Configuration

The server works with no configuration. These optional settings are given as environment variables.

Variable	Default	Description
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_XCRUN_PATH	xcrun	The xcrun executable.
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_IDB_PATH	idb	The idb executable, used by the ui_* tools.
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_UI_BACKEND	auto	How the interface is driven: companion (a direct connection to idb_companion, the fastest), cli (the idb command line client) or auto (prefers companion and falls back to cli when it cannot be started).
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_IDB_COMPANION_PATH	idb_companion	The idb_companion executable.
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR	$TMPDIR/ios-simulator-mcp	Folder where recordings are saved when no path is given.
IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_DEVICE_CACHE_MS	10000	Milliseconds the list of simulators is reused between calls. 0 disables the cache. See Working fast.

Claude Code

claude mcp add ios-simulator \
  -e IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_IDB_PATH="$(which idb)" \
  -e IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR="$HOME/Desktop/sim" \
  -- node "$(pwd)/dist/index.js"

Claude Desktop and other clients

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ios-simulator": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ios-simulator-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_IDB_PATH": "/Users/you/.local/bin/idb",
        "IOS_SIMULATOR_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR": "/Users/you/Desktop/sim"
      }
    }
  }
}