ios-emulator

name	ios-emulator
description	Control and interact with the iOS simulator via the steve CLI — launch apps, tap UI elements, take screenshots, and read accessibility trees.

Steve - iOS automation

• steve is added to PATH by the repo dev shell and is backed by scripts/ui/steve.
• Use steve to verify iOS behavior and navigate the app.
• The wrapper re-enters the repo's .#xcode shell automatically when needed.

Quick start

# Launch app and verify
steve launch && steve a11y && steve screenshot /tmp/s.png
# Use Read tool on screenshot only if a11y is ambiguous or visual verification needed.

# Tap by exact accessibility text and verify
steve tap "Get started" && steve a11y && steve screenshot /tmp/s.png

# Tap unlabeled element by coordinates (from a11y bounds)
steve tap 200,780 && steve a11y && steve screenshot /tmp/s.png

# Scroll down to find more elements
steve swipe 200 700 200 200 300 && steve a11y && steve screenshot /tmp/s.png

# Type into the focused element
steve type "hello"

# Target a specific simulator; use this for parallel agents/simulators
steve --device <UDID> a11y

Workflow tips

• screenshot and a11y auto-wait for idle. You usually do NOT need wait-for-idle or sleep before them.
• Chain commands with && for tap-then-verify workflows: steve tap "Continue" && steve screenshot /tmp/s.png
• Always check a11y on unfamiliar screens before tapping by text. Some controls are exposed only by coordinates or IDs.
• tap "text" is exact-match only. Use the exact visible accessibility text from a11y.
• a11y output is normalized, not raw Appium XML. Bounds are printed in (left,top,right,bottom) form.
• For navigation, prefer visible buttons like HeaderBackButton, Close, or direct coordinate taps. There is no Android-style key 4 BACK command here.
• For parallel simulator work, pass --device <UDID> on every command. Steve keeps separate Appium sessions per device, bundle, port, and headless mode.
• If the app or simulator gets into a bad state, reuse launch, stop, or reset rather than trying random taps.
• Use screenshots for real UI verification. a11y is enough for navigation, but screenshots are better for confirming layout and styling.

Reference

steve screens                      # list available iOS simulators
steve info                         # print selected simulator info as JSON
steve launch                       # launch the configured bundle ID
steve restart                      # terminate and relaunch without clearing Appium session
steve stop                         # terminate the configured bundle ID
steve reset                        # uninstall the configured bundle ID, reinstall if --app is provided
steve open-url https://example.com # open URL in the simulator
steve wait-for-idle                # wait until the page source is stable
steve screenshot /tmp/s.png        # save an app screenshot
steve a11y                         # print a normalized accessibility tree
steve tap "Button text"            # tap by exact accessibility text
steve tap 200,780                  # tap by coordinates
steve swipe 200 700 200 200 300    # swipe (optional 5th arg: duration_ms)
steve type "hello"                 # type into the focused element

Useful options:

steve --device <UDID> ...
steve --bundle com.fedi ...
steve --app /absolute/path/to/FediReactNative.app ...
steve --no-wait ...
steve --no-boot ...