Tauri MCP CLI

Tauri MCP CLI

Use this skill for the entire CLI workflow. The package intentionally ships a single bundled skill so agents do not need to pick between overlapping domain-specific skills.

Prerequisites

• The app is running in development mode, usually with cargo tauri dev.
• The tauri-plugin-mcp-bridge plugin is installed and registered.
• src-tauri/tauri.conf.json sets withGlobalTauri: true.

Core Rule

Start or verify a driver session before calling almost any other tool:

tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223
tauri-mcp driver-session status --json

driver-session start can succeed even when no app is reachable, so always check connected: true in the status output.

Session and Daemon Lifecycle

# Start a session
tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223

# Run one or more commands in separate shell invocations
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --file before.png
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action click --selector "#submit-btn"
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --file after.png

# End the session
tauri-mcp driver-session stop

The CLI uses MCPorter keep-alive mode, so the background daemon preserves session state across separate tauri-mcp ... commands.

Use daemon commands only when the background process itself is unhealthy:

tauri-mcp daemon status
tauri-mcp daemon restart
tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223

UI Interaction

# Click or focus an element
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action click --selector "#submit-btn"
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action focus --selector "#search"

# Type into a field
tauri-mcp webview-keyboard --action type --selector "#email" --text "hello@example.com"

# Wait before interacting with async UI
tauri-mcp webview-wait-for --type selector --value "#success-msg" --timeout 5000
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action click --selector "#success-msg"

# Keyboard shortcuts and scrolling
tauri-mcp webview-keyboard --action press --key "s" --modifiers '["Control"]'
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action scroll --selector ".content" --scroll-y 300

All CLI flags are kebab-case, not camelCase. For example, use --window-id, not --windowId.

Inspection and Capture

# Screenshots always write files to disk
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --file shot.png
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --format jpeg --quality 80 --file shot.jpg
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --json

# Run JavaScript in the webview
tauri-mcp webview-execute-js --script "document.title"
tauri-mcp webview-execute-js --script "(() => { return document.querySelectorAll('li').length; })()"

# Find elements and inspect styles
tauri-mcp webview-find-element --selector "#hero"
tauri-mcp webview-get-styles --selector "#hero" --properties '["color","font-size"]'

# Read logs and inspect windows
tauri-mcp read-logs --source console --filter "error" --lines 100
tauri-mcp manage-window --action list --json

If content is off-screen, scroll it into view before taking a screenshot. The CLI does not return base64 image data on stdout.

IPC and Backend

# Verify the bridge plugin is active
tauri-mcp driver-session status --json

# Run backend commands
tauri-mcp ipc-execute-command --command "greet" --args '{"name":"World"}'
tauri-mcp ipc-get-backend-state --json

# Capture IPC traffic around an interaction
tauri-mcp ipc-monitor --action stop
tauri-mcp ipc-monitor --action start
tauri-mcp webview-interact --action click --selector "#refresh"
tauri-mcp ipc-get-captured --json
tauri-mcp ipc-monitor --action stop

# Emit synthetic events
tauri-mcp ipc-emit-event --event-name "user-action" --payload '{"action":"button-clicked"}'

If driver-session status --json returns identifier: null, treat that as a missing or inactive bridge plugin.

Mobile and Remote Devices

# List targets
tauri-mcp list-devices --json

# Android emulator or iOS simulator
tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223

# Real Android device
adb reverse tcp:9223 tcp:9223
tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223

# Real iOS device or direct network connection
tauri-mcp driver-session start --host 192.168.1.101 --port 9223

# Mobile logs
tauri-mcp read-logs --source android --filter "com.myapp"
tauri-mcp read-logs --source ios --filter "MyApp"

For real Android devices, do not assume localhost works without adb reverse or an explicit --host.

High-Value Failure Modes

No active session

tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223
tauri-mcp driver-session status --json

Stale daemon or app restart

tauri-mcp daemon restart
tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9223
tauri-mcp driver-session status --json

Wrong port

tauri-mcp driver-session start --port 9225

Screenshot misuse

# Wrong: captures a file path string, not image bytes
IMG=$(tauri-mcp webview-screenshot)

# Right
tauri-mcp webview-screenshot --file shot.png

JavaScript return shape

# Wrong: returns null
tauri-mcp webview-execute-js --script "() => { return document.title; }"

# Right
tauri-mcp webview-execute-js --script "document.title"

Missing selector for typed input

# Wrong
tauri-mcp webview-keyboard --action type --text "hello"

# Right
tauri-mcp webview-keyboard --action type --selector "#email" --text "hello"

Decision Checklist

Before acting, verify:

1. The app is running.
2. driver-session status --json shows connected: true.
3. The command uses kebab-case flags.
4. Screenshot commands write to explicit file paths when the result matters.
5. Mobile workflows specify the correct connection path and log source.