What is Pinky?
Pinky is a native desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux that connects to an Android phone (Android 10 to 17) over adb or an iPhone (iOS 17.4 or later) through Apple's developer tools, mirrors its screen and serves one MCP server with 20 tools to agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Every tap and keystroke passes through Pinky's gateway, which can hold a step until you click Allow, hides banking and password-manager apps and masks one-time codes. It can also run tasks itself with a model and API key you supply, from the computer or from its app on the phone.
It is by the GitHub developer DIYgod, written in Go under Apache-2.0. The repository was created on 6 November 2026 and calls itself pre-alpha; it had shipped 142 releases by 13 November.
Is Pinky worth it?
Most tools that let an agent drive a phone leave safety to the agent's instructions. Pinky puts it in the path instead: the agent's tap on a Pay or Send button comes back as approval_pending, nothing happens on the phone until a person clicks Allow in the desktop app, and no answer within 60 seconds counts as no. Banking, wallet and password-manager apps are hidden from agents by default, password and one-time-code fields refuse typing, and codes in messages reach the agent as dots. On Android 13 and later the agent works on a hidden second display, so the phone stays usable.
The defaults are narrower than the pitch suggests. Out of the box only payments, trades and transfers wait for you; sends, deletions, calls, installs and settings changes must be switched on in Settings › Safety. Pinky finds risky buttons by their labels in 10 languages, and the FAQ concedes an unusual label could slip through, which is why it offers an ask-before-every-action mode and a read-only mode.
The catch is the hole the FAQ names itself. Android control runs over USB debugging, so any agent that can run shell commands as you can call adb directly and skip every rule; Pinky's advice is to sandbox such agents away from the phone or plug the phone into another computer and connect over HTTP. That describes Claude Code and Codex in their normal setup. USB debugging also stays on while you use Pinky, and Pinky's Android app needs an accessibility service, both of which some banking apps refuse to run alongside.
There are smaller points. Anonymous usage counts and crash reports are sent about once a day by default with no first-run notice, though screens, typed text and app names are excluded and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 stops it. Screenshots and recordings stay on the computer for 30 days. On iPhones, Pinky can fetch Apple's developer disk image from a third-party GitHub mirror if you click Download. The HTTP endpoint is off by default and, when on, listens on 127.0.0.1:7465 behind a bearer token.
Our take: compared with agent-device, which is built for developers testing their own apps, Pinky is built for letting an agent use your personal phone, which is the riskier job. The gateway is a real control only for agents that cannot reach adb themselves.
Where it earns its place
An app developer at a small studio testing an Android and iOS app
Let Claude Code walk through sign-up and checkout flows on emulators and attach evidence to a bug report
Connect Pinky to Claude Code in one click from Settings › Agents and point it at an emulator and a Simulator; the agent saves screenshots and an HTML report into the phone's folder. Free; emulators avoid the adb bypass worry on a personal phone.
A solo founder who handles admin chores on a work phone
Have an agent fill in forms in apps that have no API, without it sending anything unchecked
Turn on approvals for sends and orders in Settings › Safety, then run the agent from a sandbox with no adb access, or connect over HTTP from another machine. Each send waits for a click in Pinky.
A QA engineer without a desktop agent setup
Run quick checks on a phone with the built-in agent
Add a model API key in Settings › Agents and type the task; each run stops at 100 steps, 20 minutes or US$2 by default, and works on one phone at a time.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Download the app (16 to 22 MB), enable USB debugging on Android or Developer Mode on iPhone, plug the phone in, then connect an agent from Settings › Agents. iPhones on iOS 17.4 to 26 also need Pinky's app installed once from a Mac with Xcode.
- Integrations
- One MCP server, pinky, with 20 tools over stdio (pinkyctl mcp) or Streamable HTTP. One-click setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and others; it also installs a SKILL.md guide for the agent. Remote phones over Tailscale.
- Data and privacy
- Screenshots, recordings and history stay on the computer for 30 days by default. Anonymous usage counts and crash reports go to the developers daily unless turned off in Settings › Privacy or with DO_NOT_TRACK=1. What the agent reads goes to whichever model provider the agent uses.
- Cost at scale
- Free. The cost is the model behind your agent; Pinky's built-in agent counts spend at Anthropic's prices and stops a task at US$2 by default.
- Limits
- Pre-alpha; some features still await a person's test. Agents with shell access can reach the phone through adb directly. Approval matching relies on button labels in 10 languages. Approvals time out after 60 seconds.
What’s good
- Approvals enforced in the gateway, not by the agent's instructions
- Banking and password apps hidden; one-time codes masked
- Android, iPhone, emulators and Simulators from one native app
- Every run recorded with screenshots and video on your computer
What’s not
- Agents with shell access can bypass it through adb
- Pre-alpha, a week old, with many releases a day
- Only payments, trades and transfers need approval by default
- Usage statistics and crash reports on by default
Best for
Developers who want an MCP agent to work through apps on a spare or test phone, with a person approving the steps that spend money or send messages.
Pinky alternatives
Pinky: common questions
- Is Pinky worth it?
- Pinky has the most careful safety design of any agent phone tool we have read about, but it is a week old, and its own FAQ admits an agent with a shell can walk around it. We rate it 3.6 out of 5.
- How much does Pinky cost?
- Free under Apache-2.0 with no account. The built-in agent uses your own model API key; its default task limit is US$2.
- What are the downsides of Pinky?
- Agents with shell access can bypass it through adb; pre-alpha, a week old, with many releases a day; only payments, trades and transfers need approval by default; usage statistics and crash reports on by default.
- Who is Pinky best for?
- Developers who want an MCP agent to work through apps on a spare or test phone, with a person approving the steps that spend money or send messages.
- How much does Pinky cost for a team or in production?
- Free. The cost is the model behind your agent; Pinky's built-in agent counts spend at Anthropic's prices and stops a task at US$2 by default.
- Is Pinky safe for company data?
- Screenshots, recordings and history stay on the computer for 30 days by default. Anonymous usage counts and crash reports go to the developers daily unless turned off in Settings › Privacy or with DO_NOT_TRACK=1. What the agent reads goes to whichever model provider the agent uses.
- What are the best Pinky alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are agent-device.
Answers checked Nov 13, 2026.