ui-dump

name	ui-dump
description	Drive the Android UI on a connected device — dump the UI tree, optionally find a node by text and report its bounds, and optionally tap it. Replaces the hand-rolled `sleep 1 && adb shell uiautomator dump … pull … python3 ui_find.py` loop. Use this any time you would type `adb shell uiautomator dump` to drive the Pixel app, exploratory or otherwise.

ui-dump

Invoked as:

• /ui-dump — print the current UI tree.
• /ui-dump find "<needle>" — print the bounds + text of the first node whose text or content-desc contains <needle>. Exit non-zero if not found.
• /ui-dump tap "<needle>" — find as above and tap the centre of the matched node. Exit non-zero if not found.

This is the canonical wrapper for the dump → pull → find / tap loop. Any time you would otherwise type adb shell uiautomator dump, invoke this skill instead. It does not matter whether the goal is exploratory ("tap through it once and see what happens") or scripted — both go through /ui-dump. The structured scenario verifier /verify-on-device is for end-to-end scenarios with pass/fail assertions; for everything else, this is the entry point.

Device serial — single source

The skill reads the device serial once, in this order, and exits with a clear error if it can't pin a single device:

1. ANDROID_SERIAL env var — the standard adb env var. If set, used verbatim and not re-validated against adb devices.
2. Otherwise adb devices — if exactly one device is in state device, use its serial. If 0 or >1, stop and ask the user to set ANDROID_SERIAL=<serial> or unplug the extras.

The serial is never hard-coded in this skill. The hex 4C200DLAQ0056N from the project's Pixel 9 has no place here — survive phone swaps by routing through ANDROID_SERIAL.

Implementation

The skill delegates to a helper script .claude/skills/ui-dump/ui_dump.sh so the whole operation (dump on device, pull to host, optional Python parse for find/tap) is one allowlistable Bash invocation:

.claude/skills/ui-dump/ui_dump.sh                  # dump
.claude/skills/ui-dump/ui_dump.sh find "<needle>"  # dump + find
.claude/skills/ui-dump/ui_dump.sh tap  "<needle>"  # dump + find + tap

The script:

1. Resolves the serial (env var → adb devices → error).
2. adb -s $SER shell uiautomator dump /sdcard/ui.xml.
3. adb -s $SER pull /sdcard/ui.xml /tmp/ui.xml.
4. For dump — cat /tmp/ui.xml and exit.
5. For find / tap — Python parses /tmp/ui.xml with ElementTree, finds the first <node> whose text or content-desc contains the needle, prints bounds=<x1,y1,x2,y2> text=<…>, and (for tap) computes the centre and runs adb -s $SER shell input tap $cx $cy.

Errors surface verbatim — no swallowing.

When to use

• Exploratory drives: "tap through the Action Editor and see what happens when I pick Media Key" — one or many /ui-dump tap invocations.
• Quick state checks: "is the Connect button visible right now?" — /ui-dump find "Connect".
• One-shot regressions where wiring up a full verify-on-device scenario is overkill.

When NOT to use

• Full feature-test or defect verification with named scenarios. Use /verify-on-device <TASK-ID> <SCENARIO-ID> — it has the scenario catalog, the pass/fail assertions, and the result-handling protocol that this skill deliberately omits.
• Multi-step scripted recipes. Build them up as a verify-on-device scenario instead so future runs are deterministic.

Skill registration

Registered in .vibe/config.toml's enabled_skills list per the project's CLAUDE.md skill-registration rule.