simdrive 1.0.0a8 — device session usable on real hardware

[1.0.0a8] — 2026-05-06 (alpha — device session usable on real hardware)

First end-to-end real-device dogfood (a7, iPhone 17 Pro Max "Moes Max",
iOS 26.3.1, 2026-05-06) catalogued 12 device-session bugs in
simdrive/docs/DOGFOOD_FEEDBACK_2026_05_06_MOES_MAX.md. a8 fixes 11 of
12; the twelfth (D6, empty idevicesyslog output) ships as
investigation-only because the original simctl diagnosis was wrong and
the right fix differs by root cause — see
simdrive/docs/D6_LOGS_INVESTIGATION.md.

Net effect: a7 = "WDA bootstraps but MCP can't drive it"; a8 = "MCP
device session is usable end-to-end". Suite went 678 → 711 passed.

Fixed — priority unlock (turns "unusable" into "usable")

• D3 device.launch_app no longer passes --start-stopped=false —
  modern devicectl rejected the flag, blocking every session_start
  with app_bundle_id.
• D2 session_start target=device now opens a default WDA test
  session unconditionally (with or without app_bundle_id); input verbs
  no longer hit wda_session_not_open.
• D1 observe gates screenshot_b64 behind a new
  include_screenshot_b64 param (default false). The unconditional
  101k-char b64 payload was overflowing the MCP token budget on real
  devices. screenshot_path is still returned by default.

Fixed — daemonization

• B3 bootstrap-device now passes start_new_session=True to the
  xcodebuild Popen and redirects stdout/stderr to
  ~/.simdrive/wda/<udid>.log; PID written to
  ~/.simdrive/wda/<udid>.pid. WDA survives bootstrap exit; users no
  longer need a manual nohup workaround.
• B3 new CLI: simdrive wda-up <udid> (relaunch from registry
  without rebuilding) and simdrive wda-down <udid> (SIGTERM via
  pidfile).

Fixed — simctl-leak cluster (device sessions stop using simctl)

• D4 Device-launch failure raises device_launch_failed with a
  devicectl-aware recovery hint instead of no_device with a simctl
  hint.
• D5 tool_apps for target=device now queries
  xcrun devicectl device info apps --device <udid> --json-output -
  instead of returning {apps: []} from a simctl-only call.
• D7 tool_app_state for target=device now queries
  xcrun devicectl device info processes ... instead of leaking
  simctl's "Invalid device" error string.
• New helper simdrive.diagnostics._devicectl_info_json underlies both.

Fixed — bootstrap polish

• B1 verify_xcode_account_for_team(team_id) now scans the parsed
  plist output of defaults read com.apple.dt.Xcode DVTDeveloperAccountManagerAppleIDLists for an actual team binding
  (teamID/teamIDs/DVTDeveloperAccountTeamID) instead of grepping
  for the literal substring "identifier" (which matched any non-empty
  account list and let bootstraps proceed when no account was bound to
  the requested team).
• B2 When multiple Apple Development certs share the requested
  team_id, the most-recently-issued cert is auto-picked instead of
  raising wda_signing_ambiguous. Ambiguity is still raised when
  team_id was not provided.
• B4 When xcodebuild build-for-testing emits a BUILD FAILED
  before its -allowProvisioningUpdates retry succeeds, the FAILED line
  is logged at DEBUG with a single INFO-level summary
  ("First attempt failed pending provisioning fetch; retry succeeded
  …expected"). Stops scaring users on first-run bootstraps.

Fixed — session metadata

• D8 bootstrap-device now captures device name from
  xcrun devicectl device info details and iOS version from WDA
  /status; ~/.simdrive/wda/<udid>.json carries device_name and
  os_version keys; tool_session_start returns these instead of
  device: "Real Device", os_version: "".

Investigated (not fixed — gated to a9)

• D6 tool_logs returns empty on real devices. The original a7
  report blamed simctl, but the device path actually uses
  idevicesyslog. Five candidate root causes ranked
  (1s-warmup-too-short → broken brew binary → over-aggressive predicate
  → DEVNULL'd stderr → Developer Mode regression) in
  simdrive/docs/D6_LOGS_INVESTIGATION.md. a9 will pick the right fix
  after Lyrasis dogfood captures idevicesyslog -u <udid> 2>&1 against
  Palace on a real device.

Tests

• 33 new tests across the four fix waves (1.0.0a7 baseline 678 →
  1.0.0a8 711 passing, 1 skipped).
• D5/D7 verified live against an iPad on iOS 26 / Xcode 26 (devicectl
  JSON shape confirmed).

Known

• CHANGELOG history for a3 → a7 not yet backfilled (gap pre-dates a8).
• Pre-existing iOS 26 simulator TextField-focus timing flake in
  test_e2e_testkit.py::test_type_text_followed_by_submit_produces_result
  can intermittently fail on busy hosts; passes on isolated rerun and
  full suite re-runs.