Mobile Testing with Kane CLI

Kane CLI can run tests against local mobile virtual devices: Apple's iOS Simulator and Google's Android Emulator. You author and run mobile tests the same way you already do for the browser. The differences are that a mobile test runs against an app you provide, and that the target device is a simulator or emulator on your machine.

note

This release supports macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64) only. Mobile testing is not yet available on Intel Macs, Linux, or Windows. Everything below assumes a mac-arm64 host.

What Mobile Means Here

Native app testing. A mobile test drives an installed app. You pass a build, or an app id from a previous upload, with --app. Kane CLI installs it on the device and runs your objective against it. WebViews inside the app under test are handled.

warning

Pointing a mobile run at a website is not supported yet. Mobile runs target a native app, not a mobile web page.

Two targets. emulator is a virtual Android device and simulator is a virtual iOS device. The default target stays desktop, the browser, so nothing changes for your existing web runs.

Why a Single Architecture

Apple Silicon runs both mobile stacks natively. The iOS Simulator is a first-class Apple target, and Android ships arm64-v8a emulator images that run on the Mac's built-in hypervisor with hardware acceleration.

Standardising on one host architecture for the first release keeps setup predictable and runs fast, with no cross-architecture translation in the path. Support for other hosts will follow in a later release.

How Setup Works

There are two halves, and Kane CLI owns the second.

1. You provide the virtual device. Install Apple's or Google's tooling, Xcode or Android Studio, and for Android create one virtual device. These are the same tools Apple and Google already ship for building simulators and emulators.

2. Kane CLI installs its own test tooling and drives the device. Sign in and run one command:

kane-cli login
kane-cli doctor --install

This downloads the test tooling Kane CLI manages for you. From then on, Kane CLI discovers the device, boots it, installs your app, and runs the test. You do not boot the simulator or emulator by hand.

Run kane-cli doctor at any time to check what is ready and what is missing. It prints one line per required check, each with a fix.

Prerequisites at a Glance

Target	Virtual device	You install	Setup guide
iOS	iOS Simulator	Xcode, the full app, version 16 or newer	iOS Simulator setup
Android	Android Emulator	Android Studio or the Android SDK, plus one arm64-v8a AVD	Android Emulator setup

Both require macOS on Apple Silicon and a one-time kane-cli doctor --install. You only need to set up the platform you intend to test. Set up both if you test on both.

Running a Mobile Test

Once a target is set up, point a run at it:

# one-off, from the command line
kane-cli run "Sign in and open the account tab" --target simulator --app ./builds/MyApp.zip

# or set a default target once, then just run
kane-cli config set-target emulator
kane-cli run "Add the first item to the cart" --app ./builds/app-debug.apk

In the interactive TUI, switch targets with /mobile and /desktop, and run /doctor to check mobile tooling and devices.

For the full flag list and the app formats each target accepts, see the CLI Reference. To save a default target, device, and app instead of passing flags every time, see Configuration. To run a mobile test from a file, see Test.md.

Evidence for a Mobile Run

The result summary records the device in the run environment, for example the device model and OS version, and the per-step logs include device logs from the emulator or simulator alongside the usual browser logs.

Next Steps

• iOS Simulator setup
• Android Emulator setup
• CLI Reference for the full flag and command list