Safari iOS Web Inspector MCP

A TypeScript MCP server for inspecting iPhone Safari and Chrome WebKit sessions from macOS.

Implemented

• environment checks for macOS, Xcode, libimobiledevice, ios_webkit_debug_proxy and safaridriver

• device and page discovery

• iOS WebKit bridge lifecycle management

• managed Safari sessions through Apple safaridriver

• managed sessions through the raw WebKit Automation domain

• runtime evaluation, DOM snapshots and page actions where the selected backend exposes them

• console and network event buffering on compatible inspector sessions

• crash-state checks, reload attempts, screenshots and debug-bundle export

Related MCP server: MCP Safari Server

Limits

• Existing Safari tabs can be discovered, but the tested iOS WebKit transport does not expose page-domain control for them. Those sessions report transportMode: broker_only instead of accepting automation commands.

• safaridriver and the raw Automation backend create separate automation contexts; they do not adopt an already-open normal Safari tab.

• Console and network streaming are not available on either managed backend.

• The server does not reset, restore, pair, update or otherwise control the iPhone outside the browser session.

The test suite contains 29 tests covering the protocol modes, managed sessions, DOM tools, UI fallback, recovery and debug bundles.

Install

npm install
npm run build

Run locally:

npm run dev

Use as an MCP server after building:

[mcp_servers.safari-ios-webinspector]
command = "node"
args = ["/absolute/path/to/dist/src/index.js"]

Docs

• docs/setup.md

• docs/operator-guide.md

• docs/device-acceptance.md

• docs/troubleshooting.md

• docs/tool-contracts.md

• docs/research/iwdp-target-broker.md

• docs/research/iphone-mirroring.md

• docs/research/appium-real-device-attach.md

Shakeout

Run a live-device shakeout against the connected iPhone:

npm run shakeout

Capture a raw broker trace against a healthy page:

npm run trace:broker

Probe the raw iPhone Automation shim directly:

npm run probe:automation -- --udid <DEVICE_UDID>

Provenance and privacy

Device identifiers, local paths, captured pages, debug bundles, and customer or application-specific material are not included. Research notes link to the upstream code and documentation used during protocol investigation. Tests use synthetic device data and example.com URLs.

License

MIT. See LICENSE. Third-party packages remain under their respective licenses as declared in package-lock.json and their distributions.