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Simulators and emulators

Run iOS simulators and Android emulators beside the conversation, for you and your agents.

The Device tab shows an iOS Simulator or an Android Emulator in a conversation's side panel. You can tap, scroll, and type on its screen, and the conversation's agent can open one and drive it to check its own work on a mobile app.

Turn on device support

Device support is off until you turn it on. It needs these on your computer:

  • Node.js 22.12 or later, with npm, where your login shell finds them.
  • For iOS, a Mac with Xcode.
  • For Android, the Android SDK with platform-tools, the emulator, and cmdline-tools/latest. Showing an emulator's screen also needs ffmpeg built with libx264.
  1. In a thread or a task, press ⌘J to show the side panel, click New tab (+), and choose Device.
  2. The tab shows which platforms this computer can run. Turn Agents can use devices off if agents shouldn't drive them.
  3. Click Install and start.

OpenOrc installs two tools from npm, each at a version pinned in OpenOrc's source: expo-device-hub, which starts devices and streams their screens, and, when agents can use devices, agent-device, which lets agents tap and type. The tab names both before you click. They go in the devices folder inside OpenOrc's data folder.

Settings → Devices has the same two switches, Device support and Agents can use devices, and lists the installed versions under Installed tools.

Open a device

With device support on, a new Device tab lists every simulator and emulator on this computer, grouped by system version. Click one to open it in the tab. A device that is shut down starts first, which can take a while.

  • Click or drag on the screen to tap and scroll, and type when the screen has focus.
  • The toolbar has Home and Rotate for iOS, or Back, Home, and Recents for Android.
  • Shut down stops the device.

A device streams only while its tab is on screen. Each tab shows one device, and you can open several Device tabs.

Devices keep running when you close the tab, turn device support off, or quit OpenOrc. Shut them down from the tab, or from Xcode or Android Studio.

How agents use devices

While device support and Agents can use devices are both on, agents can use OpenOrc's device tool to list devices, take screenshots, and open or close a device in the conversation's Device tab. They tap and type with the agent-device command.

Listing devices and taking screenshots work in every mode. Opening or closing a device is blocked in Plan and runs without asking in every other mode, since it acts only on your own test devices. See Modes and permissions.

Next steps

Browser previewA browser beside the conversation that you and your agents share, for checking web work as it changes.Modes and permissionsDecide how much an agent may do on its own, from planning only to editing and running commands.Network connectionsEvery connection OpenOrc makes, where it goes, what it sends, and which ones you can turn off.

Checked against OpenOrc's source on November 9, 2026.