ios-simulator

name	ios-simulator
description	Drive an iOS Simulator headlessly on macOS: discover and boot a device, install and launch an app, drive its UI by accessibility (AXe) rather than brittle coordinates, capture screenshots, and navigate the simulator's own chrome, menus, and execution modes. The iOS analog of android-emulator-harness and playwright-harness. Project-agnostic core; Expo/React-Native specifics live in expo-ios-simulator, and "make the app driveable" lives in mobile-accessibility. Use for any task that is "boot/run an iOS simulator", "drive an iOS screen", "screenshot the simulator", or "automate an iOS flow".
status	complete
sources	["xcrun simctl help and AXe (axe --help); each reference file below carries the per-command provenance","https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/running-your-app-in-the-simulator-or-on-a-device"]

iOS Simulator (core, project-agnostic)

The kernel for driving an iOS Simulator on macOS. Layers sit ON TOP of this: expo-ios-simulator (the Expo/React-Native runtime), mobile-accessibility (the tree you drive against), ios-simulator-triage (when it breaks), and ios-simulator-flow-evidence (capturing proof). Everything here goes through xcrun simctl and AXe; the Simulator app window is touched only for what the CLI cannot do.

Before anything

Run the checks and install the driver: prerequisites.md. In short, macOS with Xcode (so xcrun simctl), a booted simulator, and AXe (brew install cameroncooke/axe/axe).

The loop

1. Boot, install, launch an app on a device (references/lifecycle.md): find the booted UDID, simctl install, simctl launch.
2. Drive by accessibility, not coordinates (references/driving.md): axe tap --id or --label, axe type, axe swipe or gesture. See mobile-accessibility for what makes an app addressable.
3. Capture (references/capture.md): simctl io ... screenshot; the screenshot is the device framebuffer, so window size and position never matter. Verify it with vision.
4. Set device state and permissions (references/permissions.md, references/device-state.md): simctl privacy to skip dialogs; appearance, status bar, location, media, clipboard, and push to put the device in a known state.
5. The app's own chrome (references/simulator-ui.md): menu-only features, the window geometry, and opening a URL on the device.

Rules

The first three are laws about how this environment fails; internalize them before the first command, because the failures they prevent emit no error.

• Trust effects, not exit codes. Every actuation channel here confirms delivery, not processing: AXe synthesizes HID events (references/driving.md), an AppleScript menu click returns success even when Simulator is backgrounded and the click never lands (references/simulator-ui.md), and simctl launch / openurl return before the app is interactive (observed, reproducible; the readiness gates in expo-ios-simulator references/development-builds.md exist for exactly this). After any step whose outcome matters, verify the state actually changed: re-run axe describe-ui, or screenshot and read it.
• Gate on readiness signals, never fixed sleeps. Wait on something provably true: simctl bootstatus -b for boot (references/lifecycle.md), --wait-timeout for an element, the accessibility tree growing labels for a screen. A sleep that worked once is a flake that has not fired yet. Layer skills add their own signals (Metro's /status probe and the first-bundle wait in expo-ios-simulator).
• Ask what is on top before blaming the target. iOS stacks surfaces over the app: permission and app alerts, the software keyboard, and (on Expo) the dev menu, the LogBox toast, and the inspector overlay. When a tap silently does nothing or the tree looks wrong, dump the label inventory (references/driving.md) and clear the overlay first; ios-simulator-triage references/automation-failures.md walks the causes.
• Prefer simctl and AXe (accessibility) over the window and coordinates, and identity over coordinates (the targeting ladder in references/driving.md). Read the Simulator's state; never resize or full-screen it.
• Every factual claim here and in the references cites a primary source (the tool's own help, Apple, AXe); a prior-art skill is never a source.

Where to go next

• Running an Expo or React Native app, the dev menu, the recurring launch prompts: expo-ios-simulator.
• A build, runtime, or automation failure: ios-simulator-triage.
• Screenshots and video as proof artifacts: ios-simulator-flow-evidence.