Installation

Requirements

• macOS 15 or later.
• iPhone or iPad: a cable for the first connection, so the device can trust the Mac. Wi-Fi works after pairing.
• iOS Simulator: Xcode with its command line tools (xcrun simctl help must work).
• Android: the Android platform tools (adb). Tapscope finds adb in your PATH, in $ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools or in ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools.
• Chrome DevTools MCP or Puppeteer: Node.js. Tapscope itself does not need it.

Install the app

1. Download Tapscope.dmg.
2. Open the disk image and drag Tapscope into Applications.
3. Launch Tapscope. It starts its background service and fills the sidebar with connected iPhones and iPads, booted simulators and Android devices.

The sections of the sidebar can be switched on and off in the View menu: iOS Devices, Simulators, Android Devices and Enable Network Targets.

Install the command line tool

The tapscope command ships inside the app. To use it in terminals and from coding agents, link it into your PATH: in Tapscope choose Settings › General › Install Command-Line Tool, or run the tool once from the app bundle:

/Applications/Tapscope.app/Contents/Helpers/tapscope install-cli

The link goes to /usr/local/bin if that folder is writable, otherwise to ~/.local/bin. Use --dir <folder> for another location. Afterwards check the installation:

tapscope version
tapscope doctor

tapscope doctor checks the daemon, the CDP port, the DevTools frontend, network targets, Xcode and simctl, adb, the iOS device service and every connected device, and prints a next step for each problem.

Prepare your devices

• iPhone & iPad: trust the Mac and turn on Web Inspector.
• iOS Simulator: boot a simulator and open Safari.
• Android: enable USB debugging and allow the Mac.
• Your own app’s WebViews: make them inspectable.
• Chrome, Node.js, Electron: start them with a debug port.

Files and background service

Tapscope keeps its settings and state in ~/.tapscope/:

The background service starts with the app or the first CLI command and keeps running after you quit the app, so agents can continue. Stop it with tapscope stop; an older version is replaced automatically after an update.

Uninstall

1. Run tapscope stop.
2. Delete Tapscope from Applications and the tapscope link (/usr/local/bin/tapscope or ~/.local/bin/tapscope).
3. Delete ~/.tapscope/ if you also want to remove settings and logs. Release a paid license first with tapscope logout if you want to use it on another Mac.