| name | using-fdb |
| description | Uses fdb (Flutter Debug Bridge) CLI to interact with running Flutter apps on devices and simulators. Launches or attaches to apps, hot reloads, screenshots, reads app logs (`fdb logs`) and native system logs (`fdb syslog` — Android logcat, iOS syslog, macOS log), fetches OS-level crash records (`fdb crash-report` — jetsam, LMK, native .ips), inspects widget trees, describes screens including off-screen GridView/ListView children, taps/inputs/scrolls/swipes/navigates, forces garbage collection (`fdb gc`), and grants/revokes/resets runtime permissions (`fdb grant-permission`). Use when launching or attaching to a Flutter app on device (including apps started outside fdb via Xcode/simctl/adb), hot reloading, taking screenshots, reading app or native system logs, diagnosing native crashes (jetsam, LMK), fetching post-mortem crash reports, inspecting or describing the UI, interacting with widgets via fdb, forcing a GC to disambiguate live-retained vs unreachable-but-uncollected memory, or pre-granting runtime permissions before automated tests. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | opencode |
Overview - skill version 1.10.0
Version check: Run fdb --version. This skill may describe unreleased branch behavior.
Update: dart pub global activate --source git https://github.com/andrzejchm/fdb.git
Install
dart pub global activate --source git https://github.com/andrzejchm/fdb.git
Verify: fdb status
fdb_helper setup (required for in-app UI/data commands)
The describe, tap, double-tap, longpress, input, scroll, scroll-to, wait, swipe, swipe-path, back, clean, and shared-prefs commands require fdb_helper in the Flutter app under test. Some platform screenshot fallbacks also use it. Adding fdb_helper also enables automatic VM service URI discovery for fdb attach on Android and iOS — no manual --debug-url needed.
pubspec.yaml:
dev_dependencies:
fdb_helper: ^1.10.0
main.dart:
import 'package:fdb_helper/fdb_helper.dart';
import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
void main() {
if (!kReleaseMode) {
FdbBinding.ensureInitialized();
}
runApp(MyApp());
}
After adding fdb_helper, run flutter pub get and relaunch the app.
Command index
Run fdb skill <topic> to print full docs, flags, output tokens, and best practices for a topic.
| Topic | Commands | Run |
|---|
| launch | devices, launch, attach, doctor, reload, restart, status, kill, deeplink | fdb skill launch |
| interact | screenshot, tree, describe, select, selected, native-tap, tap, longpress, double-tap, input, scroll, scroll-to, swipe, swipe-path, back | fdb skill interact |
| data | shared-prefs, clean, ext, grant-permission | fdb skill data |
| diagnostics | logs, syslog, crash-report + websocat fallback | fdb skill diagnostics |
| memory | mem, gc, heap | fdb skill memory |
| simulator | simulator (appearance, text-size, status-bar, location, push, defaults) | fdb skill simulator |
Session directory
All state lives in <project>/.fdb/. fdb auto-resolves by walking up from CWD — no need to cd to the project root. Key files: logs.txt, vm_uri.txt, platform.txt, app_id.txt, screenshot.png. Full reference: fdb skill launch.
