📱 Appium MCP (Mobile Automation)

Priority: P1 (HIGH)

[!IMPORTANT] Tier 0 (Infrastructure): Session creation, device farm connectivity, basic OS interactions. Tier 1 (Core Gestures): Taps, swipes, text input for native mobile elements. Tier 2 (Flutter/Single-Canvas): Visual-first automation via screenshot + coordinate taps.

🔌 Activation

Triggers: appium, appium-mcp, appium doctor, mobile verify, android verify, ios verify, lambdatest, real device cloud, flutter widget tap.

🪜 Driver Ladder

1. sh scripts/preflight.sh — prints MODE: local | local,remote | remote | none; exit 0 usable, 2 not.
2. Local: select_device (Android) or prepare_ios_simulator (iOS), embedded drivers. Needs Node 22+, JDK 8+ / Xcode.
3. Cloud: remoteServerUrl (LambdaTest/BrowserStack). URL must match REMOTE_SERVER_URL_ALLOW_REGEX.
4. Neither: ask for exported screenshots or cloud video link; label human-provided.
5. Nothing exported: return BLOCKED (driver: appium), continue other lanes.

NO_UI=true default; AI_VISION_ENABLED=true only for Flutter/canvas. Local single-user or trusted CI only. generate_locators / appium_generate_tests feed test-loop step 4. Full table: driver-ladder.

🛠 Core Workflow (Goal-Oriented)

Step	Tool	Purpose
0	select_device / prepare_ios_simulator	Pick target per ladder rung; cloud skips this.
1	appium_session_management (create)	Open session. Resiliency: Retry with noReset: true on failure.
2	appium_get_window_size	Scale coordinates for high-density displays.
3	appium_screenshot	Capture visual state for Semantic Reasoning.
4	appium_gesture / appium_set_value	Interact. Self-Healing: Re-scan hierarchy if UUID stale.
5	appium_session_management (delete)	MANDATORY Cleanup.

💡 AI-Driven Methodologies

• Semantic Intent: Find element in hierarchy (e.g., "Login button") instead of raw coordinates. Resilient to layout shifts.
• Dynamic Handling: Unexpected pop-up appears? Pause, reason about alert, dismiss, resume.
• Visual Anchors: Find stable "Anchor" (e.g., Header) and derive coordinates relative to it.

🚫 Anti-Patterns (Zero-Tolerance)

• Hardcoded XPaths: Use accessibility id or uiautomator. XPath flaky.
• Implicit Wait-Only: Never assume page loaded. Poll for "Source of Truth" element.
• Ignoring QoS: Audit CPU/Memory via appium_mobile_performance_data. Prevent lag/crashes.
• Orphaned Sessions: Teardown mandatory. Call delete in cleanup block.

📁 Evidence

.appium-mcp/<session>/: <AC|step>-<before|after>.png (nav shots at maxWidth budget, verdict full-res), <label>.source.xml from appium_get_page_source, perf.json, video.url. Walkthrough records driver: + evidence_dir:.

✅ Evaluation Criteria

• Cleanup Rate: 100% session closure.
• Visual Accuracy: Coordinate-based taps land within 5% of target center.
• Security: No secrets in tool arguments or logs.

🔗 References

• Visual Testing: common-mobile-visual-testing — Methodology for what to verify.
• Driver Ladder: driver-ladder — prerequisites per rung, server env, canonical tools.
• Setup: setup — install, MCP registration snippet, security, alternatives not adopted.
• LambdaTest Setup: lambdatest-cloud-setup — RDC configuration.
• Tool Cheatsheet: tool-cheatsheet — Fast copy-paste args.
• Project Context: project-context — Project-specific overlays/macros.