[Bug]: `screenshot` and `describe_ui`included with the "simulator" workflow

[ariccio]

Bug Description

With the env set to only:

        "XCODEBUILDMCP_ENABLED_WORKFLOWS": "simulator",

...screenshot and describe_ui get loaded into my context. Since, for some ridiculous reason in Sep 2025, Claude Code doesn't have any kind of dynamic MCP tool selection, sampling, virtualization, or anything of the sort, I am kinda stuck microoptimizing the MCP token counts.

I noticed that list_schemes, get_app_bundle_id, and show_build_settings, also get loaded into context, but my knowledge of the xcode build system hasn't yet gotten to the point where my MSBuild knowledge used to be, so I have no clue if those could plausibly be needed for any part of the simulator workflow.

Debug Output

⏺ XcodeBuildMCP - doctor (MCP)(enabled: true)
  ⎿  XcodeBuildMCP Doctor                                                                                                                                                                                                                

     Generated: 2025-09-17T00:20:08.534Z
     Server Version: 1.12.10

     ## System Information
     - platform: darwin
     - release: 24.6.0
     - arch: arm64
     - cpus: 8 x Apple M2
     - memory: 24 GB
     - hostname: Alexanders-MacBook-Pro.local
     - username: alexanderriccio
     - homedir: /Users/alexanderriccio
     - tmpdir: /var/folders/_4/zrj460q97l5cctkts4s8srw00000gn/T

     ## Node.js Information
     - version: v20.19.4
     - execPath: /Users/alexanderriccio/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.4/bin/node
     - pid: 95689
     - ppid: 95033
     - platform: darwin
     - arch: arm64
     - cwd: /Users/alexanderriccio/Documents/GitHub/DeeDee-Prototype
     - argv: /Users/alexanderriccio/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.4/bin/node /Users/alexanderriccio/.npm/_npx/99336612077b7094/node_modules/.bin/xcodebuildmcp

     ## Xcode Information
     - version: Xcode 26.0 - Build version 17A324
     - path: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
     - selectedXcode: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/xcodebuild
     - xcrunVersion: xcrun version 72.

     ## Dependencies
     - axe: ✅ Bundled
     - xcodemake: ❌ Not found
     - mise: ❌ Not found

     ## Environment Variables
     - INCREMENTAL_BUILDS_ENABLED: (not set)
     - DEVELOPER_DIR: (not set)
     - HOME: /Users/alexanderriccio
     - USER: alexanderriccio
     - TMPDIR: /var/folders/_4/zrj460q97l5cctkts4s8srw00000gn/T/
     - NODE_ENV: (not set)
     - SENTRY_DISABLED: (not set)
     - XCODEBUILDMCP_ENABLED_WORKFLOWS: simulator,project-discovery,ui-testing,logging,utilities,doctor
     - XCODEBUILDMCP_DYNAMIC_TOOLS: false
     - XCODEBUILDMCP_SILENCE_LOGS: true

     ### PATH
     ```
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.npm/_npx/99336612077b7094/node_modules/.bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/Documents/GitHub/DeeDee-Prototype/node_modules/.bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/Documents/GitHub/node_modules/.bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/Documents/node_modules/.bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/node_modules/.bin
     /Users/node_modules/.bin
     /node_modules/.bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.4/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/run-script/lib/node-gyp-bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.pyenv/shims
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.pyenv/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.nvm/versions/node/v20.19.4/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.rbenv/shims
     /usr/local/bin
     /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin
     /opt/homebrew/bin
     /opt/homebrew/sbin
     /usr/local/bin
     /System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin
     /usr/bin
     /bin
     /usr/sbin
     /sbin
     /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin
     /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin
     /var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin
     /Library/Apple/usr/bin
     /Library/TeX/texbin
     /Applications/nmap.app/Contents/Resources/bin
     /Applications/ncat.app/Contents/Resources/bin
     /Applications/nping.app/Contents/Resources/bin
     /Applications/zenmap.app/Contents/Resources/bin
     /opt/homebrew/opt/bison/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
     /usr/local/opt/postgresql@14/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.cargo/bin
     /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin
     /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.local/bin
     /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin
     /Users/alexanderriccio/.local/bin
     ```

     ## Feature Status

     ### UI Automation (axe)
     - Available: ✅ Yes
     - UI Automation Supported: ✅ Yes

     ### Incremental Builds
     - Enabled: ❌ No
     - Available: ❌ No
     - Makefile exists: ❌ No

     ### Mise Integration
     - Running under mise: ❌ No
     - Mise available: ❌ No

     ### Available Tools
     - Total Plugins: 81
     - Plugin Directories: 12
     - device: 14 tools
     - discovery: 1 tools
     - doctor: 1 tools
     - logging: 4 tools
     - macos: 11 tools
     - project-discovery: 5 tools
     - project-scaffolding: 2 tools
     - simulator: 18 tools
     - simulator-management: 7 tools
     - swift-package: 6 tools
     - ui-testing: 11 tools
     - utilities: 1 tools

     ### Runtime Tool Registration
     - Mode: static
     - Enabled Workflows: 12
     - Registered Tools: 59
     - Workflows: device, discovery, doctor, logging, macos, project-discovery, project-scaffolding, simulator, simulator-management, swift-package, ui-testing, utilities

     ## Tool Availability Summary
     - Build Tools: ✅ Available
     - UI Automation Tools: ✅ Available
     - Incremental Build Support: ❌ Not available

     ## Sentry
     - Sentry enabled: ✅ Yes

     ## Troubleshooting Tips
     - If UI automation tools are not available, install axe: `brew tap cameroncooke/axe && brew install axe`
     - If incremental build support is not available, you can download the tool from https://github.com/cameroncooke/xcodemake. Make sure it's executable and available in your PATH
     - To enable xcodemake, set environment variable: `export INCREMENTAL_BUILDS_ENABLED=1`
     - For mise integration, follow instructions in the README.md file

Editor/Client

1.0.117 (Claude Code)

MCP Server Version

1.12.10

LLM

Claude Opus 4.1

MCP Configuration

"mcpServers": {
    "XcodeBuildMCP": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "xcodebuildmcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "XCODEBUILDMCP_ENABLED_WORKFLOWS": "simulator, utilities",
        "XCODEBUILDMCP_DYNAMIC_TOOLS": "false"
      }
    }
  }

Steps to Reproduce

Uuuh, in this case, just /context

Expected Behavior

886 fewer tokens in that precious first 40k chars

Potentially 2,415 (1,529+886) tokens if list_schemes, get_app_bundle_id, and show_build_settings aren't needed.

Actual Behavior

Extra tokens

Error Messages

[cameroncooke]

Thanks for raising this. It's a complex problem to solve without client support but I have a long term plan to build more workflow based tools that encompass multiple steps (existing tool calls) in a single tool. We already have this with build_run_sim for example. The original goal wasn't to reduce tokens but improve the outcomes that users had when performing common tasks. I do appreciate though that token usage is a problem for many.

Regarding the tools provided in each workflow they are provided based on specific use-cases which has to remain quite broad so that agent can accomplish most tasks

The list_schemes and get_app_bundle_id are needed in most scenarios when using the simulator.

Without list_schemes the agent will have no way of discovering the build scheme to use which is needed to be able to build a project.

The get_app_bundle_id is also needed to install the app on the simulator.

If you want more fine grained control check out my other project https://www.async-let.com/posts/introducing-mcpli/ you can use this to manually curate you CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md file with explicit tool calls and allow the agent to call XcodeBuildMCP via the the mcpli CLI.

If you have any other suggestions on how we can provide more fine grained control of tools and token usage please do open a feature request.

Thank you so much for the feedback, I'll be closing this ticket now.