iOS — Direct via WebDriverAgent

Most iOS automation stacks put an Appium server between you and the phone. Qirabot's built-in WDA client skips it: it talks HTTP directly to a WebDriverAgent already running on the device. No Appium, no node, no extra Python packages — the core install is enough.

Element location is AI vision on the screenshot, so there are no XCUITest element queries to maintain, and apps that resist accessibility inspection (games, custom-rendered UIs) work the same as native ones.

The quickest check is the CLI (WDA must be running — setup below):

qirabot ios "Send hi to Alice on WeChat" --bundle-id com.tencent.xin

The same thing in Python:

from qirabot import Qirabot, WdaClient

client = WdaClient("http://127.0.0.1:8100")
client.app_launch("com.apple.Preferences")
bot = Qirabot().bind(client)

result = bot.ai("Open General > About and report the iOS version")
print(f"Success: {result.success}")
bot.close()

Real-device setup (3 steps)

1. Run WebDriverAgent on the phone and keep it running. WebDriverAgent is Appium's open-source iOS agent — clone appium/WebDriverAgent, open it in Xcode, and run the WebDriverAgentRunner scheme against the device with your own signing team (or xcodebuild ... -destination 'id=<udid>' -allowProvisioningUpdates test). You only need the agent itself — no Appium server.
2. Forward the port over USB: iproxy 8100 8100 (from libimobiledevice — brew install libimobiledevice on macOS). Sanity check: curl http://127.0.0.1:8100/status returns JSON.
3. Run your task — the default --wda-url (http://127.0.0.1:8100) now reaches the phone.

The device is selected by --wda-url, not by name. For multiple devices, run one iproxy per device on different local ports and select with --wda-url.

Simulators

For simulators, use the Appium engine instead: pass --device with a simulator device type (a name from xcrun simctl list devicetypes, e.g. iPhone 15) — Appium creates and boots a matching simulator. Requires qirabot[appium].

qirabot ios "..." --device "iPhone 15"

Note: the Appium engine currently targets simulators only (there is no --udid option) — real devices go through the WDA-direct path above. If you already run Appium (or a device cloud), see Appium + Qirabot.

Device screen recording

The default recorder captures the host screen, which a phone doesn't appear on. For iOS runs, record WDA's MJPEG stream instead (port 9100; USB real device: iproxy 9100 9100 alongside the usual 8100 forward — needs ffmpeg on the host):

bot = Qirabot(record_mjpeg_url="http://127.0.0.1:9100")

From the CLI, qirabot ios "..." --record does this automatically and checks the stream is reachable before starting; --mjpeg-url overrides the default. Report layout and all recording knobs: Reports & Recording.

Platform notes

• iOS has no back button; bot.go_back() performs the universal left-edge swipe gesture.
• long_press is available; hover is a no-op, right_click degrades to a tap; clear_text is a best-effort backspace burst (no element model over raw WDA — by design).
• Coming from Airtest 1.x? connect_device("iOS:///http://...:8100") becomes WdaClient("http://...:8100"), and dev.driver.app_launch(...) becomes client.app_launch(...).
• Full per-action behavior: platform support matrix.