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mobile-demo-record

Testing & quality

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Updated 10-30 16:30

About this skill

Recording the mobile app

There is no CDP for mobile. The equivalent is the iOS simulator, booted headless, driven by Maestro, recorded with simctl. Nothing here opens a window on the user's display.

Rules

  1. Real app state only. Record real sessions, real pull requests, real pages. No mockups, no DOM-style fakery. Seed the data the story needs, then delete it.
  2. No real data in frame. Use the dev account (admin@local.test) and a demo org with demo projects. Read every frame of the contact sheet for names, emails, repo names, and tokens before sharing anything.
  3. One take per story. A host that has connected once is no longer "never connected", a read page is no longer unread. Reset or reseed state before each take.
  4. Report what you recorded against: worktree, API port, simulator UDID, app build date.

Stack

Start each in its own Superset terminal (superset terminals create --local --workspace $SUPERSET_WORKSPACE_ID --command "..."; without --local the call silently returns nothing). Ports come from .superset/ports.json and the root .env.

Service Command Trap
API cd apps/api && bun run dev A 500 "password authentication failed" means the worktree's Neon branch was cleaned up. Recreate it and rewrite the "# Workspace Database" lines in .env.
Relay cd apps/relay && while true; do CI=1 WRANGLER_SEND_METRICS=false node_modules/.bin/wrangler dev --port $RELAY_PORT --var NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL:http://localhost:$API_PORT --local; done wrangler dev dies with an empty error whenever a client aborts mid-request, which every app relaunch does. Hence the loop.
Metro cd apps/mobile && CI=1 bunx expo start --dev-client --port 8081 CI=1 disables file watching: restart Metro after code edits. Pre-warm the first bundle by curling the launchAsset.url from curl -H 'expo-platform: ios' localhost:8081, or the dev client times out.

apps/mobile/app.config.ts loads the repo-root .env with override: true, so every local bundle points at this workspace's API no matter what apps/mobile/.env says.

Simulator

U=$(xcrun simctl list devices available | grep -m1 "iPhone 17 Pro (" | grep -oE '[0-9A-F-]{36}')
xcrun simctl boot $U && xcrun simctl bootstatus $U -b
xcrun simctl ui $U appearance light
xcrun simctl status_bar $U override --time "9:41" --batteryState discharging \
  --batteryLevel 100 --cellularBars 4 --wifiBars 3 --dataNetwork wifi
xcrun simctl spawn $U defaults write sh.superset.mobile EXDevMenuIsOnboardingFinished -bool YES
xcrun simctl openurl $U "superset://expo-development-client/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A8081&disableAutoLaunch=1&disableFab=1"
  • simctl boot does not launch Simulator.app. Keep it that way.
  • The status bar override resets on shutdown. Reapply it after every boot.
  • No dev client installed, or it crashes on launch after a native dependency change? Rebuild: From apps/mobile (cd apps/mobile from the repo root), run bunx expo prebuild -p ios, then xcodebuild -workspace ios/Superset.xcworkspace -scheme Superset -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator -derivedDataPath <scratch>/dd (about 10 minutes), then xcrun simctl install $U <path to Superset.app>. Set SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true. Never set CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO: it drops the keychain entitlement and the app crashes on first SecureStore read. Pure JS changes need no rebuild.

Driving

Maestro needs JAVA_HOME=/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home. Flows live in apps/mobile/.maestro/flows/. Sign in with tapOn: { id: dev-sign-in-button }.

  • Write one flow per story. Prefer tapOn by visible text, add a testID when text is ambiguous. inputText types character by character, which reads as a person typing on film.

  • Maestro takes 7 to 25 seconds to start. Launch it before you start recording, and begin the flow with a waitForAnimationToEnd or a short extendedWaitUntil so the take opens on a settled screen.

  • The dev session has plan: null, so Home shows the paywall. Seed a subscriptions row on the worktree's Neon branch (plan pro, reference_id = the org id, stripe_subscription_id sub_temp_...) and delete it after.

  • Need a host without a second machine? POST /api/trpc/host.ensure with the session JWT registers one, and holding ws://localhost:$RELAY_PORT/v2/control?hostId=<org>:<machineId> open with Authorization: Bearer <jwt> marks it online. Delete the v2_users_hosts and v2_hosts rows after. For a story with a real agent working, point the app at a real local host-service instead.

  • Maestro matches the whole accessibility label, and rows carry extra text (the Settings row is , Pages, ). Match with a regex: tapOn: ".*Pages.*". Dump what it sees with maestro --udid $U hierarchy.

  • Metro fails with ENOENT ... react-native-worklets/.worklets/<n>.js? Its cache outlived the generated files. Restart it with --clear.

Pages in the app

Pages need three more things locally, none of which setup provides:

  • Object storage. The API writes page files to R2_ENDPOINT (localhost:9000, nothing listens there) while the usercontent Worker reads its own local R2. Run a minimal S3 stand-in on :9000 (PUT with x-amz-copy-source, GET, HEAD, POST ?delete), publish through page.assets.upload then page.publish, then copy every stored object across with bunx wrangler r2 object put superset-private-dev/<key> --local --env dev --file <f> --content-type <type> from apps/usercontent.
  • The Worker's secret. apps/usercontent/.dev.vars needs USERCONTENT_TOKEN_SECRET set to the value in the root .env, or every page answers 500. Start it with cd apps/usercontent && bun run dev.
  • Transport security. The dev build allows local networking only, and <id>.frame.usercontent.localhost does not count, so the page fails with error -1022. On the simulator's installed copy only: PlistBuddy -c "Set :NSAppTransportSecurity:NSAllowsArbitraryLoads true" -c "Add :NSAppTransportSecurity:NSAllowsArbitraryLoadsInWebContent bool true" "$(xcrun simctl get_app_container $U sh.superset.mobile app)/Info.plist", then relaunch. Revert it after.

tRPC calls from a script need authorization: Bearer <jwt> plus x-superset-organization-id, because the JWT carries no active organization. Tap to comment did not open the comment popover under Maestro on the simulator (2026-09-19, cause unknown); film comments through "Show all comments" and Reply instead.

Capturing

Run capture commands from a scratch directory. Use an absolute path to the Maestro flow when recording outside the repo.

mkdir -p raw shots cfr
xcrun simctl io $U recordVideo --codec h264 --force raw/01-story.mov & REC=$!
maestro test <repo>/apps/mobile/.maestro/flows/<story>.yml
kill -INT $REC; wait $REC
xcrun simctl io $U screenshot shots/01.png
  • Stop with SIGINT only. Any other signal leaves an unplayable file.
  • recordVideo writes a frame only when the screen changes, so the file is variable frame rate and wall-clock marks do not map to video time. Normalize before choosing cut points: ffmpeg -i raw/01-story.mov -vf fps=30 -an -c:v libx264 -crf 14 -pix_fmt yuv420p cfr/01.mp4.
  • A screenshot after a sleep never catches a sub-second flash. Record, then extract frames with ffmpeg -vf fps=10.
  • Before changing simulator variants, record the existing appearance, content size, and AppleLanguages value (including whether it was unset) so cleanup can restore them.
  • Variants: simctl ui $U appearance dark, simctl ui $U content_size extra-extra-extra-large, and simctl spawn $U defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleLanguages -array de-DE followed by a relaunch.

For a framed demo video, use the shared mobile-demo-film skill after recording.

Cleanup

Delete only the rows and objects created for this recording: subscriptions, hosts, demo sessions, and, for Pages, published pages, comments, and their objects in the S3 stand-in and local R2. Restore any organization or user names changed for the demo.

Stop every service started for the recording, including the usercontent Worker and storage stand-in when used. Restore the simulator's prior appearance, content size, and AppleLanguages value (remove the override if it was originally unset), revert any installed app transport-security changes, clear status-bar overrides, then xcrun simctl shutdown $U. Recordings and screenshots stay in the scratch directory unless the user asks for them in the repo.