ADB

You can manage Android devices remotely by running an MCP server that talks to ADB. This server exposes practical tools to inspect devices, install or remove apps, push and pull files, capture screenshots, control activities, and adjust permissions, all through a consistent MCP interface.

How to use

You connect your MCP client to the ADB MCP Server and call the available tools to interact with connected Android devices. The server focuses on device management and app lifecycle tasks, such as listing devices, handling packages, pushing or pulling files, taking screenshots, and starting activities. Use the provided client to select a target device and then execute the desired tool with the appropriate inputs.

Key workflows you can perform:

• List connected devices to confirm availability: get-devices
• Browse installed packages on a device with list-packages and apply filters to focus on system, third-party, or enabled/disabled apps
• Install or uninstall apps using install-apk and uninstall-apk with package names or APK paths
• Transfer files to and from the device using push and pull
• Capture the screen with screencap for debugging or documentation
• Manage app data and permissions with clear-app-data, reset-permissions, grant-permission, and revoke-permission
• Interact with apps by starting activities via start-activity
• Perform maintenance tasks like rm to delete files and start/stop the ADB server with start-server and kill-server
• Ask for help at any time with help

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing the server: a working Node.js environment and npm, and access to Android Debug Bridge (ADB) with devices that have USB debugging enabled.

Install ADB on your machine and ensure ADB is accessible from your system PATH.

Enable USB debugging on your Android device: go to Settings > About phone, tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer options, then enable USB debugging.

Install and build the MCP Server for ADB by running the following commands in your shell:

# Clone the repository
git clone [repository-url]
cd mcp-server-adb

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Usage with Claude Desktop

Configure your Claude Desktop to load the ADB MCP Server as an MCP. Use the following JSON configuration block in your Claude Desktop setup to connect to the local server process.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adb": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "/path/to/mcp-server-adb/build/index.js",
        "/path/to/adb"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Available tools

get-devices

List connected Android devices with details. Optional input showDetails toggles detailed output.

list-packages

List installed packages with multiple filters such as showPath, showDisabled, showEnabled, showSystem, showThirdParty, showInstaller, includeUninstalled.

input-text

Send text input to the connected device. Requires text input to be provided.

install-apk

Install an APK onto the device. Supports options like allowReinstall, allowTestPackages, allowDowngrade, and grantPermissions to control installation behavior.

uninstall-apk

Uninstall an application by package name. Optional keepData preserves app data and cache.

clear-app-data

Clear all data for a given package on the device.

pull

Pull a file from the device to the local machine. You can specify a local destination path.

push

Push a local file to a specified path on the device.

screencap

Capture a screenshot from the device and save it to a specified remote path on the device. Optionally save as PNG.

rm

Remove a file on the device. Supports forced and recursive removal.

reset-permissions

Reset all runtime permissions for a given package.

grant-permission

Grant a specific permission to a package.

revoke-permission

Revoke a specific permission from a package.

start-activity

Start an activity using am start with optional component, action, data, mimeType, category, extras, and flags. You can wait for launch, enable debugging, or force-stop the app before launching.

kill-server

Terminate the ADB server process.

start-server

Start the ADB server process.

help

Show ADB help information with available commands and usage notes.