Eas Simulator

EAS Simulator

EAS service - costs apply. Sessions count toward your account's pricing and limits and stop at their maximum duration. Stop a session with eas simulator:stop when the task is done. See https://expo.dev/pricing for current terms.

EAS Simulator runs a remote iOS simulator or Android emulator on EAS infrastructure that you drive from your machine — from the CLI, from an AI agent (via agent-device), and from a browser preview. It's the unlock for environments that can't run a simulator locally (Linux boxes, cloud/background agents like Cursor Cloud), and for letting an agent verify a change on a real device instead of only reasoning about code.

The simulator:* commands are experimental and hidden, and need a recent eas-cli (≥ 20.3.0 as of writing) — which is why this skill runs everything via npx --yes eas-cli@latest. Flags and verbs may change; the relevant subcommand's --help output is authoritative.

When to use

The frontmatter description carries the trigger phrases. In short: use this to get a user's app onto a cloud simulator and interact with it — especially from a Mac-less or cloud/sandbox agent. Not for local sims (expo run:ios, Xcode, Android Studio), store builds/signing (that's EAS Build), or physical devices. For the macOS case, see Cloud vs local next.

Cloud vs local: decide this first

• Explicit cloud/remote/shareable request: use EAS Simulator after checking access, on any host.
• Generic simulator request: use a suitable local simulator when available. If the host cannot run the requested simulator (for example, iOS on Linux or a cloud sandbox), use EAS Simulator after checking access. A non-macOS host may still support a local Android emulator.
• Honor an explicit local choice; hand off to expo run:ios / Xcode / Android Studio as appropriate. Clarify only when the requested environment remains ambiguous and affects the task.

When the user asks for EAS Simulator or a cloud simulator, start the session and do the requested work without asking again. Stop the session when the work is done. Only check in if the user set a limit you would go past, or if the work grows beyond what they asked for.

Prerequisites

• Run every eas command via npx --yes eas-cli@latest … — guarantees a CLI new enough to have simulator:* (a global eas is often too old), and --yes skips npx's prompt. (Bare eas is fine if eas --version is current.)
• Authenticated. Interactive machine → npx --yes eas-cli@latest login. Cloud sandbox / CI / headless agent has no browser login — set EXPO_TOKEN (expo.dev → Account → Access Tokens) in the env instead. Verify either way with npx --yes eas-cli@latest whoami.
• Run from an Expo project directory. A fresh app needs one-time setup: npx --yes eas-cli@latest init to create/link the project (when there's no projectId), and set ios.bundleIdentifier in app config if it's missing — a fresh create-expo-app often has none, and prebuild/eas build need it (they prompt or fail without it; e.g. dev.<owner>.<slug>). Read current config with npx expo config --json (it may live in app.config.js). The first Mode-C run is slow (native build); later runs reuse it.
• A controller to drive the device. This skill uses agent-device (open source, MIT), run on demand via npx agent-device@latest — nothing globally installed. Appium and argent are alternative automation interfaces; web-preview-only has no automation interface. See references/controllers.md.
• .env.eas-simulator is written/managed by eas-cli (not this skill): it holds the session id (EAS_SIMULATOR_SESSION_ID) + the daemon URL/token, so get/stop/exec default to that session (usually omit --id; pass --id <id> to target another). It carries a token → keep it gitignored (eas-cli marks it "do not commit" but may not add the ignore rule, and a fresh app's .gitignore won't cover it — add .env.eas-simulator if missing).
• The command blocks assume a POSIX shell (bash/zsh) — printf, lsof, $(seq …) loops won't run in cmd/PowerShell. On Windows, run them in WSL or Git Bash, or translate as you go (the eas-cli/agent-device invocations themselves are cross-platform).

Session lifetime

• --max-duration-minutes N is the hard automatic-stop deadline. Any plan can set it, up to the plan limit (40 minutes on Free, 115 on paid plans). The timer starts when the session is ready.
• --max-idle-time-minutes N stops a session after that many inactive minutes. Omitted means no idle timeout: the session runs until its maximum duration or an explicit stop.
• Controller activity resets the idle timer (agent-device, argent, and Appium commands, which are recorded as session events with producer appium). Browser-preview activity does not reset it. For a user-driven browser preview, rely on the maximum duration, not idle time, to bound the session.

Check availability first

EAS Simulator is a limited-access EAS feature that is still rolling out, so it isn't enabled on every account. Check access before starting a session; this read-only command does not create a session.

npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:availability --json
# → {"available": true, ...}  enabled → continue to the core loop
# → {"available": false, ...} not enabled → do NOT start a session

If it's not available, don't call simulator:start (it will fail). Instead, hand off gracefully so you keep making progress without this skill:

• Tell the user EAS Simulator isn't available on their account yet — it's coming soon.
• Fall back to their normal local path for the actual goal — expo run:ios / Xcode / Android Studio for a local sim/emulator, an EAS Build, or whatever else fits. Don't dead-end on the cloud sim; the request was almost never "use EAS Simulator specifically."

(If simulator:availability isn't recognized, the CLI is too old — upgrade, or treat a not enabled for this account error from simulator:start the same way: stop and fall back.)

The core loop (always the same)

A session is: start → (install your app) → drive → stop. eas-cli owns the session; the device verbs (open/tap/screenshot) come from the controller, which npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:exec runs for you with the session's connection env loaded.

# 1. Start a session (boots the remote sim + agent-device daemon; writes .env.eas-simulator).
# If the dotenv names a session, inspect it with simulator:get --json first. Reuse it when it
# belongs to this run; stop it only when it is in scope and no longer needed. An IN_PROGRESS
# session may be intentionally concurrent, so preserve its id/config before resetting the dotenv.
# Continue below only after choosing how to handle that existing session.
printf '# managed by eas-cli\n' > .env.eas-simulator   # clear only after resolving any live session
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:start --platform ios --type agent-device --non-interactive \
  --name "Checkout flow screenshots"   # always name it — see 'Always name the session'
#    Then confirm it's live: simulator:get --json → status IN_PROGRESS (bounded poll in run-your-app.md).

# 2. Drive it through `exec` (loads the session env, then runs the command you give it).
#    agent-device runs on demand via npx — nothing installed globally.
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:exec npx agent-device@latest open <app-or-url> --platform ios
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:exec npx agent-device@latest snapshot -i          # interactive UI tree → @e1, @e2 refs
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:exec npx agent-device@latest press @e2            # tap a ref (use 'press' or 'click')
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:exec npx agent-device@latest screenshot ./shot.png

# 3. Stop the session and reset the dotenv. Omit --id to target the dotenv session.
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:stop
printf '# managed by eas-cli\n' > .env.eas-simulator

To watch it live, hand the user the webPreviewUrl that start prints (in --json, remoteConfig.webPreviewUrl; for web-preview-only sessions, remoteConfig.previewUrl). All current session types include a browser preview, on iOS and Android; agent-device, appium, and argent also provide automation, while web-preview-only provides no automation interface. On Android, the expo.dev session page does not show the preview inline yet: Open preview opens it in a new tab. Android support is in development, so some iOS features may not work there. This URL is for the user's browser — you cannot open it for them, and it must never touch the sim:

• "Open it here" (Cursor/VS Code) → print the URL on its own line and tell the user to open Simple Browser (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P → "Simple Browser: Show") and paste it. Then stop: do not shell out to a system browser or a Cursor/VS Code URL handler, and do not ask "did a tab appear?" — you can't confirm it, the handoff is done.
• Never open the webPreviewUrl on the sim. It's a browser preview, not a deep link and not an agent-device open argument; routing it to the device renders a browser-in-a-browser (a real past failure).
• Headless agent (no display) → just return the URL as the deliverable.
• Keeping it alive for the user to drive → use --max-duration-minutes N (up to the plan limit). Browser-preview activity does not reset --max-idle-time-minutes, so idle timeout is not a reliable lifetime bound for this case. Tell the user when the session expires, using the CLI's reported duration or expiry. Keep it running for the requested preview; stop sessions created for one-shot tasks when the task finishes.

start also prints a job-run URL.

Always name the session

Pass --name "<description>" on every simulator:start. The name appears in simulator:list, simulator:get, and on the Simulator sessions page on expo.dev, where it replaces the generic title on each row. Unnamed, every row reads "Simulator session" over a random id — a wall of identical entries nobody can navigate. Write the name for a human scanning that list days later, not for yourself during this run.

Write what the session is for, in a few plain words:

--name "Checkout flow screenshots"     # what you did
--name "Dev build — dark mode fix"     # what you were testing
--name "Login repro for issue 412"     # why it exists

Rules:

• Derive it from the user's request, not from the mode or the tooling. Mode C session, agent-device ios, and test say nothing.
• Length: aim for 3–6 words, ~40 characters, and treat 50 as the practical limit. It renders as a single-line title in a narrow table column, so a long name clips. The API accepts up to 255 characters and rejects an empty/whitespace-only name, but 255 is a ceiling you never approach, not a target. One noun phrase, no sentences.
• Be specific within that budget. Include a ticket or PR number when there is one.
• Sentence case: capitalize the first word only, and leave identifiers in their real casing (Dev build for expo-router v4, Repro for EXPO-1234). It's a row title, so no Title Case, no all-lowercase, and no trailing period.
• Don't repeat what the table already shows. Every row already displays the session id, platform, start time, duration, and who created it — so no ids, no iOS, no dates, no your-own-name. Spend the whole budget on what those columns can't say: the purpose.
• If the user names it, use their name as-is.
• Sessions are per-run, so name each new one for that run. Don't reuse an old name for different work.

--name is newer than simulator:start itself, so an older installed eas-cli can reject it. If that happens, run via npx --yes eas-cli@latest or upgrade; as a last resort, retry once without --name (the session starts unnamed). See references/troubleshooting.md.

Commands at a glance

Query the installed CLI for the complete current flag set before using non-default start flags, machine-readable/config output, list filters, or session events:

# Replace `start` with the simulator subcommand you are about to run.
npx --yes eas-cli@latest simulator:start --help

The examples below cover the common workflow; they are intentionally not an exhaustive copy of the CLI surface. Keep non-obvious behavioral guidance from this skill—especially Session lifetime—even when constructing the command from --help.