Developer Device Platform Basics

Developer Device Platform

Developer Device Platform (DDP) is a Google fully managed, global infrastructure providing access to a wide variety of physical and virtual devices.

[!WARNING] Developer Device Platform (DDP) is currently at Preview.

[!IMPORTANT] For all devicerun and devicestreaming API operations (reserving, status checking, stopping/canceling, updating, or listing a session), always verify and use the exact instructions and curl commands provided in the linked reference .md files.

Authentication & Setup

CRITICAL: Before running any requests, you MUST ensure the environment is correctly initialized by following these steps:

Before running any requests, verify if the gcloud executable is present. If missing, refer to the official Google Cloud CLI Installation Guide to install it on the current platform (Linux, macOS, Windows, etc.).

1. Google Cloud Authentication: Authenticate with your Google Cloud credentials and configure active Application Default Credentials (ADC) for the Developer Device Platform:

   gcloud auth login --no-browser
   gcloud auth application-default login --no-browser

2. Enable APIs (if not already enabled):

   gcloud services enable devicerun.googleapis.com devicestreaming.googleapis.com testing.googleapis.com --quiet

[!NOTE] Cloud Testing API is needed for Device Streaming API during Preview.

3. Enable gcloud beta component:

   gcloud components install beta

4. Setup Environment Variables: Set up the required project variable and access token:

   export PROJECT_ID=$(gcloud config get project)
   export ACCESS_TOKEN=$(gcloud auth application-default print-access-token 2>/dev/null)

5. Python Environment: For instructions on setting up the python virtual environment, see start_adb_forwarder.md.

Listing Available Devices

To find the correct modelCode and osVersion to use when starting a session, you can list the available devices:

1. List Models: Run the following command to list available Android device models:

   gcloud beta device-run devices list

   Use the ID column to find the value for the CATALOG_ID parameter to describe a specific device (e.g., shiba-36).

2. Describe a Model: Run the API request to get more details about a specific model (e.g., supportedProducts, resolution). Always rely on the exact curl command and instructions provided in describe_device.md.

Starting a Device Session

When the user asks to reserve or connect to a device:

1. Check Device Availability:

   Look up CATALOG_ID of the device using Listing Available Devices instructions. Check the device availability of the CATALOG_ID by using the exact curl command and instructions provided in describe_device.md. The device MUST contain "deviceStreaming" in "supportedProducts" to be reserved.

   If no specific device is specified, use CATALOG_ID=shiba-34 (Pixel 8 on SDK 34).

   If OS_VERSION was not specified by the user, ask the user to select a version from the device list (preferring the version with the highest availability {"available": "AVAILABILITY_HIGH" }).

   If OS_VERSION is unavailable for deviceStreaming, do not reserve one. Prompt the user for an alternative OS_VERSION.

2. Extract Parameters:

   • model_id: modelCode from device details. Required.
   • version_id: osVersion from device details. Required.

3. Reserve Device:

   Rule: Explicit User Confirmation Required. Reserving a device incurs billing charges and creates cloud resources. The agent MUST ALWAYS warn the user explicitly about the billing costs that will be incurred on the active Google Cloud project (e.g., ${PROJECT_ID}). You MUST STOP and ask for explicit approval before proceeding with any session creation commands.

   Then, run the API request with model_id and version_id to reserve the device. Always rely on the exact curl command and instructions provided in reserve_device.md.

   Parse the response to get session_name (the session name, e.g., projects/${PROJECT_ID}/deviceSessions/session-xxxxxx). If reservation fails, report the error.

4. Wait for Session to be Active:

   While waiting for the device session to be provisioned, poll the session status until "state" is "ACTIVE". See session_status.md for the exact curl command.

   Repeat this check every 5 seconds to prevent hitting API rate limit. If it does not become active within 2 minutes (typically under 1 minute), report failure and cancel the session. Once active, extract expireTime from the session JSON response and convert it to the user's local time in a human-readable format (e.g., "June 9, 2026 at 2:44 PM PDT").

5. Start Connection Forwarder: Start the ADB forwarder script to forward connection to the remote device. Always rely on the exact command and instructions provided in start_adb_forwarder.md. Ensure you record the Command ID.

6. Wait for Online and Parse Port: Wait for the forwarder to be online and extract the listening port. Always rely on the exact logic and instructions provided in start_adb_forwarder.md.

7. Provide Instructions to User:

   Once online, run adb -s localhost:{port} shell getprop ro.product.model to retrieve the device model name. Then, print a message directly to the user in the chat (do NOT create any artifact file) with the following instructions:

   Device is ready!

   Device Model: {device_model}
   OS Version: {version_id}
   ADB Address: localhost:{port}
   Session Expiration: {expire_time_human_readable_local}

8. Save Session State: Save the {session_name} and {command_id} in your conversation memory/context so you can clean it up later.