📱 avdm - AVD Manager CLI Tool

avdm is a simple and efficient command-line tool that helps you manage Android Virtual Devices (AVDs) right from your terminal.

Built for developers who want a faster, scriptable, and more minimal alternative to Android Studio’s GUI-based AVD Manager.

🚀 Features

• ✨ Create and manage Android Virtual Devices with ease
• 🔍 List all available AVDs and their configurations
• 🔧 Launch AVDs with custom options
• 📋 Delete and clean up unused or outdated AVDs
• 📦 Show disk usage per AVD
• 📊 Sort AVDs by name or size
• 📏 Filter AVDs by minimum size (e.g. --min-size 2GB)
• ⚡ Lightweight & fast (written in Dart)
• No GUI required

📦 Installation

Option 1: Via Pub.dev (requires Dart SDK)

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the Dart SDK installed. If not, install it from https://dart.dev/get-dart

• Dart SDK 3.0 or higher (Install Dart)
• Android SDK with emulator tools (Install Android Studio)
• Java JDK 11 or higher

dart pub global activate avd_manager
avdm --help

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/Tdebo21/avd_manager.git
cd avd_manager

2. Activate the CLI

dart pub global activate --source path .

This makes avdm available globally as a command.

If you previously installed avdm, refresh the global install with:

dart pub global deactivate avdm
dart pub global activate --source path .

Option 2: Download Binary (no Dart Required)

Optionally, you can install AVD Manager CLI Tool by downloading the binary from the releases page.

Option 3: Using npm You can install AVD Manager CLI globally using npm:

npm install -g avd_manager

Option 4: Using Homebrew

# Example installation using Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap Tdebo21/avd_manager
brew install avd_manager

🛠 Usage

avdm <command> [options]

📋 Available Commands

| Command | Description | | -------- | --------------------------------------- | | list | List all AVDs with optional sort/filter | | create | Create a new AVD from a system image | | patch | Patch an existing AVD (config changes) | | launch | Launch a specific AVD | | delete | Delete a specific AVD | | help | Show help |

🔧 Options for list

| Flag | Description | Example | | ------------ | ------------------------------------- | ---------------- | | --sort | Sort AVDs by name or size | --sort size | | --min-size | Only show AVDs larger than given size | --min-size 1GB |

Usage Examples

List all AVDs

avdm list

Note: avdm list reports the size of each AVD's local .avd directory. Newly created AVDs often start very small (around 1MB) and grow after the emulator is launched and the AVD image files are created.

Sort AVDs by size

avdm list --sort size

Filter AVDs larger than 2GB

avdm list --min-size 2GB

Sort AVDs by name and filter by minimum size

avdm list --sort name --min-size 1GB

Create a new AVD

avdm create <avd_name> --device "Pixel 2" --api 30

Examples:

avdm create Slim_API30 --api=30
avdm create TestDevice --device="Nexus 4" --api=29
avdm create miniTestPhone --device "pixel" --api 30 --abi arm64-v8a

On Apple Silicon, the tool now defaults --abi to arm64-v8a when not provided. Use --abi x86 or --abi x86_64 only if you have Intel system images installed.

Launch AVD with prompt-based selection:

avdm launch

Launch specific AVD with defaults:

avdm launch TestDevice

Launch with performance flags:

avdm launch TestDevice --cold-boot --no-boot-anim --no-snapshot-load
avdm launch TestDevice --no-snapshot-save

Use "avdm --help" for more information about a command.

Delete an AVD

avdm delete Slim_API30

🧩 How It Works

avdm looks for AVDs in your $ANDROID_AVD_HOME environment variable.

If not set, it defaults to ~/.android/avd/.

It reads each AVD’s directory and calculates its total disk usage.

Outputs the AVD name and its formatted size (e.g. 1.94 GB).

Troubleshooting

AVD Not Found

Ensure your ANDROID_SDK_ROOT environment variable is set:

# macOS/Linux
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=~/Library/Android/sdk  # macOS
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=~/Android/sdk  # Linux

# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Android\sdk"

Permission Denied (Linux/macOS)

Ensure the tool has execute permissions:

chmod +x ~/.pub-cache/bin/avdm

Emulator Won't Launch

• Check that your system supports virtualization (KVM on Linux, Hypervisor Framework on macOS)
• Increase available RAM
• Disable VT-x/AMD-V in BIOS if conflicts exist

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -am 'Add awesome feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history and release notes.

❤️ Support & Sponsorship

If you found this project useful, consider sponsoring it to support further development!

💖 Sponsor on GitHub:

Or buy me a coffee:

✨ Author

Rabi Iya GitHub @Tdebo21