@testingbot/automation-mcp

MCP server that lets AI agents drive remote browsers and real iOS / Android devices on TestingBot's grid. Real Safari on macOS, Edge on Windows, Firefox, Chrome on any supported OS, plus physical Appium devices — all from one install, no local browser, simulator, or Appium server required. Every session includes a live-view URL so a human can watch the agent drive in real time.

Status: alpha (0.1.0). One install gets you both browser and mobile automation. Mobile is powered by the official appium-mcp, spawned as a child process and proxied through this server — you never need to install or configure it yourself.

What's in the box

Browser automation

Tool	What it does
tb_openBrowser	Start a remote browser session on TestingBot via WebDriver. Returns a sessionId and a liveViewUrl.
tb_navigate	Navigate to a URL.
tb_snapshot	Structured page summary (title, headings, actionable elements, body text).
tb_screenshot	PNG of the current page as a base64 image.
tb_click	Click by CSS / xpath / id / name / tag / class / linkText / partialLinkText.
tb_type	Type into an input (with optional clear / press-Enter). Same by strategies.
tb_getText	Read the visible text of one element (cheap probe).
tb_getAttribute	Read an attribute (href, value, aria-label, data-*, …).
tb_executeScript	Run a JS snippet in the page. Escape hatch for anything not covered above.
tb_pressKey	Press a key/chord on the focused element (Enter, Tab, Control+A, Meta+Shift+Z, …).
tb_closeBrowser	Close a browser session.
tb_listSessions	List active browser sessions managed here.

Every active browser session has a built-in idle reaper (4 min default) and a session cap (5 default). Both are configurable via AutomationOptions.

Mobile (iOS / Android)

The full appium-mcp tool surface — ~30 appium_* tools including appium_session_management, appium_gesture, appium_set_value, appium_screenshot, appium_find_element, appium_app_lifecycle, appium_perform_actions, and more — is proxied straight through. The agent calls them by name; we forward each call to a bundled appium-mcp child process over MCP.

We pre-inject two things for every session-create call:

• remoteServerUrl = the credentialed TestingBot Appium hub URL (https://<key>:<secret>@hub.testingbot.com/wd/hub)
• REMOTE_SERVER_URL_ALLOW_REGEX = a strict regex limiting connections to TestingBot's hub only

So the agent only needs to call appium_session_management(action: "create", capabilities: { platformName: "iOS", ... }). No URL, no credentials, no setup.

Mobile tools won't appear if the bundled appium-mcp package fails to start (e.g. its native deps can't be loaded). Browser tools work independently.

Install

One MCP, two surfaces:

npx @testingbot/automation-mcp

Example Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "testingbot-automation": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@testingbot/automation-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TESTINGBOT_KEY": "your-api-key",
        "TESTINGBOT_SECRET": "your-api-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

That's it. No second MCP, no extra env vars.

Heads-up on install size. Bundling appium-mcp brings in its full mobile-driver stack — XCUITest, UiAutomator2, langchain, and a few hundred MB of dependencies. First npm install will take longer than a typical MCP server. The cost is paid once.

Composed as a library

If you're already running @testingbot/mcp-server for resource management, the automation tools compose into the same server instance — no second MCP entry, no extra process. @testingbot/mcp-server does this automatically; the example below is for any other host MCP:

import { addAutomationTools } from "@testingbot/automation-mcp";

const handle = await addAutomationTools(server, testingBotApi, config, {
  idleTimeoutMs: 4 * 60 * 1000,  // optional, default
  maxSessions: 5,                 // optional, default
});

// On shutdown, close any live sessions AND the bundled appium-mcp child:
await handle.shutdown();

addAutomationTools is async because it spawns and discovers tools from the bundled appium-mcp child. The host MUST await it before serving its first tools/list response, otherwise mobile tools won't be visible to the client.

The library entry expects the same server.tool(name, desc, schema, handler) duck-type used by @testingbot/mcp-server's other tool families.

Live view (the killer feature)

Every tb_openBrowser response includes:

- **Live view** (open in a browser tab to watch): https://testingbot.com/tests/<sessionId>/live?auth=<hash>

Click that URL → you see the AI driving in real time. Works for any TestingBot session — Safari, Chrome, iOS, Android, etc. — same URL pattern: https://testingbot.com/tests/<sessionId>/live?auth=<md5(key:secret:sessionId)>.

For mobile sessions, ask the agent to surface the live-view URL after appium_session_management returns the sessionId.

Example prompts

Browser:

Open Safari 17 on macOS Sonoma on TestingBot. Go to news.ycombinator.com, get an ARIA snapshot, summarize the top 5 stories, then close the session.

Mobile (iOS simulator app):

Open an iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 17 on TestingBot, install the app at tb://abc123, tap the "Sign in" button, take a screenshot, then close the session.

Mobile (Android web):

Open Chrome on a Pixel 8 with Android 14 on TestingBot, browse to wikipedia.org, search for "Appium", take a screenshot, then close.

Behind the scenes for mobile, the agent:

1. Calls appium_session_management({ action: "create", capabilities: { platformName: "iOS", "appium:deviceName": "iPhone 15 Pro", ... } }). We inject the credentialed remoteServerUrl automatically.
2. Uses appium_gesture / appium_set_value / appium_screenshot / appium_find_element / etc. to drive the device.
3. Closes via appium_session_management({ action: "delete", sessionId }).

Caveats (read these)

• Sessions cost money. Every minute a remote browser or device is alive consumes TestingBot test minutes. The idle reaper closes browser sessions at 4 min by default; for mobile, ask the agent to be explicit about closing.
• TestingBot kills sessions at ~5 min idle. Our reaper closes browser sessions at 4 min so the close is clean instead of disconnect-on-next-call.
• WebDriver throughout. Browser sessions use the same protocol TestingBot is native to, so Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox all work without a per-browser code path. Mobile uses WebDriver too via Appium.
• Live view URL leaks an MD5 hash. Don't paste it in public places — anyone with the URL can watch your session.
• Mobile traffic is locked to TestingBot's hub. We set REMOTE_SERVER_URL_ALLOW_REGEX in the appium-mcp child's env to a strict regex; the child will refuse any remoteServerUrl pointing elsewhere, even if the agent supplies one.

Development

npm ci
npm run dev          # watch mode
npm test             # vitest
npm run lint
npm run build        # lint + format:check + test + tsc

License

MIT — see LICENSE.