With skip, sessions survive disconnect until you call appium_session_management with action=delete, or you stop the Appium server / process.

Tradeoff: skip can leave orphaned sessions on your Appium server if nothing cleans up — use it when disconnect is not the same as “automation finished.”

🔌 Plugin API

Use appium-mcp/core to compose the default Appium MCP server with custom business logic without maintaining a fork. Plugins can register MCP tools, prompts, resources, and resource templates, and can wrap tool execution with lifecycle hooks. Call hooks are tool-only: prompts, resources, and resource templates are registered with FastMCP but are not wrapped by beforeCall or afterCall.

createAppiumMcpServer({ policy }) can also hide nonmatching tools and resources from MCP discovery. The factory is async, so await it before starting the returned server. Policy rules are regular expressions matched against tool and resource names exactly as registered. The policy is applied at registration time to both single and batch registration methods. Resource policy matches the resource name only; resources or resource templates without a string name cannot match a non-empty allowResources list.

import { createAppiumMcpServer } from 'appium-mcp/core';
import type {
  AppiumMcpPlugin,
  McpRegistry,
  ToolCallContext,
} from 'appium-mcp/core';
import { z } from 'zod';

class CheckoutPlugin implements AppiumMcpPlugin {
  readonly name = 'checkout-plugin';
  readonly version = '1.0.0';

  register(registry: McpRegistry): void {
    const parameters = z.object({ orderId: z.string() });
    registry.addTool({
      name: 'assert_checkout_summary',
      description:
        'Assert that the checkout summary screen shows an expected order ID.',
      parameters,
      execute: async (args) => {
        const { orderId } = parameters.parse(args);
        return {
          content: [
            { type: 'text', text: `Assert checkout order ${orderId}` },
          ],
        };
      },
    });
  }

  async beforeCall(ctx: ToolCallContext): Promise<void> {
    if (ctx.toolName === 'appium_gesture') {
      console.error(`[checkout-plugin] about to call ${ctx.toolName}`);
    }
  }
}

const server = await createAppiumMcpServer({
  plugins: [new CheckoutPlugin()],
  additionalInstructions: 'Custom checkout policies are active.',
  policy: {
    allowTools: [/^appium_session_management$/, /^assert_checkout_summary$/],
    allowResources: [/^Generate Code With Locators$/],
  },
});

await server.start({ transportType: 'stdio' });

Plugin lifecycle:

• register(registry, core): called during server construction. Register custom tools, prompts, resources, and resource templates here.
• initialize(ctx): called lazily on the first MCP client connection. Use it for async setup such as artifact storage or internal service clients.
• beforeCall(ctx): called before a registered MCP tool executes. Return a ToolCallResult to short-circuit the tool. This hook only applies to tools, not prompts, resources, or resource templates.
• afterCall(ctx, result): called after a registered MCP tool executes. Return a modified ToolCallResult to decorate or replace the response. This hook only applies to tools, not prompts, resources, or resource templates.
• destroy(): called after the last MCP client disconnects.

Safe plugin surface

The supported plugin API is intentionally small:

Surface	Safe methods
McpRegistry	addTool, addTools, addPrompt, addPrompts, addResource, addResources, addResourceTemplate, addResourceTemplates
AppiumMcpCore	getSessionId(), getSessionInfo(sessionId?), getDriver(sessionId?), listSessions()
ToolCallContext.session	getSessionId(), getSessionInfo(sessionId?), getDriver(sessionId?), listSessions()
PluginContext	core, plugins

McpRegistry methods delegate to the matching FastMCP registration APIs, so their object shapes follow FastMCP's documented tool, prompt, resource, and resource-template definitions. Appium MCP wraps registered tools with plugin call hooks, but prompts and resources are registered directly with FastMCP.

Each plugin name should be unique within the server. If two plugins use the same name, Appium MCP keeps the first plugin registered for that name and skips later plugins with a warning. Use a stable, package-style or organization-prefixed name, such as acme-checkout-plugin, to avoid collisions when composing plugins from multiple teams.

Each tool name should also be unique across all plugins and the core server. Tool names follow FastMCP behavior, not plugin-name behavior: when a tool is registered with the same name as an existing tool, FastMCP replaces the earlier tool definition with the later one. Appium MCP registers built-in tools before plugin tools, which means a plugin tool that uses the same name as a built-in tool replaces the built-in tool. Appium MCP tools usually have an appium_ prefix, so plugin tool names should use that pattern only when they intentionally override a core tool.

Verify plugin and tool names

Use verifyAppiumMcpNames before publishing or deploying a custom plugin setup. It registers your plugin capabilities into a lightweight collector, registers the Appium MCP core tools, and reports duplicate plugin names, duplicate tool names, and registration errors without starting the MCP server.

The recommended approach is to verify the same plugin array you pass to createAppiumMcpServer({ plugins }). This preserves your real plugin instances and order:

import {
  formatVerificationReport,
  verifyAppiumMcpNames,
} from 'appium-mcp/core';
import { plugins } from './plugins.js';

const report = verifyAppiumMcpNames({ plugins });

console.log(formatVerificationReport(report));
process.exit(report.ok ? 0 : 1);

When you provide multiple plugins, order is preserved. Plugins are verified in array order after the appium-mcp core tools. This matters because Appium MCP keeps the first plugin for a duplicate plugin name and skips later plugins with the same name, while duplicate tool names follow FastMCP's later-registration-wins behavior. Tool names still need to be unique across all loaded plugins and appium-mcp core; the verifier reports any collisions it finds.

The report labels this package's own shipped tools as appium-mcp core. Plugin sources are labeled as plugin:<name> with the plugin version.

Treat anything outside appium-mcp/core as internal. In particular, plugins should not rely on private server internals, internal session-store modules, tool implementation files, or the raw FastMCP server instance. If a plugin needs another stable primitive, open an issue so it can be added to AppiumMcpCore or McpRegistry deliberately.

See examples/plugin-example.ts for a fuller cookbook with tools, prompts, resources, resource templates, call hooks, and lifecycle setup.

🎯 Available Tools

MCP Appium provides a comprehensive set of tools organized into the following categories:

Platform & Device Setup

Tool	Description
select_device	REQUIRED FIRST: Discover available devices and select one. Auto-selects if only one device found
prepare_ios_simulator	Boot an iOS/tvOS simulator, download WDA (if not cached), and install/launch WDA in a single call. Each step is skipped if already satisfied (iOS/tvOS only). Set APPIUM_MCP_WDA_APP_PATH to skip all downloads and use a local .app bundle instead.
appium_prepare_ios_real_device	Prepare a real iOS device for Appium testing. Two-step flow: (1) call without provisioningProfileUuid to list available .mobileprovision profiles; (2) call again with the chosen UUID and isFreeAccount to download the matching WDA release, package it as an IPA, and resign with the profile. Results are cached per WDA version and profile, so repeat runs are fast. Pass the returned capabilitiesHint to create_session so Appium installs and launches WDA. macOS + Xcode 16+ required.

Session Management

Tool	Description
appium_session_management	Unified session management. action=create: start a new session for Android, iOS, or general capabilities (see 'general' mode above); forwards capabilities to a remote server via WebDriver newSession when remoteServerUrl is provided. action=attach: connect MCP Appium to an already-running remote Appium session without taking ownership. action=detach: forget an attached session without deleting the real remote session. action=delete: stop and clean up an owned session (defaults to active). action=list: show all active sessions, including ownership. action=select: switch the active session by sessionId.
appium_mobile_device_control	Control device behavior: lock/unlock the screen, shake the device, or open the notifications panel (action: lock | unlock | shake | open_notifications). shake is iOS only; open_notifications is Android only; seconds is optional for timed lock.
appium_driver_settings	Read or update Appium driver session settings in one tool. action=get returns current settings as JSON; action=update merges a settings map (driver-specific keys; use action=get first to inspect).

The remote server URL in appium_session_management (action=create or action=attach) can be set via the remoteServerUrl parameter. When remoteServerUrl is omitted, action=create starts an embedded local UiAutomator2 or XCUITest driver for platform=android or platform=ios. platform=general requires remoteServerUrl. When remoteServerUrl is present, action=create calls WebDriver newSession on the remote server, and action=attach connects MCP Appium to an existing remote session without owning its lifecycle. If REMOTE_SERVER_URL_ALLOW_REGEX is set, the URL must match the provided regex pattern for security reasons. This allows you to restrict which remote servers can be used with your MCP Appium instance, preventing unauthorized connections. The default regex pattern allows any URL that starts with http:// or https://.

Context Management

Tool	Description
appium_context	Manage contexts in one tool. action=list gets all available contexts including NATIVEAPP and WEBVIEW* entries. action=switch switches to a target context (context required).

Element Discovery & Interaction

Tool	Description
appium_find_element	Find a specific element using traditional locator strategies. Strategy priority: accessibility id > id > platform-native (-ios predicate string / -ios class chain on iOS, -android uiautomator on Android) > xpath (last resort — slow & brittle). To scroll until an element appears, use appium_gesture with action=scroll_to_element (same strategy / selector as find).
appium_ai	Opt-in (gated by AI_VISION_ENABLED=true). Vision-based element finding — fallback for when traditional locators don't work. action=find_element takes a natural-language instruction (e.g., "yellow search button at bottom") and returns a coordinate UUID consumable by appium_gesture (tap / double_tap / long_press). See AI Vision Element Finding for setup.
appium_gesture	Perform a touch gesture. action = back, tap, double_tap, long_press, scroll, swipe, pinch_zoom, or scroll_to_element. scroll_to_element scrolls vertically (direction = up | down) until the locator matches, page source stops changing after a scroll (end of list), or maxScrollAttempts (default 10, max 80). Optional scrollDistance (0.05–1) or scrollDistancePreset = small | medium | large. Supports element UUIDs and raw coordinates for other actions. For swipe, use speed = slow | normal | fast (fast for pull-to-refresh).
appium_drag_and_drop	Perform a drag and drop gesture from a source location to a target location (supports element-to-element, element-to-coordinates, coordinates-to-element, and coordinates-to-coordinates)
appium_perform_actions	Execute raw W3C Actions API sequences for custom multi-touch gestures (rotate, three-finger swipe, edge swipes, precise timing). Prefer appium_gesture for standard gestures.
appium_set_value	Enter text into an input field
appium_mobile_keyboard	Hide the on-screen keyboard or query visibility. action=hide | is_shown (keys optional for hide).
appium_get_text	Get text content from an element
appium_mobile_clipboard	Read or set device clipboard plain text. action=get | set (content required for set).
appium_alert	Handle alerts with action = accept, dismiss, or get_text (optional buttonLabel)

Screen & Navigation

Tool	Description
appium_screenshot	Take a screenshot and save as PNG. Optionally provide elementUUID to capture a specific element.
appium_get_window_size	Get the width and height of the device screen in pixels
appium_get_page_source	Get the page source (XML) from the current screen
appium_orientation	Get or set device/screen orientation with action = get or set (requires orientation for set).
appium_geolocation	Get, set, or reset the device GPS coordinates with action = get, set, or reset. For set, provide latitude and longitude (and optional altitude on Android). Not supported on Android emulators for reset.
appium_screen_recording	Start or stop screen recording with action = start or stop. On stop, returns the saved MP4 path.
appium_mobile_device_info	Get device information, battery status, or current device time. Use action = info (model, OS version, locale, timezone, screen density, etc.), battery (level as percentage and charging state), or time (current device time; accepts an optional format moment.js string, defaults to ISO 8601). Works on both iOS and Android.

App Management

Tool	Action	Description
appium_app_lifecycle	activate	Activate (launch/bring to foreground) a specified app by bundle ID or name
appium_app_lifecycle	terminate	Terminate (close) a specified app
appium_app_lifecycle	install	Install an app on the device from a file path
appium_app_lifecycle	uninstall	Uninstall an app from the device by bundle ID or name
appium_app_lifecycle	list	List all installed apps on the device (Android and iOS)
appium_app_lifecycle	is_installed	Check whether an app is installed. Package name for Android, bundle ID for iOS.
appium_app_lifecycle	query_state	Query the current state of an app: 0=not installed, 1=not running, 2=background suspended, 3=background, 4=foreground
appium_app_lifecycle	background	Background the current app for a duration (optional; defaults to 5 seconds)
appium_app_lifecycle	clear	Clear app data and cache without uninstalling (mobile: clearApp). Android: stop the app first when possible. iOS: Simulator only; not supported on real devices.
appium_app_lifecycle	deep_link	Open a deep link URL with the default or a specified app
appium_mobile_permissions	Get, update, or reset app permissions in one tool (action: get / update / reset)	Android: list or change runtime permissions. iOS Simulator: get/set privacy via bundle id; reset (action=reset) applies to the AUT on sim and device.

Test Generation & Documentation

Tool	Description
generate_locators	Generate intelligent locators for all interactive elements on the current screen
appium_generate_tests	Generate automated test code from natural language scenarios
appium_documentation_query	Opt-in (gated by APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED). Query Appium documentation using RAG for help and guidance
appium_skills	Opt-in (gated by APPIUM_MCP_DOCS_ENABLED). Return ordered setup or troubleshooting skills from appium/skills for local Appium environments

🤖 Client Support

MCP Appium is designed to be compatible with any MCP-compliant client.

📚 Usage Examples

Amazon Mobile App Checkout Flow

Here's an example prompt to test the Amazon mobile app checkout process:

Open Amazon mobile app, search for "iPhone 15 Pro", select the first search result, add the item to cart, proceed to checkout, sign in with email "test@example.com" and password "testpassword123", select shipping address, choose payment method, review order details, and place the order. Use JAVA + TestNG for test generation.

This example demonstrates a complete e-commerce checkout flow that can be automated using MCP Appium's intelligent locator generation and test creation capabilities.

AI-Powered Element Finding Examples

Traditional Mode — prefer stable identifiers:

Try strategies in priority order: accessibility id first, then id, then platform-native predicates (-ios predicate string / -ios class chain on iOS, -android uiautomator on Android). Reach for xpath only when nothing more stable exists.

{
  "tool": "appium_find_element",
  "arguments": {
    "strategy": "accessibility id",
    "selector": "search-button"
  }
}

xpath fallback (when no accessibility id, resource-id, or platform-native predicate works):

{
  "tool": "appium_find_element",
  "arguments": {
    "strategy": "xpath",
    "selector": "//android.widget.Button[@text='Search']"
  }
}

Scroll until element is on screen (appium_gesture / scroll_to_element):

{
  "tool": "appium_gesture",
  "arguments": {
    "action": "scroll_to_element",
    "strategy": "xpath",
    "selector": "//*[contains(@text,'My header')]",
    "direction": "down",
    "maxScrollAttempts": 40,
    "scrollDistancePreset": "medium"
  }
}

Use scrollDistance (0.05–1) instead of scrollDistancePreset when you want an exact fraction. Then call appium_find_element with the same strategy / selector to obtain the element id.

AI Mode (Natural Language) — requires AI_VISION_ENABLED=true:

When the AI tool is enabled, use appium_ai (not appium_find_element) for vision-based finding:

{
  "tool": "appium_ai",
  "arguments": {
    "action": "find_element",
    "instruction": "yellow search button at the bottom of the screen"
  }
}

The returned UUID (ai-element:x,y:bbox) flows directly into appium_gesture:

{
  "tool": "appium_gesture",
  "arguments": {
    "action": "tap",
    "elementUUID": "ai-element:540,2280:480,2240,600,2320"
  }
}

More instruction examples:

• "username input field at top"
• "settings icon in top-right corner"
• "red delete button next to the item"
• "blue submit button at bottom"
• "profile picture in navigation bar"

When to reach for appium_ai vs appium_find_element:

• Prefer appium_find_element whenever a stable accessibility id, resource-id, or unique text exists — faster, free, deterministic.
• Use appium_ai only when the element has no stable identifier, the page source is unavailable, or you must locate by visual cues (color, position, icon).
• See AI Vision Element Finding for setup and configuration.

Working in Your Native Language

MCP Appium works seamlessly in any language - you don't need to know English! The AI assistant understands and responds in your native language. Simply describe what you want to do in your preferred language:

Examples in different languages:

🇪🇸 Spanish: "Abre la aplicación de Amazon, busca 'iPhone 15 Pro' y agrégalo al carrito"

🇨🇳 Chinese: "打开Amazon应用，搜索'iPhone 15 Pro'并添加到购物车"

🇯🇵 Japanese: "Amazonアプリを開いて、'iPhone 15 Pro'を検索してカートに追加する"

🇰🇷 Korean: "Amazon 앱을 열고 'iPhone 15 Pro'를 검색한 후 장바구니에 추가"

🇫🇷 French: "Ouvre l'application Amazon, recherche 'iPhone 15 Pro' et ajoute-le au panier"

🇩🇪 German: "Öffne die Amazon App, suche nach 'iPhone 15 Pro' und füge es zum Warenkorb hinzu"

The AI will handle your requests naturally and generate the appropriate test code, regardless of the language you use.

🙌 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue to discuss any changes.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.