Kelpie

---

What it is

Native iOS, Android, and macOS browser apps paired with a Node.js CLI. Language models discover devices on the local network, then control them: navigate, screenshot, read DOM, click, fill forms, scroll, capture network traffic, evaluate JS. Works on real devices, simulators, and emulators. AirPlay an iPhone to an Apple TV and it appears as a second controllable device.

No emulators pretending to be phones. No persistent content scripts. No browser extensions. Real browsers on real hardware, fully controllable by LLMs.

Status

Target	Status	Notes
iOS	Done	Main mobile platform, actively usable
Android	Done	Main mobile platform, actively usable
macOS	Done	Desktop app is usable
Linux	In progress	Desktop shell exists, still evolving
Windows	In progress	Runs and is controllable: native chrome, tabs, navigation, DOM, eval, screenshots over loopback HTTP/MCP. Not yet released
CLI	Done	Main control surface for devices

Install

npm install -g @unlikeotherai/kelpie

Published releases also attach Android artifacts plus Linux .tar.gz, .deb, .rpm, and .AppImage downloads. GitHub Pages publishes Linux package repositories for apt and dnf from the same release flow.

Quick start

1. Build and run the iOS or Android app on a device or simulator
2. kelpie discover — lists all Kelpie instances on your network
3. kelpie navigate --url https://example.com — or connect your LLM via MCP

Key features

• Real browsers — WKWebView (iOS/macOS), CEF (macOS), Android WebView, with native user agents
• Apple TV support — AirPlay from iPhone/iPad to Apple TV, TV appears as a separate controllable device
• mDNS discovery — devices advertise _kelpie._tcp, CLI auto-discovers them
• HTTP + MCP API — navigate, screenshot, DOM, click, fill, scroll, JS eval
• Group commands — send commands to all devices simultaneously
• Annotated screenshots — numbered labels on interactive elements for visual-first automation
• Safari / Chrome auth — one-tap login using saved passwords, cookies sync back
• Network inspector — capture XHR and fetch traffic with headers, bodies, timing
• Console capture — read console output and JS errors with stack traces

Architecture

  +-----------+    +-----------+    +-----------+    +-----------+
  | Kelpie  |    | Kelpie  |    | Kelpie  |    | Apple TV  |
  | (iPhone)  |    | (iPad)    |    | (Android) |    | (AirPlay) |
  | HTTP+MCP  |    | HTTP+MCP  |    | HTTP+MCP  |    | HTTP+MCP  |
  | mDNS      |    | mDNS      |    | mDNS      |    | mDNS      |
  +-----+-----+    +-----+-----+    +-----+-----+    +-----+-----+
        |               |               |               |
        +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
                |               |
         +------+---------------+------+
         |      Kelpie CLI           |
         |      (Node.js / MCP)        |
         +-------------+---------------+
                       |
                  +----+----+
                  |   LLM   |
                  +---------+

Repository structure

apps/
  ios/          iOS app (Swift, SwiftUI, WKWebView) + Apple TV via AirPlay
  android/      Android app (Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, WebView)
  macos/        macOS app (Swift, SwiftUI, WKWebView + CEF)
packages/
  cli/          Node.js CLI and MCP server
docs/           Product brief, architecture, API reference, CLI docs

Documentation

Doc	Description
Product Brief	What, why, how, MVP scope
Architecture	Components, data flow, protocols
Tech Stack	Platform choices, dependencies
Feature Catalogue	Every user-facing feature
API Reference	All HTTP/MCP methods
CLI Reference	Commands, flags, group operations

Sister projects

AppReveal

Kelpie uses AppReveal only for debug automation. The CLI helper and the in-app library are separate things, and the in-app SDK must never ship in release builds. See docs.md.

License

MIT