appium

MCP Appium provides a specialized server that exposes a rich set of mobile automation capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. It supports cross-platform automation for Android and iOS, leveraging Appium under the hood to drive UiAutomator2 for Android and XCUITest for iOS. The server offers intelligent locator generation, session management, and automated test creation from natural language descriptions. It also includes templates for Page Object Model usage and configurable capabilities, allowing AI-assisted test creation and interaction in multiple languages. Use the available tooling to establish sessions on local devices or simulators, generate test code, and interact with elements through finding, clicking, typing, and capturing screenshots. The NO_UI mode can be enabled to route lightweight, text-only responses for headless environments or CI pipelines, reducing latency and token usage.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js v22 or higher
• npm or yarn
• Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 or higher
• Android SDK (for Android testing)
• Xcode (for iOS testing on macOS)

Installation steps:

# Option A: Run directly with npx (no global install required)
npx -y appium-mcp@latest

# Option B: Global install (alternative, enables direct command usage)
npm install -g appium-mcp
# Then you can start the MCP server using the configured command in MCP settings

Configuration file example (as used by MCP clients like Cursor, Gemini CLI, Claude Code CLI):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "appium-mcp": {
      "disabled": false,
      "timeout": 100,
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["appium-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "ANDROID_HOME": "/path/to/android/sdk"
      }
    }
  }
}

Additional setup tips:

• Ensure ANDROID_HOME points to your Android SDK path.
• If you plan to test iOS, install Xcode and set up simulators or connected devices accordingly.
• Consider enabling CAPABILITIES_CONFIG to preload device capabilities for faster session creation.
• For performance-sensitive environments, you can enable NO_UI to reduce UI rendering overhead.

Tips and common considerations:

• Environment variables: ANDROID_HOME, CAPABILITIES_CONFIG, NO_UI, SCREENSHOTS_DIR, and CAPABILITIES_CONFIG file path.
• NO_UI mode provides faster responses and lower token usage by skipping HTML UI rendering; ideal for CI/CD pipelines.
• CAPABILITIES_CONFIG allows merging device capabilities for quick session creation across multiple platforms.
• If using Cursor, Gemini, or Claude Code CLIs, ensure you update the Android SDK path in the configuration after installation.
• When using real devices, ensure the devices are discovered by ADB (Android) or Xcode devices (iOS) and have debugging enabled.
• The mcpServers configuration supports multiple servers; each server entry can customize timeout, environment variables, and command arguments.