idevice

Cross-platform device automation for end-to-end test workflows: install and manage apps on physical devices, transfer files, and drive UI interactions through a small, platform-agnostic API.

The package ships two complementary APIs:

• idevice.device — local device automation: talk to a USB/network-attached device through platform CLIs (go-ios, pymobiledevice3, adb) to install apps, transfer files, and drive UI.
• idevice.host — keeper-backed remote orchestration: drive a memory-measurement run on a host machine that talks to the ikeeper control server and the on-device RemoteControlTest runner over HTTP.

Platform status

macOS and HarmonyOS are not implemented yet.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.9
• Platform CLI tools on PATH (or configured via environment variables below):
  • iOS (go-ios): ios
  • iOS (pymobiledevice3): pymobiledevice3 (default: /opt/ios3/bin/pymobiledevice3 on Unix, ~/ios3/bin/pymobiledevice3.exe on Windows)
  • iOS (ios4): ios4 (or set IDEVICE_IOS4_BINARY); optionally ideviceinstaller for installs (or set IDEVICE_IDEVICEINSTALLER_BINARY)
  • iOS (devicectl): xcrun from Xcode, macOS only; ios4 is still needed for capture_memgraph and documents_rm
  • Android: adb

Python packages pymobiledevice3 and uiautomator2 are installed automatically with the project (see Install). IOSDevice3 uses the pymobiledevice3 Python library for Documents sandbox access (documents_*); other iOS operations go through the CLI.

Install

uv sync
# or, with dev dependencies
uv sync --group dev

Quick start

Create a device bound to a single UDID or serial, then call lifecycle methods:

from pathlib import Path

from idevice.device import Device, Platform

# iOS via go-ios
device = Device.create(Platform.IOS, device_id="00000000-0000000000000000", device_ip="")

# iOS via pymobiledevice3 (iOS 17+ tunnel support)
device = Device.create(Platform.IOS3, device_id="00000000-0000000000000000", device_ip="")

# iOS via the Rust ios4 lifecycle backend
device = Device.create(
    "ios4",
    device_id="00000000-0000000000000000",
    device_ip="",
    package_name="com.example.game",
)

# iOS via Apple's own xcrun devicectl (macOS + Xcode only)
device = Device.create(
    "ios5",
    device_id="00000000-0000000000000000",
    device_ip="",
    package_name="com.example.game",
)

# Android via adb (package_name is the default app id for stop_app())
device = Device.create(
    Platform.ANDROID,
    device_id="emulator-5554",
    device_ip="",
    package_name="com.example.app",
)

device.install(Path("MyApp.ipa"), app_id="com.example.app")
device.launch_app("com.example.app")
device.is_installed("com.example.app")
device.stop_app()  # uses bound package_name
device.stop_app("com.example.app")  # explicit override
device.uninstall("com.example.app")

Launch an iOS game through IOSDevice4 with malloc stack logging and ordered command-line arguments:

from idevice.device.ios4.device import IOSDevice4

game = IOSDevice4(
    "00000000-0000000000000000",
    package_name="com.example.game",
)
game.launch_app(
    "com.example.game",
    args=["--mode", "debug", "--label", "heap capture"],
    environment={"MallocStackLogging": "1"},
)
print(game.last_launch_pid)
snapshot = game.capture_memgraph("trash-dash.memgraph")
print(snapshot)

IOSDevice5 provides the same game lifecycle through Apple's xcrun devicectl:

from idevice.device.ios5.device import IOSDevice5

game = IOSDevice5(
    IOSDevice5.default_udid(),  # first USB-attached device
    package_name="com.example.game",
)
game.launch_app(
    "com.example.game",
    args=["--mode", "debug"],
    environment={"MallocStackLogging": "1"},
)
game.screenshot("screen.png")
snapshot = game.capture_memgraph("trash-dash.memgraph")  # shells out to ios4

iOS Documents sandbox (IOSDevice3 and IOSDevice4 — requires file-sharing entitlements):

device.documents_push("com.example.app", Path("log.txt"), "Logs/log.txt")
device.documents_exists("com.example.app", "Logs/log.txt")
device.documents_ls("com.example.app", "Logs")
device.documents_pull("com.example.app", "Logs", Path("out/Logs"))
device.documents_rm("com.example.app", "Logs/log.txt")

Windows Documents sandbox (WindowsDevice — backed by the local filesystem under %LocalAppData%/<company_name>/<package_name>). The sandbox root is fixed at construction, so company_name and package_name are required; remote is always resolved relative to that root, and every method works on both files and directories:

device = Device.create(
    Platform.WINDOWS,
    device_id="MY-PC",
    device_ip="",
    company_name="MyCompany",
    package_name="MyApp",
)

device.documents_push("MyApp.exe", Path("log.txt"), "Logs/log.txt")
device.documents_push("MyApp.exe", Path("assets"), "assets")  # whole directory
device.documents_exists("MyApp.exe", "Logs/log.txt")
device.documents_ls("MyApp.exe", "Logs")
device.documents_pull("MyApp.exe", "Logs", Path("out/Logs"))
device.documents_rm("MyApp.exe", "Logs")

Examples

Runnable scripts under examples/ auto-detect the first connected device when no ID is passed:

# Android: launch, push/pull (optional --apk / --package)
uv run python examples/android_device.py

# iOS (pymobiledevice3): lifecycle, AFC, app sandbox, Documents API
uv run python examples/ios3_device.py

# iOS (ios4): install and launch a game
uv run python examples/ios4_device.py \
  --udid 00000000-0000000000000000 \
  --ipa path/to/game.ipa \
  --app-id com.example.game \
  --malloc-stack-logging \
  --memgraph game.memgraph \
  --arg=--mode --arg=debug

# iOS (devicectl): install, launch, screenshot
uv run python examples/ios5_device.py \
  --udid 00000000-0000000000000000 \
  --ipa path/to/game.ipa \
  --app-id com.example.game \
  --screenshot screen.png

# Install an IPA and exercise sandbox file transfer
uv run python examples/ios3_device.py \
  --ipa path/to/app.ipa \
  --app-id com.example.app \
  --sandbox-app-id com.example.app

# Host orchestration: keeper-backed memory-measurement run (see "Host orchestration")
uv run python examples/host_example.py --from-env --bundle-id com.example.app

See the module docstrings in each example for prerequisites (Developer Mode, iOS 17+ tunnel, USB debugging, ikeeper reachability, etc.).

API overview

DeviceBase

Every platform implementation shares the same interface:

• install(package_path, app_id=None) — install .ipa / .apk and optionally record bundle id → file name
• uninstall(app_id) / is_installed(app_id) / get_installed_pkg_name(app_id) — the latter returns an InstalledAppInfo(app_id, version, path) or None
• launch_app(app_id=None) / stop_app(app_id=None) — both use the bound package_name when app_id is omitted
• launch(app_id=None) — optional native device-service launch, implemented by IOSDevice3, IOSDevice4, and IOSDevice5
• package_name — default app id set at Device.create / Device.from_env (GAUTO_PACKAGE_NAME)
• push(local, remote, app_id=None, documents_only=False) / pull(remote, local, app_id=None, documents_only=True) — host ↔ device file transfer
• ls(remote, app_id=None, recursive=False) — list a remote directory on the device
• documents_exists(app_id, remote) / documents_ls(app_id, remote) / documents_push(app_id, local, remote) / documents_pull(app_id, remote, local) / documents_rm(app_id, remote) — app Documents sandbox; IOSDevice5.documents_rm delegates recursive removal to the ios4 AFC service because CoreDevice has no delete command
• tap(x, y, app_id=None) — normalized touch input, implemented by IOSDevice3, IOSDevice4, and IOSDevice5 through iwda2
• start_moniter(duration=180) / stop_moniter() — on-device performance monitor, implemented by IOSDevice3, IOSDevice4, and IOSDevice5 through iwda2
• screenshot(local) — capture the screen to a host file
• capture_memgraph(output, pid=None) — capture a process memory snapshot (IOSDevice4, and IOSDevice5 by shelling out to ios4)

Use Device.create(Platform, device_id=…, device_ip="", package_name=…) or construct IOSDevice, IOSDevice3, IOSDevice4, IOSDevice5, AndroidDevice, or WindowsDevice directly. Device.from_env requires GAUTO_PACKAGE_NAME on all platforms.

UIAutoBase

Higher-level UI helpers built on top of device tooling. Currently only AndroidUIAuto is available (dismiss_post_install_dialogs, hierarchy access).

iOS backends

IOSDevice (go-ios) — lightweight CLI wrapper around go-ios for install, launch, and AFC transfers.

IOSDevice3 (pymobiledevice3) — uses pymobiledevice3 services:

• App install/uninstall/list via apps
• Process control via developer dvt launch / pkill, with optional argv and --env KEY=VALUE entries
• File transfer via afc push/pull or apps push/pull (app sandbox, with optional --documents)
• Documents sandbox via the pymobiledevice3 Python library (House Arrest AFC): documents_exists, documents_ls, documents_push, documents_pull, documents_rm
• Normalized screen taps and performance monitor via the shared iwda2 mixin (tap, start_moniter, stop_moniter)
• Developer-mode commands require a mounted DeveloperDiskImage; on iOS 17+ an active tunnel is required (pymobiledevice3 remote start-tunnel)

IOSDevice4 (ios4) — a game lifecycle backend using the Rust ios4 binary:

• IPA/app-directory install via the standalone ideviceinstaller CLI when present, otherwise ios4 ideviceinstaller install
• Exact bundle-id checks via application_listing
• Launch via process_control with ordered argv and environment values
• Xcode-compatible snapshots via memgraph, defaulting to the last launch PID
• Tracks the launch PID so memgraph can reuse it — process_control always reports one
• Stop via pkill --bundle
• Normalized screen taps and performance monitor via the shared iwda2 mixin (tap, start_moniter, stop_moniter)
• Screen capture via screenshot
• Documents sandbox via afc --documents <bundle-id>: documents_exists, documents_ls, documents_push, documents_pull, documents_rm, all handling files and directories (directories are walked client-side, since afc upload/download only move single files)
• afc stdout is a JSON envelope (ok, command, data, error). Documents helpers read data.st_ifmt and data.entries from that object, and take failure text from error.message when it is present
• Documents paths are always relative to the vended /Documents root, so remote cannot escape the sandbox
• Does not currently implement generic file transfer (push / pull / ls) outside the Documents sandbox

IOSDevice5 (xcrun devicectl) — the same game lifecycle on Apple's own CoreDevice CLI, so it needs macOS with Xcode but no third-party binary:

• Install/uninstall via device install app / device uninstall app, caching the bundle id devicectl reports
• Exact bundle-id checks via device info apps --bundle-id
• Launch via device process launch, with the environment as a JSON dictionary and argv as real positional arguments
• Stop by resolving the bundle's processes in device info processes and terminating each with device process terminate --kill
• Normalized screen taps and performance monitor through the same iwda2 mixin as IOSDevice4 (http://<device-ip>:18201/api/tap and /api/monitor); the explicit app_id or bound package_name anchors tap coordinates to the app's current orientation
• App data container transfers via device copy to / device copy from and listing via device info files, including the Documents sandbox; directory pushes can pass remove_existing_content=True to replace the destination contents
• Screen capture via device capture screenshot on Xcode 27+, falling back to ios4
• capture_memgraph shells out to ios4: CoreDevice exposes no memory-graph service
• documents_rm contains the same ios4 afc --documents workflow as IOSDevice4.documents_rm: inspect with info, then call remove for a file or remove_all for a directory
• delete2 raises NotImplementedError — CoreDevice has no general file-removal service

Every command is parsed from devicectl's JSON output, the only interface Apple guarantees to keep stable, and errors surface as the flattened NSLocalizedDescription chain.

Choose Platform.IOS, Platform.IOS3, Platform.IOS4, or Platform.IOS5 depending on which CLI you have deployed. The string values are ios4 and ios5.

Host orchestration (idevice.host)

The host package drives a memory-measurement run from a host machine (mac or Windows). The host never dials the device directly: it talks to the ikeeper control server over HTTP, which in turn proxies the on-device RemoteControlTest runner. A host is always bound to a single keeper and a single target device (device_udid / device_ip) plus the app bundle_id under test.

Host status

Quick start

Build a host explicitly, or from the controller-injected GAUTO_* environment:

from idevice.host import Host

# Explicit
host = Host.create(
    host_type="macos",
    keeper_ip="192.168.0.10",
    device_udid="00000000-0000000000000000",
    device_ip="192.168.0.20",
    bundle_id="com.example.app",
)

# Or from GAUTO_* environment variables (never raises; falls back to DummyHost)
host = Host.from_env()

host.health()                       # keeper reachable?
host.launch_app(timeout=300.0)      # start run, wait for runner, launch app
host.capture_memgraph(timeout=60.0) # open a measured window that auto-closes
summary = host.export()             # keeper presigns + uploads; returns download_url
host.screenshot("shot.png")         # capture one screenshot via the runner proxy
host.tap(0.5, 0.5)                  # tap at normalized screen coordinates
host.kill()                         # tear down the keeper run

# Launch with command-line arguments, applied as XCUIApplication.launchArguments.
# Engine BootConfig values can be overridden this way, since argv beats boot.config:
host.launch_app(args=["-hg-mmap-allocater", "0"])

The most recently built host is also reachable anywhere via Host.Instance.

Host.create / Host.from_env return a HostBase exposing: health(), runner(), launch_app(), capture_memgraph(), export(), screenshot(), tap(), status(), kill(), and exit(). Errors are raised as HostError (with KeeperError, RunnerError, HostTimeoutError, and HostNotSupportedError subclasses).

Lower-level clients

• Keeper — thin HTTP client for the ikeeper control server (/api/runs routes): launch, launch_app, status, list_runs, kill, export, health.
• Runner — thin HTTP client for the on-device runner, reached through the keeper proxy: launch_app, activate, terminate, start_measuring / stop_measuring / measuring_status, dt_measuring, screenshot, tap, exit, health.

Configuration

Environment variables override default binary paths:

User data (e.g. installed-app cache) is stored under ~/.idevice by default.

The idevice.host orchestrator reads its configuration from the controller-injected environment (used by Host.from_env):

Testing

Unit tests run without a connected device:

uv run pytest

Integration tests under tests/device/ require a physical iOS device and pymobiledevice3. They are excluded by default; run with:

export IDEVICE_IOS3_UDID="00000000-0000000000000000"
uv run pytest -m integration tests/device/

See tests/device/conftest.py for optional variables (IDEVICE_IOS3_TEST_IPA, sandbox push/pull settings, etc.).

Development

uv run ruff check src tests
uv run pytest