[Bug]: UI automation tools unavailable when installed via Smithery (bundled axe not found)

[anorth2]

Bug Description

NOTE

Everything below this is generated with Claude Code. It looks correct on review but please flag if anything is wrong.

AI GENERATED

Description

When XcodeBuildMCP is installed via Smithery, the UI automation tools (describe_ui, tap, swipe, etc.) fail with the error:

Bundled axe tool not found. UI automation features are not available.

This is likely an installation issue with the npm package.
Please reinstall xcodebuildmcp or report this issue.

Environment

• XcodeBuildMCP version: 1.15.1
• Installation method: Smithery
• macOS version: Darwin 25.1.0 (arm64)
• axe version: v1.2.1 (installed via Homebrew at /opt/homebrew/bin/axe)

Root Cause Analysis

The server looks for the bundled axe binary at a path relative to the entry point:

// From index.cjs (minified)
O7 = path.join(dirname(dirname(process.argv[1])), "bundled", "axe")

When installed via Smithery, the cached installation at ~/.smithery/cache/servers/cameroncooke/xcodebuildmcp/current/ only contains:

• index.cjs
• manifest.json
• .metadata.json

The bundled/ directory with native binaries is not included in the Smithery cache.

Doctor Output Contradiction

Running doctor shows a contradiction:

Dependencies

• axe: ✅ v1.2.1 # System install detected

UI Automation (axe)

• Available: ❌ No # Bundled binary not found
• UI Automation Supported: ❌ No

Workaround

Creating a symlink from the expected bundled location to the system-installed axe resolves the issue:

mkdir -p ~/.smithery/cache/servers/cameroncooke/xcodebuildmcp/bundled
ln -sf /opt/homebrew/bin/axe ~/.smithery/cache/servers/cameroncooke/xcodebuildmcp/bundled/axe

Suggested Fix

Consider one of these approaches:

1. Fallback to system axe: If the bundled binary isn't found, check if axe is available in PATH and use that instead
2. Smithery packaging: Ensure the Smithery package includes the bundled binaries
3. Documentation: Add a note about this limitation when using Smithery installation

Option 1 seems most robust since users who install via Homebrew (brew tap cameroncooke/axe && brew install axe) would have a working system binary available.

Debug Output

Unneeded, fix is covered in the body.

Editor/Client

Claude Code

MCP Server Version

1.15.1

LLM

4.5 Opus

MCP Configuration

Steps to Reproduce

use the describe_ui tool

Expected Behavior

It should have been able to use the tool.

Actual Behavior

Instead the tool failed due to a linking error with the axe executable.

Error Messages

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🔗 Similar Issues

Related Issues

• [Bug]: Error with Claude Code #69
• [Bug]: Test tools don't convert to OpenAI tools in Codex CLI #108
• [Bug]: Server crashes on startup for one user #36
• [Bug]: Clean fails on my iOS only project #99

🔗 Related PRs

#82 - feat: add Claude Code compatibility workaround for MCP specification violation [merged]
#90 - fix: Remove npm aliases and conflicting dependencies to resolve registerTools errors [merged]
#114 - ci: make MCP registry publish optional; fix video background; pin AXe 1.1.1 [merged]
#149 - Add support for tapping elements via id/label in addition to x/y coords [merged]
#162 - Restructure and improve docs [closed]

👤 Suggested Assignees

• cameroncooke
• tareksabry1337
• JonCrawford
• eastlondoner

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[anorth2]

Just want to add, it's wild how good Claude Code is. I ran into this, and just told it "figure out what's wrong", where it fixed it with the symlink, and then "generate an issue on the repo for this" which I then copy pasted since its github token didn't allow issue creation.

[cameroncooke]

Thanks for the report! Yeah coding agents are pretty amazing right now, thanks for reporting this, it was an oversight, but there doesn't appear to be an easy fix because of the closed nature of Smithery works. The npx/npm route doesn't suffer this problem as I control the packaging step. It might be that you can side-load AXe using brew tap cameroncooke/axe & brew install cameroncooke/axe/axe and then XcodeBuildMCP can pick that up, looks like that's currently broken too. Will get that working at a minimum.

[cameroncooke]

I'm still working on this, seems Smithery doesn't include bundled resources when packaging the MCP server. I've fixed path resolution so if AXe is installed globally it will now pick it up instead. I'll add a comment to the README until a fix can be found.

[github-actions]

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. It will be closed in 7 days if no further activity occurs. Add a comment to keep it open, or apply the no-stale label.

[cameroncooke]

Smithery unfortunately has been too unstable, they have introduced a couple of breaking bugs so I've decided to remove support for Smithery install moving forward. I recommend you use a different installation method to ensure you keep getting updates.