# cameroncooke/AXe

AXe is a CLI tool for interacting with Simulators using Apple's Private Accessibility APIs.

Repository: https://github.com/cameroncooke/AXe
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cameroncooke-axe
Homepage: https://www.axe-cli.com
Language: Swift
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: automation-framework, command-line-tool, idb, ios, simulators, swift, ui-automation
Last push: 2026-07-21T19:00:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 81/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 93, release rhythm 93, longevity 33
- inputs: {"age_days": 469, "days_push": 43, "days_rel": 44, "gap_med": 21, "n_releases_24m": 16}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2144, forks 87 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:18.579058+00:00)

## What it is
AXe is a Swift-based CLI tool for automating and inspecting iOS Simulators on macOS using Apple's private Accessibility APIs and HID input. It supports taps, gestures, text entry, screenshots, video recording, and accessibility-tree inspection, and is designed for use in scripts, CI, and AI agent workflows.

## Use cases
- automate taps and gestures in the ios simulator from the terminal
- inspect the accessibility tree of an ios app in the simulator
- capture screenshots and record video of simulator sessions
- type text and press keys into simulator apps for ui testing
- run repeatable simulator ui flows in ci pipelines
- give ai agents tools to drive ios simulator apps

## When to choose
- you need scriptable ios simulator automation without xcode ui tests
- you want accessibility-selector-based interaction that survives layout changes
- you need a single-binary macos cli for simulator taps, typing, and capture
- you are building ai agent workflows that control ios simulators

## When to avoid
- you need to automate physical ios devices rather than simulators
- you target android emulators or other platforms
- you are not on macOS 14+ with Xcode installed
- you need a full end-to-end test framework with assertions rather than an interaction CLI

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: cli, workflow-automation, testing, e2e-testing, developer-tools, computer-vision
- domain: mobile-development, developer-tools, testing
- platform: cli
- tags: ios-simulator, ui-automation, accessibility-apis, hid-input, idb, xcode, screenshots, video-recording, ai-agent-ready, swift, command-line, automation, macos

## Member repositories
- cameroncooke/AXe (main) score 81

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:18.579058+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:51:13.627349+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cameroncooke/AXe (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:18.579058+00:00, sha 9b813a6056b7)
  - homepage: https://www.axe-cli.com (fetched 2026-08-29T10:31:15.473997+00:00, sha 9b98a02ab1f2)
  - site_page: https://www.axe-cli.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T10:31:15.476581+00:00, sha 6c5642a21e50)
  - site_page: https://www.axe-cli.com/docs/contributing (fetched 2026-08-29T10:31:15.478292+00:00, sha 33f701a00c20)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.