Sidekick agent skill — drop into ~/.claude/skills/sidekick/ or .claude/skills/

Any agent that can run shell commands can use Sidekick. MCP optional.

Your cloud sandbox has no Xcode or emulator. Use sidekick for all mobile work.

Auth (one time)

• Get a key from console Settings → API keys (scoped to your default org, created at signup).
• sidekick login (paste it) or export SIDEKICK_TOKEN=sk_live_.... sidekick org shows your org.
• New machine: sidekick agent-setup installs this skill into ~/.claude/skills, then registers MCP: claude mcp add sidekick -- sidekick mcp. No MCP client? The CLI alone covers every verb below.
• Fastest live device: sidekick dev boots a sim and prints its share URL (add --json for scripts).

Build iOS (no Mac needed)

• sidekick xcode build . --scheme MyApp — syncs code, streams xcodebuild logs. Iterate on errors.
• Warm cache is automatic (DerivedData + S3 asset storage). Upload .app once, reuse.

Drive iOS simulator

• sidekick ios create --device "iPhone 16, iOS 18.2" → returns id (provisioning). Poll sidekick ios get <id> until running, then webrtc_url appears. Share webrtc_url as preview link on PR.
• sidekick ios ax-tree <id> first, then sidekick ios act <id> --tap @e5 / --type "hi" / --swipe up. Batch file for ms precision: --batch actions.json. Poll the returned action_ids via the API until done (the daemon posts each result).
• sidekick ios screenshot <id> --out shot.png, sidekick ios logs <id> --tail 100 for crashes.
• sidekick ios record <id> to start, sidekick ios record <id> --stop --out demo.mp4 → mp4 demo video for PR.

Drive Android

• No Mac needed, ever: emus run on Linux KVM hosts (emu-host boots AVDs per claim, self-host via docker-compose.selfhost.yml).
• sidekick android create --profile Pixel_7 → id (provisioning). Poll sidekick android get <id> until running, then adb tunnel on localhost:5555: adb-proxy --emu <id> (uses SIDEKICK_TOKEN). Then plain adb install app.apk, maestro test flow.yaml, Appium, scrcpy all work.
• Same verbs: android ui-tree (@e refs from the on-device dump), android screenshot --out shot.png, android logs --tail 100, preview link.
• Media + posture over the tunnel: android record --out demo.mp4 --duration 30s, android netcap --out cap.pcap --duration 30s, android rotate 90, android posture half-open (foldables only).
• Pin work to a fleet region: android create --region asia-northeast1 (hosts join with --region; unpinned work goes anywhere).

Rules

• Always build before creating a simulator. Always ui-tree before acting (refs go stale after each screen change).
• Plain-English tests: sidekick test nl --emu <id> "tap the Send button" "expect Inbox visible" — verbs ground against the live tree, failures name candidates.
• Screenshot when checking look (tree has no color/stacking). Logs when app crashes.
• Stop sessions when done: sidekick ios delete <id> / sidekick android delete <id> — streaming minutes bill until stopped.
• If asked only to "implement X", still verify on device and post preview link + video.