orca-emulator-android

Orca Emulator — Android (adb / emulator powered)

Drive an Android emulator or adb-connected device from within Orca using ORCA emulator ... commands. The Android backend shells out to the Android SDK (adb, emulator, avdmanager) that Android Studio installs, so it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS — unlike the iOS backend (orca-emulator), which is macOS-only. Device control uses adb shell input, so it works without any extra streaming server.

Status: device discovery + lifecycle + full input/capability control are live. The embedded 60fps visual pane (scrcpy/H.264) is in development — for now, watch the device in Android Studio's emulator window while you drive it from the CLI.

CLI executable

Choose the Orca executable once: use the ORCA_CLI_COMMAND environment value when set; otherwise use orca-dev in a dev session exposing ORCA_DEV_REPO_ROOT, orca-ide on Linux outside an Orca-managed terminal, and orca everywhere else. Never try bare orca first on unmanaged Linux because it normally resolves to the GNOME screen reader.

In every command example — fenced blocks, tables, and prose — ORCA is a documentation placeholder. Replace it with the chosen executable before running the command; do not create a shell variable or run ORCA literally. The command examples are intentionally shell-neutral for POSIX shells, PowerShell, and cmd.exe.

When to use

• List, boot, and target Android emulators/AVDs and physical devices.
• Tap, swipe, type, press hardware buttons (home/back/recents/power/volume), rotate a running Android device.
• Install an APK, launch an app, grant/revoke runtime permissions.
• Read the accessibility tree (uiautomator) or capture logcat.
• Run an arbitrary adb shell command via exec.

When NOT to use

• iOS simulators → use the orca-emulator skill (macOS only).
• Building the app → use Gradle / ./gradlew assembleDebug, then install.
• Camera/sensor injection → not supported yet (Android virtual-scene is out of scope for now).
• Remote/SSH device control → out of scope; the SDK + device are local to the host.

Prerequisites (surfaced by Orca)

• Android Studio / Android SDK installed, with ANDROID_HOME (or ANDROID_SDK_ROOT) set. Orca also checks the per-OS default location (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk, ~/Library/Android/sdk, ~/Android/Sdk).
• adb + emulator on the SDK path; at least one AVD (create in Android Studio ▸ Device Manager) or a connected device with USB debugging.
• A device that is booted and adb-visible for input/capability commands (an AVD that is still shutdown can be listed but must be booted first).

Orca returns a clear message when the SDK is missing (Android SDK not found. Install Android Studio and set ANDROID_HOME.).

Mental model

┌────────────────────────┐
│ orca CLI (agents)      │  e.g. ORCA emulator tap 0.5 0.7 --device emulator-5554
└───────────┬────────────┘
            │ RPC
            ▼
┌────────────────────────┐   resolves backend by device
│ EmulatorBridge (router)│ ─────────────────────────────► AndroidEmulatorBackend
└────────────────────────┘                                  │ adb / emulator / avdmanager
                                                            ▼
                                                   Android emulator / device

Orca owns backend routing and the per-worktree active-device registry. The Android backend converts Orca's normalized 0–1 coordinates to device pixels and issues adb shell input events; AVD names resolve to running adb serials.

Common operations

Use --json for agent-friendly output. Coordinates are normalized 0..1 (top-left origin) — never pixels; Orca converts using the live screen size.

Goal	Command	Notes
List devices + AVDs	ORCA emulator devices --json	Cross-platform; shows iOS + Android with a platform column, booted vs shutdown.
Single tap	ORCA emulator tap <x> <y> --device <serial>	Normalized 0..1. Preferred for single taps.
Swipe / gesture	ORCA emulator gesture '<json>' --device <serial>	adb approximates the path by its endpoints (start→end).
Type text	ORCA emulator type "user@example.com" --device <serial>	US ASCII; spaces handled. No newlines.
Hardware button	ORCA emulator button back --device <serial>	home, back, recents, power, volume_up, volume_down.
Rotate	ORCA emulator rotate landscape_left --device <serial>	Sets user_rotation (disables auto-rotate).
Install an APK	ORCA emulator install ./app-debug.apk --reinstall --device <serial>	--reinstall passes -r.
Launch an app	ORCA emulator launch com.acme.app --activity .MainActivity --device <serial>	Omit --activity to launch the default LAUNCHER activity.
Grant a permission	ORCA emulator permissions grant com.acme.app android.permission.CAMERA --device <serial>	grant / revoke / reset.
Accessibility tree	ORCA emulator ax --device <serial> --json	uiautomator dump parsed to a node tree.
Logcat (one-shot)	ORCA emulator logcat --lines 200 --device <serial>	Dumps recent lines; parsed to entries.
Raw adb shell	ORCA emulator exec --command "getprop ro.build.version.sdk" --device <serial>	Runs adb -s <serial> shell <command>.

Critical gotchas (teach agents)

• All coordinates are normalized 0..1 (top-left origin), never pixels — Orca scales to the device's live resolution.
• Target a running device by its adb serial (e.g. emulator-5554) shown in ORCA emulator devices. An AVD name resolves only once that AVD is booted.
• The device must be booted and adb-visible before input/capability commands; a shutdown AVD is listed with state: shutdown and must be started first (Android Studio, or emulator @<avd>).
• type uses adb shell input text — US ASCII, spaces are handled, newlines are not. For unicode-heavy input, use the app UI directly.
• gesture is a straight swipe between the first and last point (adb limitation); fine for scroll/swipe, not for true multi-touch paths.
• Capability verbs (install/launch/permissions/ax/logcat) are Android-only; running them against an iOS device fails with emulator_unsupported.
• No camera/sensor injection yet.

Targeting devices & worktrees

• Explicit device: --device <serial> (recommended for Android today) or an AVD name once booted.
• ORCA emulator devices is global (lists every backend's devices); other verbs target the resolved device's backend automatically.
• --worktree <selector> scopes to a worktree's active device once the attach/active flow lands for Android.

Examples (agent-friendly)

ORCA emulator devices --json
ORCA emulator tap 0.5 0.85 --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator type "hello world" --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator button recents --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator install ./app-debug.apk --reinstall --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator launch com.acme.app --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator permissions grant com.acme.app android.permission.CAMERA --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator ax --device emulator-5554 --json
ORCA emulator logcat --lines 100 --device emulator-5554 --json

Next action

Run ORCA emulator devices --json to find a booted device, then drive it with --device <serial> while watching the emulator window.

See also: orca-emulator (iOS, macOS-only), orca-cli (terminals, worktrees, built-in browser), computer-use (desktop UI outside the emulator).