idb-companion
Meta’s iOS Development Bridge daemon — scripted control of simulators and devices.
What it does
idb is an adb-shaped interface for iOS. The companion is the per-target daemon that does the actual work: installing and launching apps, streaming logs and video, tapping and swiping, dumping the accessibility tree, and managing simulator lifecycle.
It is the layer UI-test automation and screenshot pipelines drive, because it exposes the simulator as a scriptable service rather than a GUI.
Notes
- Available from the
facebook/fbtap. - The companion is the native half; the
idbclient itself is a Python package (pip install fb-idb). - Needs a matching Xcode install — it links against the simulator frameworks.
Alternative to
| Alternative | Type | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Appium with XCUITest | Open source | The cross-platform standard for mobile UI automation |
| Maestro | Freemium | Much simpler YAML flows, increasingly the default for new projects |
xcrun simctl | Built in | Built into Xcode, enough for boot, install, launch and screenshots |
Install
brew tap facebook/fb
brew install facebook/fb/idb-companion