Droidline

<p align="center"> <a href="https://droidline.dev"><img src="docs/media/banner-en.jpg" alt="Droidline: Android automation, one line at a time." width="100%"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <b>Automate real Android phones from your code.</b><br> Test your apps, script the tasks you repeat, run a shelf of phones, or let an AI agent use one.<br> Python, Node.js, the shell or HTTP. No ADB, no USB cable, no root. </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://droidline.dev"><b>Website</b></a> · <a href="https://droidline.dev/docs/"><b>Docs</b></a> · <a href="https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Droidline/releases/latest"><b>Download</b></a> · <a href="#quick-start">Quick start</a> · <a href="#use-it-from-your-language">Languages</a> · <a href="#documentation">Guides</a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Droidline/actions/workflows/ci.yml"><img src="https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Droidline/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg" alt="CI"></a> <a href="https://github.com/KnifeLemon/Droidline/releases/latest"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/KnifeLemon/Droidline?color=FF6B21&label=release" alt="Latest release"></a> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Android-9%2B-15803D" alt="Android 9 or later"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/PC-Windows%20%7C%20macOS%20%7C%20Linux-1C202B" alt="Windows, macOS and Linux"> <a href="LICENSE"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-B53A07" alt="MIT license"></a> </p> <p align="center"><b>English</b> · <a href="README.ko.md">한국어</a> · <a href="README.zh-CN.md">简体中文</a></p> <table> <tr> <td width="33%" valign="top"><b>No ADB, no cable</b><br>Install one app on the phone, turn on its permissions and pair it with a QR code. No developer options, no USB debugging, no root.</td> <td width="33%" valign="top"><b>The same command everywhere</b><br><code>touch</code> is <code>touch</code> in Python, Node.js, the CLI, HTTP and as an MCP tool, all generated from one spec.</td> <td width="33%" valign="top"><b>Phones anywhere</b><br>The phone connects out to your PC, so it works on the same Wi-Fi or on mobile data through a tunnel or a relay you run. Every line is encrypted end to end.</td> </tr> </table>

What people use it for

• Testing your own app on real phones, including flows that cross into other apps, such as a login with a code from a text message.
• A shelf of phones running the same routine every day, each through its own network or proxy.
• Giving an AI agent hands: through MCP, Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other agents can look at a phone screen and act on it.
• Small personal automations, such as turning Wi-Fi off at night or collecting a value from an app every hour.

Droidline uses only permissions an ordinary app can get, so a few things are out of reach: see What it cannot do.

See it in action

<p align="center"> <a href="https://droidline.dev"><img src="docs/media/demo-en.webp" alt="A script sends six lines to a phone: launch the demo app, close the ad, type an email, tick Keep me signed in, tap Log in, and wait for the main screen. Each line gets a reply with how the tap was delivered, and the phone screen changes to match." width="720"></a><br> _{Try the same demo in your browser, and pick elements on a simulated screen, on <a href="https://droidline.dev">droidline.dev</a>} </p>

Quick start

You need a PC (Windows, macOS or Linux) and an Android phone with Android 9 or later, on the same Wi-Fi for a first try. The installation guide walks through each step with screenshots.

1. Run the server on your PC. Download the droidline archive for your system from Releases, put droidline on your PATH, and start it. Leave it running.

   droidline serve
   

2. Install the app on the phone. Download droidline-agent.apk from the same release page and open it. On the app's Setup tab, turn on the accessibility service, the Droidline keyboard, notifications and unrestricted battery use. On Android 13 and later, allow restricted settings for the app first; the app shows where.

3. Pair them. Run this on the PC and scan the QR code with the app's Pair tab:

   droidline pair
   

   No camera? Tap Pair on this Wi-Fi in the app and type the 6-digit code it shows: droidline pair 482913.

4. Send a command.

   droidline launch com.android.settings
   droidline touch text "Network & internet"
   

No phone at hand? droidline-fakephone, included in every release, simulates one with a small demo app. The first-script tutorial builds a complete login script against it.

Use it from your language

Every interface talks to droidline serve on localhost:8780 and uses the same command names.

Python (pip install droidline, Python 3.9+)

from droidline import connect

d = connect()                                  # the phone paired with this PC
d.launch("dev.droidline.demo")
if d.exists("text", "Close ad"):               # conditions never wait and never fail
    d.touch("text", "Close ad")
d.input("id", "email", "knife")                # waits up to 10 s for the element
d.touch("text", "Log in")
print(d.get_text("id", "greeting"))

Node.js and TypeScript (npm install droidline, Node.js 18+)

import { connect } from "droidline";

const d = await connect();
await d.launch("dev.droidline.demo");
await d.input("id", "email", "knife");
await d.touch("text", "Log in", { timeout: 15 });
console.log(await d.getText("id", "greeting"));

C# and .NET (dotnet add package Droidline, .NET 8+ or .NET Framework 4.6.2+)

using Droidline;

await using var d = await DroidlineClient.ConnectAsync();
await d.LaunchAsync("dev.droidline.demo");
await d.InputAsync("id", "email", "knife");
await d.TouchAsync("text", "Log in", timeout: 15);
Console.WriteLine(await d.GetTextAsync("id", "greeting"));

Command line (comes with the server)

droidline touch text "Log in"
droidline which text="Log in" id=main_tab --timeout 15
droidline screenshot shot.png

HTTP (any language, any tool)

curl -s -X POST localhost:8780/devices/_/touch \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"by":"text","value":"Log in"}'

AI agents over MCP (Claude, Cursor, VS Code and others)

{ "mcpServers": { "droidline": { "command": "droidline", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

With Claude Code: claude mcp add droidline -- droidline mcp. In Claude Desktop you can instead open droidline.mcpb from Releases, which carries its own droidline; it is also listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.KnifeLemon/droidline. To give an agent fewer tools, add --tools dump,screenshot,touch or --read-only to the args; see Limit what an agent can use. Other languages can open a TCP socket and send one JSON line per command; see Other languages for Go, Java and PHP.

Features

• Pick the element, not the pixel. dump() returns the screen as a tree with text, id and desc for every element. Commands take the field and the value: touch("id", "login"). When an element refuses a click, Droidline taps its parent or the center of its bounds by itself.
• Waiting is built in. touch, input and wait wait for their element, 10 seconds by default. Conditions such as exists, checked and which answer at once and never throw for a missing element.
• Clear errors. Every failure has a code, a message in English, Korean or Chinese, and a flag that says whether retrying helps: NOT_FOUND: Could not find text 'Log in' within 10s. Current screen: com.example / .MainActivity.
• A shelf of phones. One PC drives many phones. Commands to one phone run in order, different phones run in parallel, and each phone has a name you choose.
• Per-app proxy. Send chosen apps through a socks5 or http upstream with a local VPN, one upstream per phone, without root.
• Notifications on the PC. Wait for one, react to every one, reply, open or dismiss it, or forward it to a signed webhook.
• New mobile IPs. A batch sent with cuts_network keeps running on the phone while it is offline, so airplane mode on, wait, off works as one call. intent opens the Settings page first; the recipes show it step by step.
• Nothing runs twice. A phone that drops off mobile data resumes where it left off; a command that was in flight is answered from the phone's cache, not run again.
• Selectors that hold up. Combine conditions or name an element by its neighbors: touch({"class": "android.widget.Switch", "row": {"text": "Wi-Fi"}}). find hands back elements you can click and search inside, and wait_idle waits until the screen stops changing.
• Optional tools, off until you start them. droidline inspect shows the screen and its elements, suggests selectors with code, and records a script while you use the phone. droidline webdriver lets Appium clients and scripts drive your phones. There is also a pytest plugin, leases for sharing phones between scripts, and picture and text matching for screens without elements.
• English, 한국어, 简体中文 in the app, the error messages and the docs.

Screenshots

<table> <tr> <td width="33%"><img src="docs/media/app-setup.png" alt="Setup tab with every permission switched on"></td> <td width="33%"><img src="docs/media/app-pair.png" alt="Pair tab after pairing with a PC"></td> <td width="33%"><img src="docs/media/app-status.png" alt="Status tab of a connected phone with its route and permissions"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">_{Setup: each permission with a button to its settings screen}</td> <td align="center">_{Pair: scan the QR code or use a 6-digit code}</td> <td align="center">_{Status: connection, route and permissions}</td> </tr> </table>

Reach phones anywhere

The phone always opens the connection, so it needs no open port. Pick the route that fits your network; the phone tries them in order and returns to Wi-Fi when it can.

| Route | You need | How it works | |---|---|---| | Same Wi-Fi | Nothing | The phone finds the PC with a UDP broadcast and connects directly. | | Port forward | One forwarded port | The phone connects to your public address over TLS, pinned to the PC's certificate. | | Tunnel | cloudflared, ngrok or similar | Your PC keeps a tunnel open; the phone reaches it through the tunnel's address. | | Your relay | Cloudflare Workers or a VPS | PC and phone both connect out to a relay you deploy. It forwards lines it cannot read. |

Past the two-line handshake every line is encrypted with keys only your PC and phone hold (P-256 and AES-256-GCM), so a tunnel or relay only carries ciphertext. The remote connection guides cover each route step by step.

What it cannot do

Droidline only uses permissions an ordinary app can get, so some things are out of reach. Better to know before you start:

• It cannot open another app's screens that the app does not export. launch opens the start screen instead.
• It cannot unlock a PIN, pattern or password lock screen.
• There is no single command to force stop an app, clear its data or switch the network. Settings differs by phone maker, Android version and language, so the recipes press its buttons, and you may need to adjust the labels for your phone. In th