Command line

The droidline program that runs the server is also a command-line client. Every phone command works as a subcommand, so you can try things by hand, write shell scripts and run scheduled jobs without installing anything else.

droidline launch com.android.settings
droidline touch text "Network & internet"
droidline screenshot shot.png

The server must be running (droidline serve in another terminal) for every command except serve, version and help.

How a command line is built

droidline [global options] <command> [arguments] [--option value]

Arguments follow the order of the parameters in the command reference. Leave out optional ones from the end:

droidline touch text "Log in"            # by, value
droidline touch text "Log in" 0 30       # by, value, nth, timeout
droidline long_tap 540 1200 800          # x, y, ms

Options set any parameter by name, in any order. This is clearer for optional parameters:

droidline touch text "Log in" --timeout 30
droidline screenshot small.jpg --scale 0.5 --quality 70
droidline proxy @kr1 --app com.android.chrome

A few value types have their own spelling:

droidline help lists every command; droidline help touch shows one command's parameters, defaults and an example.

Global options

These go before the command:

droidline -d shelf-02 current
droidline --json exists text OK

The same settings can come from DROIDLINE_DEVICE, DROIDLINE_HOST, DROIDLINE_PORT and DROIDLINE_TOKEN.

What a command prints

Errors go to standard error, so $(...) only captures real output.

Exit codes

Scripting in bash or zsh

Turn on set -e so the script stops at the first failure, read values with $(...), and compare conditions as text:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e

droidline launch dev.droidline.demo

if [ "$(droidline exists text "Close ad")" = "true" ]; then
  droidline touch text "Close ad"
fi

balance=$(droidline get_text id balance)
echo "Balance is $balance"

# A failure you expect: handle it instead of stopping.
if ! droidline touch text "Maybe later" --timeout 3; then
  echo "no prompt this time"
fi

Loop over every online phone with jq:

for name in $(droidline --json devices | jq -r '.value[] | select(.online) | .name'); do
  droidline -d "$name" launch com.android.chrome &
done
wait   # the phones run in parallel; wait for all of them

PowerShell

The same script in PowerShell 7. Conditions come back as the strings true and false:

# Stop when a droidline command fails (PowerShell 7.4 and later).
$PSNativeCommandUseErrorActionPreference = $true
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

droidline launch dev.droidline.demo

if ((droidline exists text "Close ad") -eq "true") {
  droidline touch text "Close ad"
}

$balance = droidline get_text id balance
"Balance is $balance"

# A failure you expect: check the exit code instead of stopping.
$PSNativeCommandUseErrorActionPreference = $false
droidline touch text "Maybe later" --timeout 3
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { "no prompt this time" }

Loop over phones with PowerShell's own JSON support:

$phones = (droidline --json devices | ConvertFrom-Json).value | Where-Object online
foreach ($p in $phones) {
  droidline -d $p.name launch com.android.chrome
}

In Windows PowerShell 5.1, $PSNativeCommandUseErrorActionPreference does not exist; check $LASTEXITCODE after each command that must succeed.

Scheduled jobs

Because the CLI needs nothing but the server, it suits scheduled jobs. Make sure droidline serve runs all the time first (Configuration).

# crontab -e: every day at 07:00, wake the phone and open the morning app
0 7 * * * /home/me/.local/bin/droidline -d shelf-01 wake && /home/me/.local/bin/droidline -d shelf-01 launch com.example.news

$action  = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "pwsh.exe" -Argument "-NoProfile -File C:\Scripts\morning.ps1"
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 7am
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Droidline morning" -Action $action -Trigger $trigger

Use full paths in scheduled jobs: they run with a smaller PATH than your terminal.

Setup commands

Besides phone commands, the CLI manages the server: