erius-phone-mcp
An MCP server that turns yourERIUS PHONE device into native tools for Claude Code,Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any other MCP client. An ERIUS PHONE device is a realAndroid phone or tablet dedicated to your agent. Once this server is connected,your agent can:
- list its devices
- read the screen as an accessibility tree or a screenshot
- tap, long-press, type, swipe and scroll
- launch and stop apps, open URLs and send intents
- install and uninstall APKs
- pull crash logs
The agent drives the device directly. You don't write any glue code.
Early access: this package is pre-1.0 (
0.1.0). Tool names andarguments may still change before 1.0.
Requirements
- Python 3.10+
- An ERIUS PHONE API key. Sign up at https://eriusphone.com; see"Getting an API key" below.
Install
Option A: uvx (no install step). If you haveuv, your MCP client can launch the server withuvx erius-phone-mcp. uv fetches the package and keeps it in its ownenvironment. The client configs below show this form.
Option B: pip, into its own virtual environment so its dependenciesdon't clash with your other Python projects:
python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/erius-phone-mcp
~/.venvs/erius-phone-mcp/bin/pip install erius-phone-mcp
This installs an erius-phone-mcp command at~/.venvs/erius-phone-mcp/bin/erius-phone-mcp. Use that absolute path asthe command in your client config: GUI apps such as Claude Desktop and Cursorusually don't see your venv's PATH. python -m erius_phone_mcp does the samething as running the command.
Configuration
The server is configured entirely through environment variables:
| Variable | Required | What it is |
|---|---|---|
ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY |
yes | Your ERIUS PHONE API key. Every request is authenticated with it and scoped to your account. |
ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE |
no | The device id to use when a tool call doesn't name one (e.g. vanilla). Without it, the agent passes device on each call; list_devices shows the ids. |
ERIUS_PHONE_API_URL |
no | API base URL. Default https://api.eriusphone.com; only set it if we gave you a different one. |
ERIUS_PHONE_TIMEOUT |
no | HTTP timeout per request, in seconds. Default 30. |
Getting an API key
Request access at https://eriusphone.com. During early access the ERIUSPHONE team sets up each account by hand. You'll receive your API key anddevice id(s) directly from us. If you signed up and haven't heard back, email[email protected]. The same key signs you in to the dashboard athttps://eriusphone.com/dashboard/, which shows your devices live.
Treat the key like a password: anyone who has it can control your device.
Important: MCP clients start this server as a subprocess, and theygenerally do not pass along variables you
exportin your shell. Putthe variables in the client'senvblock, as shown below.
Add it to your MCP client
In every example, replace the key and device id with your own. If youinstalled with pip instead of using uvx, replace "command": "uvx", "args": ["erius-phone-mcp"] with "command": "/home/you/.venvs/erius-phone-mcp/bin/erius-phone-mcp".
Claude Code
claude mcp add erius-phone \
-e ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY=your-api-key \
-e ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE=your-device-id \
-- uvx erius-phone-mcp
Add -s user to make the server available in all your projects, or-s project to write it to a shared .mcp.json. Don't commit your key to ashared .mcp.json. Claude Code expands ${VAR} references in that file, soyou can keep the key in an environment variable instead:
{
"mcpServers": {
"erius-phone": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["erius-phone-mcp"],
"env": {
"ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY": "${ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY}",
"ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE": "your-device-id"
}
}
}
}
Run /mcp inside Claude Code to check that erius-phone is connected.
Claude Desktop
Edit claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config). OnmacOS it's in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/; on Windows it's in%APPDATA%\Claude\.
{
"mcpServers": {
"erius-phone": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["erius-phone-mcp"],
"env": {
"ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
"ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE": "your-device-id"
}
}
}
}
If Claude Desktop can't find uvx, put its absolute path in command(which uvx). Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop after editing.
Cursor
Put the same mcpServers block in ~/.cursor/mcp.json to use it in allprojects, or in .cursor/mcp.json for one project. Then enable erius-phoneunder Cursor Settings → MCP.
Any other MCP client
The server speaks MCP over stdio. Point your client at uvx erius-phone-mcp, or at the erius-phone-mcp executable, and pass theenvironment variables above.
Tools
Every tool that acts on a device takes an optional device argument. If youleave it out, the tool uses ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE.
Account and devices
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
whoami |
Which account and key this server is using, and the device ids it can access. A quick way to check the key works. |
list_devices |
Every device your key can access, with live status (booted, Android version, screen size). |
get_device |
Full status of one device, including the app currently in the foreground. |
Seeing the screen
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
snapshot |
Accessibility-tree snapshot of the current screen: every visible element with its text, role and a ref you can pass to tap/type/scroll. Refs reset on every snapshot. |
screenshot |
PNG of the screen at native resolution, returned as MCP image content, so the model sees the screen directly. |
foreground |
Just the foreground app (package, activity) and whether a crash dialog is showing. |
wait_for_text |
Wait until some text appears on screen, up to timeout_ms (max 120000). Returns the snapshot it saw. |
Acting on the screen
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
tap |
Tap by ref, by visible text/content_desc, or at raw x,y pixels. |
long_press |
Long-press by ref, by text/content_desc, or at x,y (optional hold time ms). |
type_text |
Type into a field. Can tap a ref/text_target first, clear the field, and press Enter after. |
press_key |
back, home, enter, delete, tab, escape, up, down, left, right, space, power, volup, voldown, recent, menu, wakeup, or a numeric keycode. |
swipe |
Swipe between two points in device pixels. |
scroll |
Scroll a container up/down/left/right. Pass the ref of the ScrollView/List itself, not of a row inside it. |
Apps
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
launch_app |
Launch an installed app by package name (e.g. com.android.settings). |
open_url |
Open an http/https/market URL, optionally in a specific app. |
send_intent |
Start an activity with any intent action, e.g. android.settings.WIFI_SETTINGS, with optional data, package, component and extras. |
stop_app |
Force-stop an app. |
list_apps |
Installed apps; third_party_only=True for user-installed ones only. |
install_apk |
Upload and install an APK from a file on the machine running this server. Returns package name, version, and whether the install succeeded. |
uninstall_app |
Uninstall an app by package name. |
get_crash_log |
The device's crash log buffer (logcat -b crash). Use it after an app crashes to see the real stack trace. |
Quick example
Once the server is connected, ask your agent in plain language, e.g."List my ERIUS devices, go to the home screen, and open Contacts." Here's whathappens under the hood. The outputs below are real, lightly trimmed.
1. Find your device. The agent calls list_devices:
{"devices": [
{"id": "vanilla", "description": "redroid Android 13, no Google services", "state": "device",
"bootCompleted": true, "android": "13", "sdk": 33, "screen": {"width": 720, "height": 1280}},
{"id": "tablet1", "form": "tablet", "description": "redroid Android 13 (vanilla, tablet)", "state": "device",
"bootCompleted": true, "android": "13", "sdk": 33, "screen": {"width": 1600, "height": 2560}}
]}
2. Go home and look at the screen. press_key(key="home", device="vanilla")returns {"ok": true}, then snapshot(device="vanilla") returns theforeground app plus this tree:
- Group
- ScrollView [ref=1]
- Group
- AppWidgetHostView (Search)
...
- Text [ref=4] "Gallery" (Gallery)
- View (Home)
- Group
- Text [ref=5] "Contacts" (Contacts)
- Text [ref=6] "WebView Browser Tester" (WebView Browser Tester)
- Text [ref=7] "Camera" (Camera)
3. Tap something. tap(device="vanilla", ref="5"), tap(device="vanilla", text="Contacts") and tap(device="vanilla", x=102, y=1116) all open Contactsand return {"ok": true}. After any action, take a fresh snapshot, becauserefs are only valid until the next one.
4. Check the result. foreground(device="vanilla") now reports theContacts app, and screenshot(device="vanilla") returns the screen as animage your agent sees directly.
Installing an APK for QA works the same way:
install_apk(device="vanilla", apk_path="/path/to/app.apk")
→ {"ok": true, "package": "com.erius.dashtest", "versionName": "1.0", "label": "ERIUS Dash Test",
"adbOutput": "Performing Streamed Install\nSuccess", "ms": 94, ...}
Tips and limits
- Errors are passed through. If the API refuses an action, the tool callfails with the API's error code and message, e.g.
HTTP 404: SelectorNotFound ... nothing on screen matches {"text": "..."}orHTTP 422: no_launcher_activity. The agent can read the message and adjust. - Typing needs a ready field. Keystrokes sent while a field is stillopening are lost. If tapping a field opens a new screen (as AndroidSettings' search does), tap it, wait with
snapshot/wait_for_text, thencalltype_textwithout a target. Check the result withsnapshot. - ASCII-only typing.
type_textsupports printable ASCII only (an adblimitation): no emoji, accented characters or non-Latin scripts. - Scroll by container.
scrollneeds the ref of the scrollable container(aScrollView/Listline in the snapshot). If the container has no ref,useswipe. - Screenshots cost context. A phone screenshot (720×1280) is ~50–700 KB;a tablet screenshot (1600×2560) can be several MB. Prefer
snapshot(text,much smaller) and take screenshots only when you need pixels. install_apkreads a local file. The path is on the machine runningerius-phone-mcp, not on the phone. The APK is streamed from disk anduploaded in full on each call.- One server process = one API key. To use several accounts, add severalserver entries with different names and keys.
- Rate limits. The API allows about 30 requests per second per IP andqueues at most 8 requests per device; beyond that you get HTTP 429.
Troubleshooting
ERIUS_PHONE_API_KEY is not set: the variable didn't reach the serverprocess. Put it in the client'senvblock, not just your shell. The serveralso prints a warning about this on stderr at startup, which shows up in yourclient's MCP logs.no device id given and ERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE is not set: passdevice=in the tool call or setERIUS_PHONE_DEFAULT_DEVICE.list_devicesshows your ids.HTTP 401: the key is wrong or revoked.HTTP 403: the device id doesn'texist or isn't on your account. Runwhoamito see which devices your keycan use.HTTP 503 device_offline: the device is restarting. Retry shortly.could not reach the ERIUS PHONE API at ...: the URL is wrong, or the APIis unreachable from your machine. CheckERIUS_PHONE_API_URL, and raiseERIUS_PHONE_TIMEOUTif you're on a slow link.
License
MIT. The full license text is in the LICENSE file shipped with the package.