I Built a Script That Runs Android Apps — No Android Studio Needed

By Jai Goyal

Published May 30, 2026 · 3 min read

Setting up an Android emulator is one of those tasks that shouldn’t take two hours but usually does. You need Android Studio, the right SDK version, an AVD configured, the right API level, hardware acceleration on. By the time you’ve done all that, you’ve forgotten what you were actually trying to test.

I built dev-emulator to make this a solved problem. One npm install, and you have a scripted Android emulator that bootstraps everything on first use.

What it does

dev-emulator gives you a JavaScript API to control an Android 14 emulator (Pixel 7a, 1080×2400) from a script or from Claude Code. The SDK installs itself. The virtual device creates itself. You write code, not configuration.

npm install -g dev-emulator

dev-emulator <<'EOF'
const d = await device.get();
await d.install("/path/to/app.apk");
await d.launch("com.example.app", ".MainActivity");
await d.sleep(8000);
const shot = await d.screenshot("home.png");
console.log(JSON.stringify({ screenshot: shot }));
EOF

That’s it. No Android Studio open. No emulator window to manage. It runs headless.

The API

The Claude Code integration

This is the part I’m most interested in. When you install dev-emulator globally, it registers an android-agent skill in Claude Code’s skill directory. That means you can tell Claude: “install and test the APK at ~/app-debug.apk” and it will autonomously handle the full loop — install, launch, screenshot, analyse, interact, verify.

For AI agents doing Android work, the main bottleneck has always been the emulator setup. This removes that bottleneck entirely.

Stack and requirements

• Node.js 18+
• macOS or Linux
• Android 14 (API 34), x86_64, software GPU
• ~4GB disk for SDK + AVD on first run

Get it

MIT licensed. Install via npm, use from scripts or Claude Code.

• npm: npmjs.com/package/dev-emulator
• GitHub: github.com/goyaljai/dev-emulator

If you’re building AI agents that need Android testing, or just want to script emulator interactions without the setup overhead, try it out.