Local iOS

Local iOS (Appium / XCUITest)

Automate a developer-machine iOS Simulator (or USB-attached real device) via the local Appium 2.x server. Traffic flows backend → desktop proxy TCP tunnel → 127.0.0.1:4723 on the user's macOS machine. XCUITest is the active driver.

Prerequisites

1. macOS with Xcode + Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).
2. A booted iOS Simulator (xcrun simctl list, xcrun simctl boot 'iPhone 15') or a real device with the appropriate WebDriverAgent provisioning profile.
3. Appium 2.x running locally (appium) with the XCUITest driver installed (appium driver install xcuitest). For Safari sessions start with browser=true.
4. Install MCPBundles Desktop from https://www.mcpbundles.com/desktop — required so the backend can reach localhost:4723.

Data Model

• Session is one Appium WebDriver session per user. Re-creating closes the previous one cleanly.
• Element ids come from an element find step and feed tap-by-element and typed input on a specific field.
• Screenshot returns a PNG image the agent can interpret.
• URL navigation requires a Safari WebDriver session — open the session with browser mode enabled.

Gotchas

• Boot the simulator before opening a session — Appium only attaches to running simulators.
• Coordinates are WebDriver points (Apple's logical units), not raw pixels. Read window size first when you need to scale taps or swipes.
• Hardware buttons are Android-only; for iOS use swipe gestures.