accessibility-cli

Cross-platform accessibility tree reading, querying, screenshots, and input automation for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS Simulator, and Android.

The repository contains two crates:

• accessibility-core — reusable Rust library exposing a high-level App / Locator API and platform accessibility adapters.
• accessibility-cli — the accessibility-cli command-line interface.

Platform support

Platform	Tree	Query	Screenshot	Mouse	Keyboard
macOS	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Windows	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Linux (AT-SPI)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
iOS Simulator	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Android (adb)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

On macOS, PID-targeted keyboard input, pixel clicks, and window screenshots use per-process CoreGraphics / SkyLight paths when available, so automation can act on a target app without moving the shared cursor or capturing unrelated occluding windows.

Install

Build from source:

cargo install --path packages/accessibility-cli

A published GitHub Releases / Homebrew / cargo install accessibility-cli flow is planned — see OPEN_SOURCE_TODO.md.

Permissions

• macOS — grant the invoking terminal Accessibility permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (macOS will prompt on first run).
• Linux — needs an AT-SPI registry on the session bus. On a typical GNOME session this is already running.
• Android — adb must be on PATH. The CLI uses uiautomator dump, so the device/emulator's user must allow ADB debugging.
• iOS Simulator — needs Xcode and at least one booted simulator runtime.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for full per-platform setup details.

Quick examples

# Print the accessibility tree of a running macOS app.
accessibility-cli --platform mac --pid 12345 --llm

# Click at a pixel inside a Windows app without moving the shared cursor.
accessibility-cli --platform win --pid 12345 --mouse-click 300,240

# Annotated screenshot of an iOS Simulator app.
accessibility-cli --platform ios --udid ABC123 --annotate

# HID tap on iOS Simulator.
accessibility-cli --platform ios --hid-tap 100,200

# Query a Linux app via AT-SPI.
accessibility-cli --platform linux --pid 12345 --llm

# Press Android back button.
accessibility-cli --platform android --adb-back

# Swipe on Android.
accessibility-cli --platform android --adb-swipe 100,200,100,800

Library usage

use accessibility_core::api::{App, Platform};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let app = App::connect(pid, Platform::MacOS).await?;

    app.locator("Button[title='5']").click().await?;
    app.locator("Button[title='+']").click().await?;
    app.locator("Button[title='3']").click().await?;
    app.locator("Button[title='=']").click().await?;

    let result = app.wait_for_locator("StaticText[value*='8']").await?;
    assert!(result.value().await?.unwrap().contains("8"));
    Ok(())
}

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for build/test instructions and per-platform requirements.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option. Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual-licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.