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How to give a terminal coding agent control of your phone with Buddy Android

Use Buddy's local MCP phone tools from Claude Code or Codex running in any terminal.

Who it is forA developer who already works in Claude Code or Codex in a terminal and wants the agent to check or operate the phone as part of a task.

The problemTesting an Android flow or reading what is on screen normally means switching to the phone by hand, which breaks the coding session.

The outcomeThe terminal agent can read the screen, tap, type, take screenshots and open apps through Buddy's local MCP server, so the phone check happens inside the same session.

What you need first

  • A 64-bit Android 11+ phone (tested on a OnePlus 12 with Android 16)
  • A Claude Pro or Max plan, or a ChatGPT plan for Codex, or no plan for OpenCode's free models
  • Wi-Fi for the agent installs (about 150 to 235 MB each)
  • The Buddy APK from the GitHub Releases page

Steps

  1. Install Buddy and finish the accessibility setup so the phone tools are running.
  2. Confirm the local MCP server is reachable at http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp on the phone before connecting a session.
  3. Add the MCP server at http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp to your Claude Code or Codex configuration, using that tool's own MCP setup command. (inferred, check the README)
  4. Start a session in your terminal and ask the agent to call read_screen to confirm it sees the phone.
  5. Ask for one small action, such as opening an app with open_app, and check the result on the phone.

Prompt for your agent

Using the buddy-android repo at https://github.com/ghorbelhamdi/buddy-android, connect this session to the local MCP server at http://127.0.0.1:8765/mcp and call read_screen, then report the name of the app currently in front. Expected output: a short text description of the visible screen. Verify that the description matches what is on the phone right now.

Caveat. The MCP server runs on the phone, so the terminal session must be able to reach 127.0.0.1 on that device, which the README does not show how to set up.

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