feat(inspect): add --disable-animations flag to fix uiautomator dump on animated screens

[farhanlabib]

Problem

npx mobilewright inspect fails with:

RpcError: no XML content found in uiautomator dump

This happens on screens that are continuously animated — a ride-searching page with a SurfaceView or TextureView that never settles. uiautomator's XML dump requires a stable layout so it always fails on these screens.

Solution

Adds --disable-animations to the inspect command and disableAnimations() enableAnimations() to the Device class. These call two new RPC methods in mobilecli — device.io.animation-scales.get and device.io.animation-scales.set — to disable the three Android global animation scales before dumping and restore the original values afterward (GET first, so we never assume the scales were 1).

Animations are always restored — in a finally block for the terminal command, on SIGINT for the browser UI, and in a finally block in tests.

Dependencies

Requires: mobile-next/mobilecli#230 — adds device.io.animation-scales.get/set RPC methods to mobilecli (Android only). This PR should be merged after that one.

Depends on: #113 (inspect --ui)

Changes

• AnimationScales type added to @mobilewright/protocol
• getAnimationScales() setAnimationScales() added to the MobilewrightDriver interface, implemented in driver-mobilecli and driver-mobile-use
• Device.disableAnimations() — saves current scales, sets all to 0, returns saved scales
• Device.enableAnimations(saved) — restores to the saved scales (defaults to 1 if none passed)
• --disable-animations flag on inspect (terminal tree dump)
• --disable-animations flag on inspect --ui (browser UI — disabled on start, restored on Ctrl+C)

Usage

# terminal dump on an animated screen
npx mobilewright inspect --disable-animations

# browser UI on an animated screen
npx mobilewright inspect --ui --disable-animations

In tests:

test('ride searching screen', async ({ screen, device }) => {
  const saved = await device.disableAnimations();
  try {
    await expect(screen.getByText('Finding nearby')).toBeVisible();
  } finally {
    await device.enableAnimations(saved);
  }
});

Tested

Built the mobilecli binary from mobile-next/mobilecli#230 locally, swapped it into node_modules, and confirmed device.io.animation-scales.get/set works end-to-end on a live Android device with a continuously animated ride-searching screen.

[gmegidish]

@farhanlabib thanks for another great fix! :). This should go in mobilecli and not mobilewright. So it works also for mobile-mcp and cloud providers using mobilecli and mobilewright on their backend. Mind to move the code there? also, I would do a get first, so we restore what was there, and not assume we need to enable animations at the end of the code.

[farhanlabib]

@farhanlabib thanks for another great fix! :). This should go in mobilecli and not mobilewright. So it works also for mobile-mcp and cloud providers using mobilecli and mobilewright on their backend. Mind to move the code there? also, I would do a get first, so we restore what was there, and not assume we need to enable animations at the end of the code.

Thanks for the guidance! I'll move this to mobilecli and open a PR there. The plan:

1. Add device.animations.get and device.animations.set RPC methods in mobilecli (following the same pattern as device.io.orientation.get/set)
2. get returns the current values for all three scales (window_animation_scale, transition_animation_scale, animator_duration_scale)
3. set writes them — so callers save before disabling and restore the exact original values afterward
4. Update this PR to call those RPC methods via the driver instead of running ADB directly from mobilewright

[farhanlabib]

@farhanlabib thanks for another great fix! :). This should go in mobilecli and not mobilewright. So it works also for mobile-mcp and cloud providers using mobilecli and mobilewright on their backend. Mind to move the code there? also, I would do a get first, so we restore what was there, and not assume we need to enable animations at the end of the code.

Thanks for the guidance! I'll move this to mobilecli and open a PR there. The plan:

1. Add device.animations.get and device.animations.set RPC methods in mobilecli (following the same pattern as device.io.orientation.get/set)
2. get returns the current values for all three scales (window_animation_scale, transition_animation_scale, animator_duration_scale)
3. set writes them — so callers save before disabling and restore the exact original values afterward
4. Update this PR to call those RPC methods via the driver instead of running ADB directly from mobilewright

Done — refactored in the latest commit. The execSync ADB calls are gone. Instead:

• Added AnimationScales type to @mobilewright/protocol
• Added getAnimationScales() / setAnimationScales() to the MobilewrightDriver interface, implemented in both driver-mobilecli and driver-mobile-use
• Device.disableAnimations() now calls driver.getAnimationScales() first to save the real current values, then sets to 0, and returns the saved scales
• Device.enableAnimations(saved) restores exactly what was there before
• Same pattern in inspect and inspect --ui — GET before SET, always restore in finally/SIGINT

This PR depends on mobile-next/mobilecli#230 landing first.