How it works
Claude Code builds and checks your app in the Simulator, then uses Zeptap to test it on your real iPhone.
Connect once. Zeptap on your Mac sees your iPhone’s screen and taps, swipes and types for Claude Code.
Build and iterate in the Simulator, as you do today.
Put the build on your iPhone. Claude Code installs it from TestFlight, or you run it from Xcode.
Test it like a user. Claude Code goes through the flow you describe, such as sign-up or the paywall, reading each screen.
Fix it in the same session. It reports what broke, finds the cause in your repo and changes the code. Run the fixed build from Xcode, or upload a new TestFlight build, and Claude Code checks the same flow again.
Why the Simulator isn’t the last check
The Simulator is right for fast build loops, but it can’t show how your app behaves on a real iPhone.
- Anthropic’s docs: Claude Code’s iOS Simulator pane drives simulated devices only and can’t control a physical iPhone or iPad.
- Their workaround: run the app from Xcode yourself, then describe what you see or attach a screenshot.
- Apple’s docs: simulators “don’t replicate the performance or features of a physical device”. To verify your app, Apple says “run it on one or more physical devices”.
- With Zeptap connected to Claude Code, Claude Code takes that step itself.
Claude Code’s iOS Simulator vs your iPhone through Zeptap
Zeptap gives Claude Code the one device its iOS Simulator pane can’t drive: your physical iPhone.
| Claude Code’s iOS Simulator pane | Your iPhone through Zeptap | |
|---|---|---|
| Device | Simulated iPhones and iPads in Xcode | Your physical iPhone, on iOS 15 or later |
| Installs your build | Yes, builds and launches it for you | From TestFlight (Claude Code taps Install), or you run it from Xcode |
| Where Claude Code runs | Claude Code Desktop, local sessions only | Any local session: terminal, IDE or desktop app |
| What you need | Xcode with the iOS platform, a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan | Zeptap on a Mac (macOS 14 or later), a cable and your Claude plan |
| Devices at once | Up to 4 simulators per session | 1 iPhone, or up to 5 at once with Lifetime Plus |
| Real hardware and performance | No, simulated on your Mac | Yes: your phone’s camera, network and settings |
Simulator details from Anthropic’s docs, checked 14 October 2026; the pane launched in public beta on 21 July 2026.
Prompts to paste into Claude Code
These prompts work in any local Claude Code session once Zeptap is connected: start with one screen, then hand it a whole flow.
More testing jobs: AI app testing on a real iPhone · App Store screenshots from your real app
Chat · your iPhoneOpen my app on my iPhone and check that the screen we just changed matches what you saw in the Simulator. List any differences.
Install the newest TestFlight build, sign up with our test account and tell me every screen where onboarding breaks or gets confusing.
Allow notifications in my app, send a test push from our staging server, tap it on my iPhone and check it opens the right screen.
Show 4 more prompts
Take a photo with the camera inside our app, upload it and check it appears in the feed. Note how long each step takes.
Reproduce the bug in issue #42 on my iPhone, find the cause in the repo, fix it and tell me what to check in the next build.
Run sign-up at the largest text size and in Dark Mode, list what clips or overlaps, fix the layouts, then restore my settings.
Walk our checkout on my iPhone SE and iPhone 16 at the same time and list every screen that looks or behaves differently.
What you stay in control of
Claude Code acts on your iPhone only through Zeptap on your Mac, where you watch every tap and can stop it.
Nothing to install on the iPhone
Zeptap works from your Mac.
Your passcode never leaves your Mac
It’s stored on your Mac, and Claude Code never sees it.
Your screen never touches Zeptap’s servers
Screenshots go only to your Claude Code model provider. Use a test account, as Anthropic advises for the Simulator.
You set the stopping points
Tell Claude Code to check with you before purchases or messages to new contacts, and stop it from Zeptap at any time.
your MacHonest limits
- Zeptap doesn’t build or sign your app; TestFlight or Xcode still does.
- It isn’t a test framework: no scripted assertions, no CI runs. Keep XCUITest for regression suites.
- Use Claude Code on the iPhone for the checks you’d otherwise do by hand, like the bug repros and smoke tests on our app testing page.
How Zeptap handles your screen and passcode: Privacy · Contact the team
Set it up in three steps
Download Zeptap for your Mac.
Plug in your iPhone and pair it. Zeptap walks you through it.
Connect Claude Code. Run this once, then start a new session. Or click Add next to Claude Code in Settings › Connectors.
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user zeptap http://127.0.0.1:47801/mcpOr use Zeptap’s built-in chat (⌘L) on your Claude plan. Full setup: Connect your agent · Claude Code and your iPhone