Indie dev building tools I wish existed. AI agents, mobile dev, automation. https://xitter.cf/t.co/weTkuCPiWA
Joined January 2026
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MobAI gives AI agents eyes and hands for mobile apps.
They can control iOS and Android apps on simulators, emulators, and physical devices, then verify the result instead of guessing from code.
Build the app. Let the agent test it. Fix what it finds.
mobai.run
More people are scaling their iOS dev workflows to multiple simulators and hitting the same RAM wall.
simslim is built specifically for that. It makes simulators use up to 4× less RAM so your agents can work on your apps in parallel.
github.com/MobAI-App/simslim
Looks good if you’re Shopify and can afford a pool of Macs sitting idle while agents write code.
For everyone else, take a look at mobai-dev: preview on Linux, use GHA/Codemagic/Bitrise for iOS builds and simulators, and test on your own iPhone. All from cloud agents.
github.com/MobAI-App/mobai-d…
Local machines had become a bottleneck for agentic mobile development at @Shopify, so we gave agents their own remote dev environments. They now author 61% of our merged PRs 🧵
They’re called mobile device farms, and some tools can already drive devices hosted on them with ai agents.
MobAI, for example, supports BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, and AWS Device Farm.
mobai.run/devices
Startup idea 💡
Real iPhones as a service for AI agents.
Most services today offer iPhone simulators, but they have major limitations. For example, you can’t install apps from the App Store.
Imagine giving an AI agent access to a real iPhone so it can use any app, just like a human.
Essentially, an iPhone in the cloud that your agent can control
It's way more fun to build for decision models than LLMs.
LLMs can work around rough edges in your tooling. Jev makes you fix them. And that's actually the part I enjoy most.
Been having a lot of fun with mobile E2E testing in MobAI lately.
Btw, you can try it locally or in CI: mobai.run/ci
Just released @mobai-app/e2e, a new mobile engine for the @TesterArmy e2e.
Run iOS and Android E2E tests with:
- Real devices on macOS, Linux & Windows
- Simulators, emulators & device farms
- Hold devices on failure in CI for inspection
- MobAI testing dashboard integration
github.com/MobAI-App/mobai-e…
Codex Cloud supports Tailscale now.
Sandbox joins the tailnet. Dashboard says "Connected."
TCP proxy refuses connections. HTTP proxy returns 200 OK for nonexistent addresses.
Connected to everything. Reaches nothing 👍
For iOS devs, this is possible too.
With MobAI, coding agents run on Linux while still being able to build iOS apps, preview UI changes, run remote simulators, and test on real iPhones. All of this from the cloud.
github.com/MobAI-App/mobai-d…
Now that AI agents can develop iOS apps from their default cloud sandboxes, the next problem to solve is the feedback loop.
How does cloud agent actually see and test what it's building?
I've been working on this in mobai-dev, with three levels of feedback 🧵
I don’t need a spare Mac mini to build iOS apps from my phone anymore.
Cursor and Claude cloud agents can build, test, and ship entire iOS apps from Linux sandboxes already included in my subscriptions.
github.com/MobAI-App/mobai-d…
3️⃣ Your own iPhone
With Tailscale, the cloud agent can install apps, see the screen, and control your phone remotely.
Wi-Fi is needed to start the session, but after that, it works over cellular too.
mobai.run/docs/cloud-agents/…
From UI previews to CI simulators to real devices, all from a Linux sandbox.
No need for a spare Mac anymore.
mobai.run/cloud-agents
E2E mobile testing in 2026:
Open Numbra
Go through onboarding
Check we’re on the paywall
Skip it
Check the main screen shows a welcome message
This is the actual test, not a prompt. Jev, Clef, and now OpenAI’s Luna run it locally and in CI.
mobai.run/testing
I don’t need a spare Mac mini to build iOS apps from my phone anymore.
Cursor and Claude cloud agents can build, test, and ship entire iOS apps from Linux sandboxes already included in my subscriptions.
github.com/MobAI-App/mobai-d…
simslim 0.12 is out!
It now slims Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro simulators, not just iPhones.
brew upgrade simslim
github.com/MobAI-App/simslim
Spent some time rebuilding the MobAI landing page.
I think it finally explains the idea properly. Give your coding agent the whole mobile dev loop, from running the app and checking changes to e2e tests and CI. Even from Linux cloud agents.
mobai.run
Very cool.
There’s also a less adventurous way to do iOS development from Linux/Windows 😄
ios-builder uses real Xcode on ephemeral CI, while you stay entirely on your PC. Build, sign, install on your iPhone, and ship to TestFlight/App Store.
github.com/MobAI-App/ios-bui…
Apple says you need a Mac to build iPhone apps.
Today I built one on Omarchy Linux, submitted it to the App Store, installed it on my iPhone over USB, and stopped it at a breakpoint in the debugger.
No Mac anywhere.
It's all open source:
github.com/joshuaswarren/oma…
Get your app ready with your agent and MobAI.
mobai.run
ios-builder just hit 1,000 GitHub stars 🎉
It gives you one CLI to build, sign and ship iOS apps from pretty much anywhere, whether you use Swift, React Native, Flutter or Expo.
github.com/MobAI-App/ios-bui…