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The Mobster extension puts a panel in Cursor’s or VS Code’s side bar. It shows the simulator your checks run on, live, and lists the project’s checks in .mobster/checks with their last verdict. From the panel you run a check, review a healed step, and answer an approval. With test on save on, each save runs the checks that cover what you changed. The panel talks to Mobster on this Mac, never to a phone: to the agent inside Mobster for Mac, or to mobster serve. A check you run from the panel runs on a simulator only. To run checks on an iPhone, use mobster test --device (Run every check).

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Build and install it

The extension isn’t in the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX. You build the VSIX from Mobster’s source on your Mac, with Node 20 or later:
It prints Packaged: …/editors/vscode/mobster.vsix. Install the file:
Or open the Command Palette, run Extensions: Install from VSIX…, and pick mobster.vsix. The Mobster mark appears in the activity bar.

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Connect the panel

Open the folder that holds your app’s .mobster. The panel looks for Mobster in this order:
  1. the mobster serve this window started;
  2. MOBSTER_URL, with the token in MOBSTER_API_TOKEN or the file MOBSTER_API_TOKEN_FILE names;
  3. the agent inside Mobster for Mac, by the address and token it writes in ~/Library/Application Support/app.mobster.desktop/state/.
When none answers, the panel says Mobster isn’t running and offers Open Mobster and Start mobster serve. A mobster serve the panel starts listens on a free port on 127.0.0.1 and stops when the window closes.

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Run a check

  • In the panel, press Run on a check’s row, or Run all.
  • In a check file, press Run check above its first line, or Run with no heals to fail a step that no longer matches instead of healing it.
  • In a SwiftUI view or a UIKit controller, press Run the 2 checks for TodayView above the declaration. Mobster picks the checks the way mobster test --pr does: a check that expects an accessibility id or a text the file shows, names the view, or opens its deep link.
  • From the Command Palette, run Mobster: Run the check under the cursor. In a check file it runs that check; in a screen’s file, the checks that cover its screen.
One suite runs at a time. While it runs, the panel follows the simulator it runs on and shows Running 1 of 3, and the status bar counts the checks. Stop ends the check that is running, and the rest don’t start. A check that passed once replays its recorded steps with no model. A check with steps that has no recording yet needs Smart’s key, as mobster test does (Models and keys).

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Read a failure

When a check fails, the panel shows a card for it: the reason, each expectation that failed with what Mobster found instead, and the screen at the verdict. Press the screen to open it full size, Report to open the suite’s HTML report, or Open check to edit the check.

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Review a healed step

When a step no longer matches the screen and Mobster finds the new one, it heals the step and writes <check>.heal.yaml beside the check (Replay and heals). The panel lists each healed step under Healed steps, with what it was, what it became, and why.
  • Accept keeps the healed step. The next run replays it with no model.
  • Keep failing puts the old step back. The check fails at that step until the app or the check changes.
This is the same decision as mobster test heal --accept and --reject, and as MCP’s review_heals.

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Answer an approval

A task waiting on you shows under Waiting for you, with what Mobster is about to do and the app and device it does it on. This covers a task in Mobster for Mac and an agent’s action through mobster mcp.
  • Under mobster serve, Approve and Decline answer it from the panel, and the task’s journal records the answer.
  • Under Mobster for Mac, only the app approves. Decline still works from the panel for a task, and the panel says “Approve this in the Mobster app on this Mac” with Open Mobster. An agent’s approval through mobster mcp is answered in the app.

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Test on save

Turn on Test on save in the panel, or set mobster.testOnSave in your settings. When you save a Swift, storyboard, strings or check file in the project, Mobster waits 1.5 seconds for more saves, builds the app for the simulator, and runs the checks that cover what changed since your last commit. A save while a suite runs queues one more run after it. Test on save runs mobster test --pr against HEAD: it drafts no new checks and posts nothing to GitHub.

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Set up your agent from the panel

Set up Cursor (or Set up VS Code) at the bottom of the panel runs one command and lists every file it wrote:
It adds Mobster’s MCP server and skill to your editor, and the rules to the project’s AGENTS.md and, for Cursor, .cursor/rules/mobster.mdc (Instructions for your agent). Restart the editor to load the server.

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Settings

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The routes the panel uses

The panel reads and starts everything through Mobster’s local API. Every route needs the API token (Scripting).