Agent skill · software engineering · aradotso
serve-sim-apple-simulator
Host Apple iOS Simulators in the browser with MJPEG streaming, touch/gesture control, and AI agent integration via npx serve-sim.
Why this skill is useful
Adds specific commands and workflows for hosting iOS simulators that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires node, xcode-command-line-tools installed locally. About 5k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-09. 70 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
serve-sim — Apple Simulator Hosting Tool Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection. serve-sim is the npx serve of Apple Simulators. It spawns a Swift helper that captures a booted iOS Simulator's framebuffer via simctl io, exposes it as an MJPEG stream + WebSocket control channel, and serves a React preview UI in your browser. Works with any booted iOS Simulator — no Xcode plugin, no app instrumentation required. Requirements macOS with Xcode command line tools installed (xcrun simctl must be available) At least one booted iOS Simulator Node.js / npm (for npx) Quick Start CLI Reference Common CLI Examples Features 60 FPS MJPEG video stream in browser Touch, swipe, pinch (hold Option key) gestures Keyboard input and hotkeys forwarded to simulator (CMD+SHIFT+H = home) Simulator logs forwarded to browser Drag and drop images/videos onto simulator Apple Watch, iPad, and iOS support Connect-style middleware for embedding in existing dev servers Architecture State files are written to $TMPDIR/serve-sim/. The Swift binary is bundled in the npm package — no separate Xcode build needed at runtime. Integration Patterns Claude Code Desktop Create .claude/launch.json in your project root: Claude will automatically start the simulator preview when you open the project. Expo / Metro Dev Server Customize metro.config.js to embed serve-sim at http://localhost:8081/.sim: Then run npx expo start — simulator preview available at http://localhost:8081/.sim. Express / Connect Dev Server Vite Dev Server Next.js Custom Server Middleware API The middleware reads state from $TMPDIR/serve-sim/ and proxies the browser to the live MJPEG + WebSocket endpoints. CORS is open on the helper, so no additional proxy config is needed. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills aradotso/serve-sim-apple-simulator