Model Context Protocol
Connect Claude to your phones
Add ALI Remote to Claude and ask it to look at a phone and drive it.
Endpoint
https://beta.aliremote.com/api/mcpTransportHTTP, streamableSign-inOAuth 2.1 with PKCEOn this page
Connect
- Run this in a terminal.
claude mcp add --transport http ali https://beta.aliremote.com/api/mcp - Type /mcp, pick ali and choose Authenticate.
- Approve it once in the browser that opens. The terminal picks up from there.
There is no key to paste and no secret to keep. If you are not signed in, the browser asks you to sign in first.
What Claude can do
Anything that changes something asks you first, every time. A tap and an invitation cannot be undone.
Phones8
- List phonesList the phones this connection can reach, with their names, whether each is online, and whether it is currently casting its screen. Call this first to find the public_id of a phone before doing anything else with it. A phone no relay reports any more is left out, so a phone missing here is one nothing can drive rather than one that does not exist; get_device still answers for an id you already hold. Paginated: pass the returned next_cursor back as cursor for the next page.Reads
list_devices - Get one phoneRead one phone's current state: whether it is online, whether it is casting, its screen size, iOS version and the box hosting it. Use this to check a phone is ready before driving it, and to poll after recast_device until casting is true.Reads
get_device - Rename a phone or set its stickerChange what a phone is called, or the inventory sticker recorded for the handset. The sticker is unique across the fleet and can be used in place of a public_id anywhere a phone is named, which is what makes it worth setting on a phone that has none. Renaming does not touch the phone itself, only the record everything looks it up by.Asks first
set_device_label - Read what a phone keepsList the values kept with a phone: what automations have recorded about it, such as an account's status, and what people have set for it, such as its handle or link. Each says when it was last set and by which automation. An automation reads the same values as {{phone.kept.name}}.Reads
get_device_values - Keep a value with a phoneKeep a named value with a phone, or remove one by sending null. This is how a phone is given what is its own before an automation runs across a rack: its handle, its link, the caption it should post. An automation reads it as {{phone.kept.name}}. Setting a name that is already there replaces it, and the phone remembers what it was before.Asks first
set_device_value - Check who is driving a phoneReport whether a phone is free, held by a person, or held by an automation, and since when. Call this before a run that will hold a phone for a while, so a busy handset can be skipped rather than failing a step partway through. A phone somebody else is holding refuses taps until they stop or until take_device_control is used.Reads
check_device_control - List phone groupsList the groups the agency files its phones into, with how many phones are in each. Groups are the agency's own labels; a phone can be in several. Call this to find group ids before filing a phone.Reads
list_groups - File a phone into groupsSet which groups a phone belongs to. This is not a delta: whatever you send becomes the phone's groups, so read its current ones first and send the full set. Naming a new group creates it. A group nothing is filed into disappears on its own.Asks first
set_device_groups
Driving a phone11
- Capture the screenTake a screenshot of a phone and return it as an image. The coordinates you read off this image are the ones tap_device and swipe_device take, so capture before deciding where to tap, and again afterwards if you need to confirm what happened.Reads
capture_screen - Tap the screenTap a point on the phone's screen. Coordinates are in the pixel space of the image capture_screen returns, so read the position off that image and send it as-is without scaling. If a tap lands somewhere other than where it was aimed, call recentre_pointer once and try again; some handsets need that occasionally.Asks first
tap_device - Swipe the screenSwipe the phone's screen, either by direction for paging through a feed, or between two exact points read off a screenshot for dragging a slider or an app switcher card. Moving a home screen icon also needs hold_ms. Give either direction, or all four of from_x, from_y, to_x and to_y. A direction swipe with no distance is drawn the way a hand draws it, a little differently every time; a swipe between two points, or one carrying a distance, is drawn exactly as you gave it. Set precise to change either. A gesture can be accepted and still move nothing, unlike a tap, so capture the screen afterwards when it matters rather than assuming it worked.Asks first
swipe_device - Type textType text into whatever field currently has focus on the phone. Tap the field first. Plain short ASCII goes over the keyboard directly; anything longer, or with emoji or accents, is pasted through the clipboard instead and can take a few seconds.Asks first
type_text - Press a buttonPress a hardware, system or keyboard key on the phone: home, the app switcher, lock, screenshot, enter, the keyboard toggle, control centre, notifications, the volume keys, mute, backspace, tab, or an arrow. Use times to repeat it: backspace with times is the only way to clear a field that already has text in it, since type_text appends rather than replaces.Asks first
press_button - Change a phone settingTurn a phone's wifi, cellular data, airplane mode or torch on or off, or set its screen brightness. Use level for brightness and on for everything else.Asks first
set_device_state - Rotate a phone's IPGet a phone a fresh public address and score it. On a phone with its own mobile data this cycles airplane mode, the way the guide says to before every sign-up; on proxy Wi-Fi it calls the router's rotation link, which rotates every phone on that router. A phone on ALI Wi-Fi has no address of its own and is refused. Takes about half a minute; this waits for the outcome and answers with the new address and its fraud score (0 clean to 100, with a risk word), or with a running rotation to check again by calling this tool once more. One rotation per phone at a time.Asks first
rotate_ip - Re-centre the phone's pointerPut a phone's pointer back in a known place. Reach for it when a tap lands somewhere other than where it was aimed, or once before a sequence that will tap a lot; it is not something to do between every tap. It changes nothing on screen, so a screenshot before and after looks the same, and it works on a phone that is not casting.Asks first
recentre_pointer - Take control of a phoneTake a phone that somebody else is currently driving. A phone held by an automation is handed over at once. A phone held by a person asks them first and waits about three seconds for an answer, so this tool can take that long to return; if they refuse, it reports that and does not take the phone. Reach for it when check_device_control or a refused tap says a phone is busy and the work cannot wait. Whoever is taken off keeps watching and can take the phone straight back.Asks first
take_device_control - Restart the phone's screen mirroringRe-establish a phone's screen mirroring. This is the fix for a phone that is online but not casting, which is the most common thing that goes wrong on a rack. It is expensive and disruptive: on a phone that is already casting it bounces the session and the screen is gone while it reconnects. It answers as soon as the box accepts the request, not when the phone is back, so poll get_device until casting is true. Budget up to two minutes, and treat a phone still dark after that as needing a person rather than another recast.Asks first
recast_device - Force-close the front appForce-close whatever app is in front, the way a person does by hand: open the App Switcher and flick its card away. Bring the app you mean to the front first (open it, or press home and tap it), then call this. It works on any casting phone and does not need the on-device helper, so it reaches a frozen or stuck app that the helper verbs cannot. It does not choose which app to close: it closes the one in front, so do not call it speculatively from an unknown screen. It reads the screen back before answering, so a success means that app is no longer showing - firmly on a still screen, less so on an app that animates anyway (a video, a feed), where the check cannot tell movement from a close. A failure means that app is still on screen, and is not a retry: with more than one app open the first flick may already have thrown a different app's card, and calling again throws another. Take a capture_screen and look instead.Asks first
close_app
Media vault20
- Browse the media vaultList the photos and videos in the agency's media vault, newest first, with their folder, tags, whether they have been posted, and short-lived links to view or download each one. Filter by folder, tag, kind, posted, or a piece of the filename. Pass next_cursor back as cursor for the next page. Files expire from the vault after a few days; expires_at says when.Reads
list_media - One file in the media vaultRead one file from the media vault: its details, fresh links to view and download it, and every phone you can reach that it was sent to, with how each delivery went. Use it to follow a push_media across all its phones at once.Reads
get_media - Media vault foldersList the folders in the media vault as a flat list with parent_id, so you can rebuild the tree, and how many files each holds. unfiled counts the files in no folder.Reads
list_media_folders - Media vault tagsList the tags used to label files in the media vault, with how many files carry each.Reads
list_media_tags - What was sent to a phoneList the vault files sent to one phone, newest first, with how each delivery went. This is our record of what we put there, not a read of the phone's camera roll: photos taken or saved on the phone some other way do not appear. If the record and the phone may disagree, verify_media_on_devices re-checks it.Reads
list_device_media - Start uploading a fileStep 1 of an upload. Reserve a slot in the media vault for a photo or video and get back a one-time upload_url. You then PUT the file's bytes to that URL yourself, with the Content-Type from upload_headers (the bytes do not go through this tool), and then call finish_media_upload with the asset_id you get here. Give the real byte size: the vault checks what actually arrives against it. Name a device to send the file to that phone when you finish; leave it out to keep the file in the vault and send it later with push_media. If the file is already online, import_media_from_url does all of this in one call.Asks first
start_media_upload - Finish uploading a fileStep 2 of an upload. Call this once you have PUT the bytes to the upload_url from start_media_upload. It checks with storage that the file really arrived and matches what was declared. With a device, it also queues the file for that phone: poll check_media_delivery afterwards. Without one, the file stays in the media vault, ready for push_media. Safe to call again if it fails: a repeat re-checks and re-queues rather than duplicating. The phone may show a one-time permission prompt the first time anything is sent to it.Asks first
finish_media_upload - Import a file from a linkFetch a photo or video from a public link straight into the media vault, in one call, with nothing to upload yourself. The link must answer with the file itself, not a web page around it: a direct link to the image or video. It is checked like any upload, so a page or an unsupported type is refused. Send it to phones afterwards with push_media.Asks first
import_media_from_url - Check whether a file arrivedReport how a file is getting on with one phone: awaiting_upload, stored, queued, sending, delivered, failed, removing or removed. Poll this after finish_media_upload or push_media rather than assuming it worked, and read the error field when it says failed. For every phone at once, use get_media.Reads
check_media_delivery - Send vault files to phonesSend up to 100 files from the media vault to up to 200 phones in one go. Each phone gets every file, in its camera roll, optionally inside a named album. Delivery runs on a queue and takes minutes, so this answers with what was queued and what was skipped and why, and you follow up with get_media or check_media_delivery. A phone somebody is using is skipped rather than interrupted. Costs one upload per phone. The first time a phone receives anything it may show a one-time permission prompt that somebody must accept on the handset.Asks first
push_media - Take vault files back off phonesRemove files this vault sent from the phones' camera rolls. Files recorded as delivered are removed and files still waiting to be sent are called off; a phone with files being sent right now is skipped until they land, so ask again then. The removal is confirmed by reading the phone back, so it is only reported done when it is. The first removal on a phone may wait on a one-time prompt somebody has to accept on the handset. The files stay in the vault. Costs one upload per phone.Asks first
remove_media_from_devices - Re-check what is on phonesRe-read the phones' camera rolls and correct the record of which vault files are on them. Use it when a delivery reported failed but the file may have landed anyway, or before removing files from a phone you are unsure about. It runs in the background: read the result with list_device_media or get_media a minute later. Costs one upload per phone checked.Asks first
verify_media_on_devices - Organise vault filesChange several vault files at once: move them to a folder (null for no folder), mark them as posted or not, and add or take away tags. Give at least one change. Files that are not in the vault are listed under not_found rather than failing the rest.Asks first
organise_media - Delete vault filesDelete files from the media vault for good. This does not take them off any phone they were sent to: do that first with remove_media_from_devices if they should go from the phones too, because once a file is deleted from the vault it can no longer be removed through ALI.Asks first
delete_media - Create a vault folderCreate a folder in the media vault, at the top or inside another folder. Folders nest a few levels deep.Asks first
create_media_folder - Rename or move a vault folderRename a media vault folder, move it under another folder, or both. parent_id null moves it to the top.Asks first
update_media_folder - Delete a vault folderDelete a media vault folder and every folder beneath it. The files inside are kept and become unfiled; nothing is deleted from the vault or from any phone.Asks first
delete_media_folder - Create a vault tagCreate a tag for labelling media vault files. Attach it with organise_media.Asks first
create_media_tag - Rename a vault tagRename a media vault tag. Every file carrying it keeps it.Asks first
rename_media_tag - Delete a vault tagDelete a media vault tag. It comes off every file that carried it; the files themselves are kept.Asks first
delete_media_tag
Team8
- List the teamList the people in this agency with the roles each one holds. Call this to find a member's id before changing their roles. Requires that the connecting account can see the team in the dashboard.Reads
list_members - Get one memberRead one person in this agency: their username, email, and the roles they hold.Reads
get_member - List the rolesList the roles this agency has, what each one allows, how many people hold it, and whether you are allowed to hand it out. Call this before inviting somebody or changing roles, to find the role id and to check assignable is true.Reads
list_roles - List invitationsList invitations that have been sent and not yet accepted, with the role each one offers and how far it got. Statuses are sending, sent, opened, clicked, accepted, expired, revoked or failed. An opened status can be a mail client prefetching, so treat clicked and accepted as the reliable ones.Reads
list_invitations - Invite somebody to the agencyInvite an email address to join this agency with a role, and send them the invitation mail. Call list_roles first and pick a role whose assignable is true; you cannot hand out a role above your own standing. The mail goes out immediately and to a real person, so confirm the address and the role before calling this.Asks first
invite_member - Withdraw an invitationCancel an invitation that has not been accepted yet, so its link stops working. An invitation that was already accepted cannot be withdrawn; remove that person's roles instead.Asks first
withdraw_invitation - Resend an invitationSend an existing pending invitation again, with a fresh link. Use this when somebody says the mail never arrived or the link expired. It sends real mail to a real person, so do not call it repeatedly.Asks first
resend_invitation - Change a member's rolesReplace the whole set of roles a member holds. This is not a delta: whatever you send becomes their roles, so read list_members first and send the full set you want. An empty list leaves the account able to do nothing, which is how you take somebody's access away without deleting them. You cannot act on somebody who outranks you or hand out a role above your own standing.Asks first
set_member_roles
Agency and usage6
- Agency usage summaryRead the agency's overall usage for a period: active minutes, how many people and phones were used, gestures sent, and a day-by-day trend. Use this to answer questions about how busy the agency has been. Figures cover the whole agency, not just the phones you can reach.Reads
get_usage_summary - Usage per personRead how much each person in the agency used the phones over a period: desk minutes, active minutes, how many phones they touched, how many sessions they sat, and gestures sent. Use this to compare activity across a team. Set include_devices to also get, for each person, which phones their minutes went to. Ask for that only when the question is about which phones, because it makes the answer much longer.Reads
get_member_usage - Usage per phoneRead how much each phone was used over a period: active minutes, how many people touched it, and when it was last active. Only covers the phones this connection can reach, so it is the report to use for questions about your own handsets. A phone no relay reports any more is left out, hours and all; get_member_usage with include_devices still counts the time someone spent on it.Reads
get_device_usage - Who was on which phoneList individual sessions: one row per person per phone per stretch, saying who was on which handset from when to when, with the gestures they sent. This is the tool for questions about a particular phone or a particular moment - 'who was on X05 this morning', 'what was Cassie doing at 2pm', 'who last touched this phone before it broke'. Newest first; pass the returned next_cursor back as cursor for the next page. Only covers the phones this connection can reach.Reads
get_sessions - Recent activityRead when the agency works, as a 7x24 grid of worked minutes by hour of the local week (Monday first). Use this for questions about shift patterns and cover - which hours are busy, which are dead. It says when work happens, not who did it or on which phone: for that, call get_sessions.Reads
get_activity - Get the agencyRead this agency's own details: its name, whether it is active, its timezone, how many phones it may hold and how many it holds, how many members it has, and whether two-factor is required. Use this to answer whether there is room for another phone before ordering one.Reads
get_agency
Automations18
- List automationsList this agency's automations with whether each is published, whether it is turned on, and how its last run went. Call this first to find an automation's id.Reads
list_automations - List the steps an automation can useList every kind of step an automation can be built from, with what it does, what settings it takes and which outputs it has. Call this before writing or changing a flow, so the steps you use exist and are wired by the right outputs.Reads
list_automation_blocks - Get one automationRead one automation: its published steps, its unpublished draft if there is one, its triggers, and its version history. Use this before changing a flow so you edit what is actually there.Reads
get_automation - Create an automationCreate an empty automation with a name. It starts turned off and unpublished, so nothing runs until you add steps with update_automation and then publish it.Asks first
create_automation - Change an automationRename an automation, turn it on or off, or save a new draft of its steps. Saving a draft never refuses for a half-built flow: it answers with a list of problems to fix. Nothing you save here runs until you publish it.Asks first
update_automation - Publish an automationMake the current draft the version that runs. This is the step that checks the whole flow and refuses if anything is wrong, so a broken automation can never end up on a schedule. Runs already in progress keep the version they started with.Asks first
publish_automation - Run an automation nowStart a run immediately. It runs with your access, so it reaches the phones you reach. If the automation declares inputs, which get_automation lists on its published steps, give a value for each one that has no default: a run missing one is refused before it touches a phone. It does not finish while you wait: poll get_automation_run to see how it went, and read its output for what the run handed back.Asks first
run_automation - List runsList recent runs, newest first, with how each one ended. Use it to answer whether last night worked.Reads
list_automation_runs - Get one run, step by stepRead one run and every step it took, in order, with which phone each step acted on and why any step was skipped or failed. This is the tool to use when asked why an automation did not do what somebody expected.Reads
get_automation_run - Stop a runStop a run that is still going. It stops at its next step rather than mid-action, so a phone is never left half way through something.Asks first
cancel_automation_run - Add a triggerSay when an automation should run: by hand only, on a schedule, or when a phone changes state. A scheduled trigger takes a five-field cron such as `0 2 * * *` for every night at two, read in the agency's timezone unless you name one.Asks first
add_automation_trigger - Remove a triggerStop an automation being started that way. Its other triggers are left alone.Asks first
remove_automation_trigger - Delete an automationDelete an automation and everything it recorded: its versions, its triggers and its run history. This cannot be undone. To simply stop it running, turn it off with update_automation instead.Asks first
delete_automation - Read a batch of runsRead how an automation started on several phones is going: how many runs are in each state, whether all have finished, and for each phone its run, how it ended, why it failed and what it handed back. This is the tool to use after run_automation was given phones.Reads
get_automation_batch - Browse the automation catalogueList the ready-made automations ALI publishes for every agency: what each does, what it asks for when it runs, what it needs each phone to keep (such as its handle), which screens it was measured on, and whether this agency has already added it. Add one with add_catalogue_automation, then run it like any other.Reads
list_automation_catalogue - Add a catalogue automation to this agencyAdd one of the catalogue's automations to this agency, so it can be run, scheduled and used from the agency's own flows. Its steps stay ALI's: they cannot be changed here, and by default it follows new releases, so a fix made once reaches everybody. Send follows false to keep the version it was added at until the agency chooses to move. Adding one that is already there answers the same automation.Asks first
add_catalogue_automation - List the kinds of result automations have recordedList the names automations have recorded results under, such as account_status or reel_stats, with how many rows each holds, how many different things they are about, and when the last one was recorded. Call this first to find what get_results can be asked for. Only covers the phones this connection can reach, plus rows about no phone.Reads
list_result_datasets - Read what automations have recordedRead the rows automations have recorded: structured results such as each account's status or each reel's numbers. Ask for latest to get only the newest row about each phone or subject, which is the current picture across the rack; leave it out for the history. changed keeps only rows that differ from the one before about the same thing, which is how to see what moved. Each row carries its values under data, the phone it came from, and whether it changed. Only covers the phones this connection can reach, plus rows about no phone.Reads
get_results
Not included: billing, agency settings, deleting an account, anything that spends money. Inviting a member and changing their roles is here; removing one is not.
The approval screen
The screen names the app, the account it acts as, and what it asks to do. Read the web address at the top: that is the part we verified, not the name under it.
For Claude Code the address is claude.ai and the approval returns to a page on your own machine. That is normal.
Permissions
A connection is granted only what it asked for:
- See which phones you have, their names, and whether each is online and casting.
devices.read - Take a screenshot of a phone.
devices.snapshot - Change what a phone is called, or the inventory number recorded for it.
devices.write - Tap, swipe, type, press buttons, change settings, restart screen mirroring.
devices.control - Browse the media vault: files, folders, tags, and what went to which phone.
media.read - Upload files into the media vault, send them to phones, and take them back off.
media.write - Organise the media vault: move, tag and mark files as posted, manage folders and tags, and delete files.
media.manage - Read your agency's usage figures: who was active, for how long, and on which phones.
analytics.read - See who is in your agency, the roles they hold, and pending invitations.
members.read - Invite people to your agency, withdraw invitations, and change which roles a member holds.
members.write - Read your agency's own details: its name, timezone, phone allowance and member count.
agency.read - Change which models your phones are filed into, and create a model by naming it.
groups.write - See your automations, the steps each is built from, and how recent runs went.
automations.read - Create, edit, publish and delete automations, and start or cancel a run.
automations.write
What it is
The Model Context Protocol is how Claude talks to software outside itself. Connecting ALI gives it tools for your phones, your media vault, your team and your automations. You say what you want, Claude looks at the screen and does it.
A connection carries your own access and nothing more: the phones you see, in the agency you approved it from.
Ending a connection
Open API & MCP in the dashboard and disconnect it. It stops working on the next call. Reconnecting means approving it again.
Go to API & MCPLimits
Each connection spends credits, priced by what a call does: a screenshot costs more than a read, streaming more again. The free daily allowance belongs to the agency and is shared by all its connections and API keys, so a new connection does not start the day over. It is a flat amount plus a share per phone in the agency, and each connection also has its own daily ceiling, sized by the phones it reaches. Both reset at UTC midnight.
How we keep it contained
- It acts as the person who approved it, and cannot reach a phone that person cannot reach.
- Pinned to the agency it was approved from. No other agency's phones, including for ALI staff.
- It never uses your browser session, so signing out of the dashboard does not disturb it.
- Disconnecting takes effect on the next call: the credential is deleted, not left to expire.
- Every connection shows who approved it, when it was last used, and what it has spent today.
Prefer to write the code yourself?
The public API covers the same ground and more, with a key you mint in the dashboard.
Read the API reference