dusk

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fluttersdk/dusk/master/.github/dusk-logo.svg" width="120" alt="Dusk Logo" /> </p> <h1 align="center">Dusk</h1> <p align="center"> <strong>End-to-end driver for Flutter apps. Read by humans, driven by AI agents.</strong><br/> Snapshot the Semantics tree, drive any gesture, capture screenshots, observe live state, all from one CLI and one stdio MCP server. </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/fluttersdk/dusk/actions"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/fluttersdk/dusk/ci.yml?branch=master&label=CI" alt="CI"></a> <a href="https://pub.dev/packages/fluttersdk_dusk"><img src="https://img.shields.io/pub/v/fluttersdk_dusk.svg" alt="pub package"></a> <a href="https://pub.dev/packages/fluttersdk_dusk/score"><img src="https://img.shields.io/pub/points/fluttersdk_dusk" alt="pub points"></a> <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-blue.svg" alt="License: MIT"></a> <a href="https://github.com/fluttersdk/dusk/stargazers"><img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/fluttersdk/dusk?style=flat" alt="GitHub stars"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://fluttersdk.com/dusk">Documentation</a> · <a href="https://pub.dev/packages/fluttersdk_dusk">pub.dev</a> · <a href="https://github.com/fluttersdk/dusk/issues">Issues</a> </p>

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[!NOTE] Requires Dart SDK >= 3.4.0 and Flutter >= 3.22.0. dusk is debug-only: production builds tree-shake the entire driver across web, desktop, and mobile.

Installation

flutter pub add fluttersdk_dusk
dart run fluttersdk_dusk dusk:install      # patches lib/main.dart + scaffolds ./bin/fsa + registers dusk plugin

That's it. After the second command, all 36 dusk:* commands surface through ./bin/fsa <cmd> (~110ms warm) or dart run fluttersdk_dusk <cmd> (works the same, ~3s startup), and the MCP server is one dart run fluttersdk_dusk mcp:install away. When fastcli (./bin/fsa) is absent, mcp:install writes dart run fluttersdk_dusk mcp:serve into .mcp.json automatically; no manual edit required. See MCP install: 8 clients for the per-client wiring. Manual wiring, Magic-stack integration, and the full per-command flag reference live in the Getting Started guide.

[!TIP] fastcli is the AOT-compiled artisan dispatcher (~110ms warm) shipped as ./bin/fsa. dusk:install scaffolds it for you automatically (best-effort; falls through to a warning when dart is not on PATH). After that, every ./bin/fsa <cmd> is the fast path. The CLI also runs as dart run fluttersdk_dusk <cmd> with the same surface, ~3s slower per call.

Why Dusk?

End-to-end testing on Flutter has always been a stitched-together ritual. flutter_driver ships a one-off socket protocol that does not survive hot restart. integration_test runs in-process against a simulated WidgetTester, but you write a test file, build, run, and wait. AI coding agents that want to drive the running app reach for ad hoc flutter test invocations, copy stack traces back into the prompt, and paste screenshots back, calling it a workflow.

Dusk closes that loop. A single VM Service extension family (ext.dusk.*), a single CLI namespace (dusk:*), and a single stdio MCP server back 36 CLI commands and 35 MCP tools (32 ext.dusk.* + 3 artisan:dusk:* substrate-routed). The same contracts power human-driven terminal calls and agent-driven MCP tool calls: dusk:tap --ref=e7 (CLI) and dusk_tap (MCP) reach the exact same code path. No test harness, no test file, no build step. Attach to the live app and the agent has eyes (dusk_snap, dusk_screenshot, dusk_observe) and hands (dusk_tap, dusk_type, dusk_scroll, dusk_drag). On Flutter web, the dusk:screenshot CLI command falls back to CDP Page.captureScreenshot when artisan was started with --cdp-port, bypassing the in-isolate extension that hangs under CanvasKit; the dusk_screenshot MCP tool still dispatches in-isolate, so web agents should use the CLI for screenshots. dusk_exceptions captures non-fatal FlutterErrors (including overflow) in-package so diagnostics work even without telescope.

| Tool | What it does | Where Dusk fits | |---|---|---| | integration_test (Flutter SDK) | In-process WidgetTester wrapper; runs tests via flutter drive | Different niche: integration_test owns the authored test file; Dusk owns the unscripted running app. Use both. | | patrol (Leancode, 694 likes) | Native UI permissions + dialogs layered on integration_test | Orthogonal: patrol owns authored tests with native dialogs; Dusk owns unscripted automation by humans and AI agents. | | flutter_driver (Flutter SDK, legacy) | One-off socket protocol; being phased out | Dusk is hot-restart safe via registerExtensionIdempotent (16 aggregator register functions), one contract for CLI and MCP, no test harness, no separate isolate. | | maestro (13.7K stars) | YAML DSL over OS accessibility layer | Dusk drives the Flutter widget tree directly (Semantics nodes + RenderObjects); no Flutter Desktop limitation; zero YAML to author. | | mcp_flutter (298 stars) | Flutter MCP toolkit with fmt_* tools | Dusk is on pub.dev with verified publisher, framework-native Artisan plugin, e<N> and q<N> ref system, 6-step actionability gate. | | playwright-mcp (33K stars) | Browser MCP via accessibility tree + [ref=eN] tokens | The Flutter-native equivalent. Dusk's q<N> handles mirror Playwright's getByRole(); dusk_observe borrows Stagehand's observe-once-act-many pattern, ported to Flutter Semantics. |

Features

| | Feature | Description | |:--|:--------|:------------| | 🌳 | Semantics Snapshot | dusk_snap emits a YAML tree with stable [ref=eN] tokens; every action targets a ref, no brittle XPath or coordinate guessing | | 🛠️ | 36 CLI Commands | snap, tap, type, fill, drag, scroll, hover, dblclick, right_click, triple_click, focus, blur, clear, set_checkbox, select_option, press_key, wait, find, observe, navigate, modal, reset_overlays, screenshot, hot_reload_and_snap, CDP resize + device, close_app, install, doctor, perf_begin + perf_end | | 🤖 | 35 MCP Tools | The full CLI surface plus dusk_evaluate, exposed as stdio JSON-RPC tools to Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code Copilot, and any MCP-compatible agent | | 🚪 | 6-Step Actionability Gate | Every gesture passes defunct (preflight) → enabled → zero-rect → off-viewport (auto-scrolls) → stable (2-frame rect drift) → receives-events (hit-test path); no flaky taps, and a checks block when the last one could not be proven rather than a silent pass | | 🔖 | Playwright-style Locators | q<N> re-resolvable handles via dusk_find walk the live Semantics tree on every action. Stale handles throw, never silently act on the wrong widget | | 🔄 | Hot Reload + Snap Round-trip | dusk_hot_reload_and_snap returns {reloaded, durationMs, snapshot, screenshot, exceptions} in one call | | 🖥️ | CDP Device Emulation | dusk_resize_viewport and dusk_device_profile (iphone-x, pixel-5, desktop-1440, plus 5 more) drive Chrome DevTools Protocol | | 📈 | Frame Attribution Session | dusk_perf_begin / dusk_perf_end bracket a driven interaction and report which widget types built, how often and for how long, next to wind's cache hit/miss/bypass counters and magic's controller notifies. A session the engine did not render through is REFUSED rather than reported, because a table of zeros reads as "fast" | | 🎨 | Snapshot Enricher Plug-in | DuskPlugin.enrichers.add() lets magic and wind add framework-specific YAML fragments via a frozen String? Function(Element, RefRegistry) contract | | 🔒 | Debug-Only Tree-Shake | Consumer wraps DuskPlugin.install() in kDebugMode; release builds tree-shake the entire driver across web, desktop, and mobile | | 📡 | AI-first Distribution | Canonical fluttersdk-dusk skill at skills/fluttersdk-dusk/ and hosted docs MCP at mcp.fluttersdk.com, distributed to 8+ agents (Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, VS Code Copilot, Codex CLI, Cline, Roo Code) via fluttersdk/ai. First end-to-end driver in the Flutter ecosystem to ship its own LLM-agent skill bundle + docs MCP. |

[!IMPORTANT] DuskPlugin.install() must be wrapped in if (kDebugMode) { ... } at the call site in lib/main.dart. Release builds tree-shake the entire driver across web (dart2js), desktop (dart2native), and mobile (AOT), but only when the guard exists. Without the guard, dusk ships into release binaries.

AI Coding Assistants

Dusk ships AI-first. The skill at skills/fluttersdk-dusk/SKILL.md teaches your agent the 6 core laws, the e<N> / q<N> ref grammar, the 6-step actionability vocabulary, the 35 MCP tool surface, and the agent-workflow playbooks. The same skill is distributed through fluttersdk/ai for Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, VS Code Copilot, Codex CLI, Cline, and Roo Code, one command:

npx skills add fluttersdk/ai --skill fluttersdk-dusk

The hosted MCP server at mcp.fluttersdk.com exposes a search-docs tool over Streamable HTTP (no auth) for agents that need to query the dusk docs corpus directly. For stdio-only clients, the npx @fluttersdk/mcp bridge proxies stdio to the upstream HTTP server. The LLM-readable inventory lives at llms.txt. Full multi-client wire-up and the OpenCode registry URL live in the fluttersdk/ai README.

This is independent of dusk's own runtime MCP server (./bin/fsa mcp:serve, covered in the next section): the docs MCP teaches the agent ABOUT dusk; the runtime MCP gives the agent eyes and hands on a running Flutter app.

MCP install: 8 clients

Dusk is the first Flutter MCP server focused on UI automation (tap, snap, screenshot, observe) rather than runtime telemetry. The 35 dusk_* tools surface to any MCP-compatible agent.

[!NOTE] Configs below use ./bin/fsa (the fastcli wrapper, see top of README). If fastcli is not scaffolded yet, swap ./bin/fsa mcp:serve for dart run fluttersdk_dusk mcp:serve in every client row.

Standard config (any client that reads .mcp.json in the project root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fluttersdk": {
      "command": "./bin/fsa",
      "args": ["mcp:serve"],
      "cwd": "."
    }
  }
}

| Client | Install | |---|---| | Claude Code | claude mcp add fluttersdk -- ./bin/fsa mcp:serve | | VS Code | code --add-mcp '{"name":"fluttersdk","command":"./bin/fsa","args":["mcp:serve"]}', or drop the standard config into .vscode/mcp.json | | Cursor | Settings > MCP > Add new MCP Server, or drop the standard config into ~/.cursor/mcp.json | | Windsurf | Drop the standard config into ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json | | Goose | Advanced settings > Extensions > Add custom extension; paste the standard config | | Warp | Settings > AI > Manage MCP Servers, or /add-mcp slash command with the standard config | | Claude Desktop | Edit claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\) and add the standard config under mcpServers | | Codex | codex mcp add fluttersdk ./bin/fsa mcp:serve |

Before / after

| Without Dusk | With Dusk | |---|---| | You hot-reload, screenshot the result, drag the PNG into Claude, type "the coun