facebook/idb
idb is a flexible command line interface for automating iOS simulators and devices observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
86/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 60
- Longevity 100
Flags: prerelease_only
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 2
- age_days: 4017
- days_rel: 7
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 6
Adoption not part of the score
5296 stars · 500 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
idb (iOS Development Bridge) is a command-line tool from Meta for automating iOS Simulators and Devices, consisting of a Swift companion server that runs on macOS and a Python client/CLI that can run anywhere. It exposes granular automation primitives over gRPC, built on the FBSimulatorControl and FBDeviceControl frameworks, including an interactive Swift REPL (idb-repl) for running code inside live simulator processes.
Use cases
- automate ios simulators from ci
- run ios tests on a remote device lab
- install and launch apps on ios simulator from command line
- drive ios simulator ui taps and interactions in automation
- run swift code inside a running ios app process
- fan out test shards across a pool of ios simulators
- access xcode-only features without the xcode gui
When to choose
- you need headless, scriptable automation of iOS simulators or devices on macOS
- you want to drive iOS devices from a non-macOS machine or remote CI infrastructure
- you need fine-grained primitives to build custom testing or automation workflows
- you want to expose Xcode GUI-only functionality in automated scenarios
When to avoid
- you only need simple simulator control already covered by xcrun simctl
- you have no macOS host available to run the companion
- you need iOS automation on Windows or Linux locally without a remote Mac
- you want a GUI-driven manual testing tool
Facets
cli-tool · maturity active
cli testing workflow-automation developer-tools developer-tools mobile-development testing cli python cross-platform ios simulators xcode grpc device-automation swift mobile-testing automation macos
4 sources
- readme: https://github.com/facebook/idb · fetched 2026-08-28 · e2147d6b121c
- homepage: https://fbidb.io/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · a48f4ccedcdf
- site_page: https://fbidb.io/docs/idb/overview · fetched 2026-08-29 · 34f31804697d
- site_page: https://fbidb.io/docs/idb-repl/overview · fetched 2026-08-29 · b74265f71925
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| facebook/idb | main | 86 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem