wtf is pocket-browser?

pocket-browser turns a WKWebView that already exists inside your iOS app into a remote controlled debugging and automation channel. Commands are sent from a server, the phone's web view carries them out such as opening a link, running JavaScript, taking a screenshot, or reading the page's HTML, and the result is sent back the same way. Your app still owns the web view itself, the login state, data storage, and the interface. Pocket-browser only connects the controlling side to the web view already running on the phone. The problem it addresses is that debugging mobile pages, logged in pages, or pages that depend on real WebKit behavior with a headless browser like Playwright or Puppeteer often runs into two walls: the environment does not match a real device, since a data center IP, desktop user agent, and headless runtime behave differently than a real iPhone, and keeping a machine or tunnel always on is expensive and fragile. Pocket-browser's approach is to use the phone you already carry as the execution device, so you get a real device, a real Safari engine, a real mobile user agent, and your own logged in cookies, without maintaining extra infrastructure. The system has two parts: a lightweight server, about 100 lines and stateless, that a phone connects to over WebSocket and that the controller talks to over HTTP, and a Swift client you drop into your existing app that hands your WebView to the WebSocket connection. It exposes five commands: ping to check the phone is online, goto to open a URL, js to run JavaScript and return the result, html to read the current page's full HTML, and screenshot to capture the page as a base64 PNG. Getting started involves running the server, testing the connection with a fake phone script before wiring up a real device, then adding the Swift client to your app and reading the token from Keychain. Because iOS suspends a backgrounded WebView, the README suggests keeping a quiet audio session active so the app is treated as playing audio in the background. Security notes emphasize keeping the token in Keychain, running behind an HTTPS proxy, and only using this on accounts and sites you own or are authorized to control. The project is released under the GPL 3.0 or later license, and is described as a personal side project, not a full browser.