Claude Replicant connectorWhat Claude can do in your Android project.
The Claude Replicant connector exposes 14 tools. 7 read your Android setup (devices, logs, screen), 4 act on it (apps, shell, emulators, screen gestures), and 3 have no source saying whether they read or change anything. Here is what Claude does on your machine and what is blocked.
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What the Claude Replicant connector changes for your mobile team
Build, install, launch, tap your way to the screen that crashes, then copy the logs: that back-and-forth between terminal and phone is what you hand to Claude. Replicant is a desktop extension published by the developer Archit Joshi, which gives Claude control of your local Android environment. There is no service account; everything happens on your machine.
Replay a user journey. adb-app installs and launches the app, ui-action taps, types and scrolls, and ui-query finds elements on screen through accessibility.
Find why the app crashed. adb-logcat filters logs by package, tag, level and time, while gradle-get-details pulls the full output of a previous build or test run.
Build and test. According to the author, gradle-build builds APKs and app bundles and gradle-test runs unit and instrumented tests with baseline comparison; no source says whether they change anything, so this page leaves them unclassified.
What Claude cannot do with this connector: it works on one device at a time, apps with custom rendering such as Flutter or games may expose nothing to read, and the shell refuses destructive commands. Gradle tools need gradlew in your project. Nothing runs on its own either: no build fires on every code change unless you ask. For that, you need an automation or continuous integration tool, a different job; the Integrations hub covers that side.
The vocabulary in one minute
Five words that make the rest of this page easier.
- Connector
- The link you install once between Claude and a tool, here your local Android environment, so Claude can work in it while answering you.
- Tool
- One named action the connector hands to Claude. Claude picks which to call; the directory sheet lists them by name.
- Authorization
- The access you grant Claude. Here there is no sign-in screen: the extension works through the Android tools already installed on your machine.
- Approval
- The confirmation Claude waits for before carrying out something that changes anything, shown in the conversation.
- MCP
- The common standard connectors are built on; it lets an assistant talk to an outside service or tool.
Connect Replicant to Claude in three steps
- 01
Find Replicant in Claude Desktop
Replicant is a desktop extension, so it installs on Claude Desktop. Open settings, go to Customize then Connectors and look for Replicant. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an Owner or Primary Owner has to enable it first.
- 02
Start the install
Start the connection from Replicant's row. If the extension misbehaves later, use Disconnect and add it again from the same row; that is the standard move on Claude's side.
- 03
Check your environment
There is no authorization screen here, since no account is involved. The author instead suggests running the built-in diagnostic (replicant doctor) to confirm that Node.js, adb and the emulator are in place.
All 14 tools, grouped by effect
Replicant MCP gives Claude 14 tools: 7 that read your account, 4 that change something in it, and 3 no official source describes.
Three groups: what Claude reads, what it runs on your device or emulator, and the tools no source classifies. Tool names stay as Claude shows them.
- 7 read
- 4 write
- 3 not documented
What Claude reads (7)
7 toolsSeven tools that look at your project, your device or the documentation.
adb-device
Lists the Android phones and emulators that are connected, reports their properties, and picks the one Claude will work on. Every following command targets that device.
adb-logcat
Reads Android's system logs (logcat), filtered by package, tag, level or time, so Claude can find what made the app crash.
gradle-list
Explores your Gradle project's structure: modules, build variants and available tasks.
gradle-get-details
Fetches the full output of a previous build or test run from its ID. The author's design returns summaries first, and the full detail only on demand, to keep token usage down.
ui-query
Queries the app's interface through accessibility services, finding elements first through accessibility data and then by spatial proximity, rather than by coordinates.
ui-capture
Takes a screenshot and stores it in .replicant/screenshots/ in your current working directory.
rtfm
Returns the server's documentation and usage guides by category, such as build, adb, emulator or UI. The author suggests asking Claude to call it with one of those categories.
What Claude runs (4)
4 toolsFour tools that manage apps, run shell commands, handle emulators or act on the screen. No source gives them their own confirmation.
adb-app
Approval: see the ruleInstalls, uninstalls, launches or stops an app on the active device, and can clear its data.
adb-shell
Approval: see the ruleRuns shell commands on the device, with guard rails: the author blocks commands such as reboot, rm -rf / or su, so that you cannot brick the device.
emulator-device
Approval: see the ruleCreates, starts, stops or wipes an Android emulator, and saves, loads or deletes its snapshots.
ui-action
Approval: see the ruleTaps, types text or scrolls in the app on the active device.
Unclassified (3)
3 toolsThe author describes these three tools in one line each, but no source says whether they only read or also change something. We will not guess.
gradle-build
According to the author, this tool builds APKs and app bundles, and hands Claude a summary with a cache ID rather than the whole Gradle log. No source says whether it reads or changes anything, so this page does not classify it.
gradle-test
The author describes it as running unit and instrumented tests with regression detection through baseline comparison. No source says whether it reads or changes anything, so it stays unclassified here.
cache
Only one vague line from the author comes with it: managing the response cache, stored in .replicant/cache/. No source says whether it reads that cache or clears it, so this page does not decide.
What Claude asks before it acts
By default, Claude stops and asks for your go-ahead before each action it takes for you, right in the conversation.
On Team and Enterprise, owners decide whether members can let some actions through without being asked every time, and they can cap what a connector does for the whole organization. On Replicant's side, the author adds a technical barrier: the shell tool refuses a list of dangerous commands before they even reach the device. Claude acts through the Android tools installed on your computer, and nothing beyond them.
Which plans include the connector
None of the 819 sheets in the official directory shows availability by plan; connector by connector, the information is not published anywhere.
The general rule is documented: desktop extensions such as Replicant install on Claude Desktop, while remote connectors are open to all users on Claude, Cowork, Claude Desktop and mobile. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner enables the connector for the organization. For the current state, check Replicant's sheet in the directory. Only its author documents this connector.
Where the Replicant connector stops
A connector is not an automation: Claude calls these tools while it answers you, and no build starts on its own.
Replicant is published by the developer Archit Joshi and listed as a partner in the directory. The badge is not a security audit, and Anthropic does not vouch for how a publisher's tools behave: connect it knowing it runs commands on your machine and your device. Three of its tools stay unclassified because no source says whether they change anything. The author documents several known limitations; the main ones are below.
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