austinintelligence/android-use

android-use Give AI an Android device. Your agent sees the screen, taps, types, opens apps, and drives Chrome on a real phone or a local emulator, in about two tool calls per task.

Install · Connect an agent · Emulators · Documentation · Changelog

One call, then only what changed

Fewer round trips and shorter results are the point. Measured on an API 36 emulator over MCP, 13 tasks run 10 times each, against the same tasks before the changes in 1.1 (method and numbers):

Tap latency is unchanged (p50 about 700 ms). Screen listings are 36% shorter, not the 50% we aimed for; the saving that matters is after an action, where a one-line diff replaces a full listing.

Install

You need Android 8 or newer with USB debugging, or an emulator. au runs on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux (x86_64 and arm64), and Windows (x86_64 and arm64).

npx -y [email protected] setup                 # npm; needs Node.js 20.11+
brew install austinintelligence/tap/android-use && au setup   # Homebrew
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/austinintelligence/android-use/v1.2.0/install/install.sh | ANDROID_USE_VERSION=1.2.0 sh && au setup

On Windows, run install/install.ps1 in PowerShell, or unzip the archive from Releases and run .\au.exe setup. Every download is checked against SHA256SUMS, and the archive contains au with the Android helper built in.

setup installs the helper on the device, registers Android Use with every agent it finds, and finishes with a live read of the screen. Android asks you to allow USB debugging and to turn on Android-Use under Settings → Accessibility; Android Use never skips those prompts. Step by step →

Use Android Use in your agent

Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, or any coding agent:

Run `npx -y [email protected] setup`, follow its prompts, then use android_read and android_act.

Or register one agent yourself:

au install claude      # also: codex, cursor, gemini, vscode, claude-desktop, opencode, all
au install --dry-run   # show what would change; nothing is written

Only the android-use entry is added or removed; every other setting stays as it was (client details). The agent gets two tools, each taking one command string: android_read looks (screen, page, notifications, help), and android_act does (tap "Wi-Fi", type "hello" in "Message", open app "Chrome"). Agents without MCP use the same commands from a shell: au read screen, au act 'tap "Wi-Fi"'. Coding agents can start with AGENTS.md.

No phone? Use an emulator

au emulator doctor           # needs the Android SDK; if it says none, install Android Studio or the command-line tools first
au emulator install          # fetch the missing emulator package and system image (you accept Google's license)
au emulator create demo
au emulator start demo
au --target demo setup       # then turn on Android-Use in the emulator's Accessibility settings

Each emulator is its own target with its own enrollment, journal, and serve lock, so an agent can work on one while you use your phone. Snapshots, restarts, and identity checks are covered in Emulators and targets.

What it can do

Capability details →

How it works

au on your computer talks to a small helper app on the device over ADB. Every action is checked against the screen it was planned from, journaled so it runs at most once, and bounded in size and time. Android still owns every sensitive prompt, the helper has no internet permission, and au exposes no shell. Security model → · Architecture →

Documentation

FAQ

Status

Android Use targets Android 8 and newer; the automated checks run on an Android 16 (API 36) emulator and real devices. Optional capabilities vary by device, and au doctor is the authority for what a connected one supports. MIT licensed; contributions are welcome, see CONTRIBUTING.md.