Agent Setup

The agent runs on a Mac and streams simulator and emulator screens to the relay. It connects outbound to the relay — no inbound firewall rules needed.

Start the agent

When the agent and relay run on the same Mac, no flags are needed — the port is read from tapflow.config.json (default 4000):

tapflow agent start

When the relay runs on a separate machine, pass its URL together with an auth token. 192.168.x.x is the relay machine's LAN IP. See Remote relay authentication for how to create the token:

tapflow agent start --relay ws://192.168.x.x:4000 --token tflw_pat_xxxxxxxx

Option	Default	Description
--relay	ws://localhost:[port]	Relay WebSocket URL. Port is read from tapflow.config.json.
--device	all simulators	Limit which iOS simulators are exposed to the relay, by name or UDID
--token	none	Token with the agent scope for remote relay authentication. Can also be passed via the TAPFLOW_AGENT_TOKEN environment variable.

Wired LAN recommended

Keep the agent and relay on the same wired LAN. Wi-Fi works but can stutter on a Mac (AWDL channel hopping), regardless of signal strength — see Stream lag or stuttering for why and how to mitigate.

Remote relay authentication

No authentication is needed when the agent connects to a relay on the same machine (localhost). When the relay runs on a different machine, it only accepts agents that present a token with the agent scope. This protects your sessions from an arbitrary device on the same network impersonating an agent and feeding screens into a test session.

The relay requires authentication on every connection except one that reaches the relay port over loopback — this section covers the agent side. Reaching the same Mac by its LAN address counts as remote, and so does a tunnel client, which connects from loopback on someone else's behalf and therefore gets a separate tunnel port where every connection has to authenticate. For how browsers reach the relay from outside the office (tunnels), see External access in Self-Hosting the Relay.

Create a token

In the dashboard, go to Settings → Tokens → New token and set the Type to Agent. Only accounts with the Admin role can create agent-scope tokens. The success screen shows a ready-to-run agent command — copy it and run it on the agent machine.

Pass the token

Pass it with the --token flag:

tapflow agent start --relay ws://192.168.x.x:4000 --token tflw_pat_xxxxxxxx

If you prefer to keep the token out of your shell history, use the TAPFLOW_AGENT_TOKEN environment variable. When both are set, the flag wins:

export TAPFLOW_AGENT_TOKEN=tflw_pat_xxxxxxxx
tapflow agent start --relay ws://192.168.x.x:4000

Connecting to a remote relay without a token (or with an expired or revoked one) makes the agent print the rejection reason along with the token setup steps, then exit.

iOS

Prerequisites

• macOS
• Xcode with iOS Simulator Runtime installed
• Node.js ≥ 22

List available simulators

tapflow devices

Multiple simulators

Each Mac supports 2–4 simultaneous simulators depending on available RAM. The agent reports available slots automatically. See Scaling Mac Resources for details.

Troubleshooting

Common
  ✓ Node v22.x

iOS
  ✓ Xcode 26.0
  ✓ xcrun simctl
  ✓ Simulator booted: iPhone 16 Pro

Android

Prerequisites

• Android SDK installed (ANDROID_HOME set or adb in $PATH)
• An AVD using the google_apis/arm64-v8a system image (android-34)

Create an AVD

Create an AVD using Android Studio's AVD Manager. See Create and manage virtual devices for a step-by-step guide.

When selecting the system image, note the following:

AVD image matters

Use a google_apis/arm64-v8a image — the tested and recommended configuration. The google_apis_playstore image is not tested and has shown H.264 encoder issues.

The agent boots the emulator automatically, waits for sys.boot_completed, then begins streaming. For emulators on Apple Silicon, the agent encodes H.264 on the Mac host (VideoToolbox), capped at 30 fps — no GPU load on the emulator itself.

Troubleshooting

tapflow doctor
# Common
#   ✓ Node v22.x
#
# Android
#   ✓ adb found: /usr/local/bin/adb
#   ✓ AVD: Pixel_8 (android-34 · google_apis/arm64-v8a)

See Troubleshooting for more detailed solutions.

Stream quality

Resolution and decoder are chosen automatically per viewer connection — tapflow streams in a Standard, Smooth, or Remote profile depending on how each viewer reaches the relay. See Streaming Quality for the profiles and how to tune them.

Host display and sleep

While an agent is connected, it holds a macOS power assertion so the host doesn't sleep mid-session. By default it also keeps the display awake (caffeinate -di): when the display sleeps, macOS parks the GPU and throttles the simulator render and encoding, which shows up as a sluggish stream. Running an agent effectively dedicates the Mac to tapflow, so this is the default.

Set TAPFLOW_ALLOW_DISPLAY_SLEEP=1 to let the display sleep normally (system sleep is still blocked).