devicerent-connect

Make a rented DeviceRent phone show up as a local adb device, so your existing Appium / Espresso / Maestro / Flutter / gradle setup works against it unchanged — locally or in CI.

It runs a tiny local adb-server emulator and tunnels everything to the device over DeviceRent's serial-pinned bridge. Your tools just point at it with ANDROID_ADB_SERVER_PORT.

How it works

appium / gradle / maestro
        │  (ANDROID_ADB_SERVER_PORT=15037, standard adb host protocol)
        ▼
devicerent-connect  ──HTTPS──▶  /api/automation/ticket   (API key → serial-scoped JWT)
        │  (one WebSocket per adb conversation, JWT in subprotocol)
        ▼
Pi bridge (Model A)  ──▶  adb-server  ──USB──▶  your rented Pixel

The connector handles adb forward itself (binding the listen port on your machine, then tunneling each connection to the device) — which is what lets Appium reach the on-device UiAutomator2 server.

Prerequisites

• Node 18+ (for the npm usage) — or use the Docker image.
• Recent platform-tools (adb ≥ 34 recommended; the connector reports the Pi's adb-server version, so very old clients may refuse it).
• A DeviceRent automation API key — create one at <app>/account/automation (Pro / Rent-a-Slot / Enterprise plans).
• An active rental — start it in the dashboard and copy its rental id.

Install

Three ways, pick what fits:

# 1. npx — no install (recommended for trying it / CI)
npx devicerent-connect --key drauto_… --rental <rental-id>

# 2. global install
npm i -g devicerent-connect && devicerent-connect --key drauto_… --rental <id>

# 3. Docker (CI-friendly, no Node on the host)
docker build -t devicerent-connect .   # from clients/devicerent-connect/

From source (this repo): node clients/devicerent-connect/bin/devicerent-connect.mjs --help.

Usage

npx devicerent-connect --key drauto_xxxxxxxx… --rental <rental-id>
# or with env vars:
export DEVICERENT_API_KEY=drauto_xxxxxxxx…
export DEVICERENT_RENTAL_ID=<rental-id>
npx devicerent-connect

It prints:

✓ Connected — rented device 33071JEHN24029 is now a local adb device.

    export ANDROID_ADB_SERVER_PORT=15037

Then, in the same shell:

export ANDROID_ADB_SERVER_PORT=15037
adb devices                       # → 33071JEHN24029   device
appium                            # caps: appium:udid=33071JEHN24029, automationName=UiAutomator2
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest    # Espresso / instrumentation
maestro test flow.yaml

Leave the connector running while you test; Ctrl-C disconnects.

Options / env

| Flag | Env | Default | |---|---|---| | --key | DEVICERENT_API_KEY | — (required) | | --rental | DEVICERENT_RENTAL_ID | — (required) | | --port | DEVICERENT_ADB_PORT | 15037 | | --api-base | DEVICERENT_API_BASE | https://devicerent.net |

CI (Docker)

docker build -t devicerent-connect .
# run the connector + your tests in the same container/network:
docker run --rm \
  -e DEVICERENT_API_KEY=$DEVICERENT_API_KEY \
  -e DEVICERENT_RENTAL_ID=$RENTAL_ID \
  devicerent-connect

Put the key in your CI secrets — never commit it. A full GitHub Actions example (start connector → wait for device → run tests) is in examples/github-actions.yml.

Limitations (v1)

• Forward-only. adb reverse is intentionally unsupported (the bridge denies it — it would point the device back at the Pi). Frameworks that require reverse (e.g. Detox) aren't supported yet; Appium/Espresso/Maestro/Flutter use forward.
• ~10-minute token window per operation. The connector continuously re-mints, so newly started operations always get close to a full window, but a single unbroken operation that runs longer than the token TTL may be cut. (Hosted Appium — coming — avoids this by running on the Pi.)
• One device. A key + rental maps to exactly the one rented phone.
• adb reverse, wireless adb tcpip, and multi-device selection are not exposed.

Security

• The API key is only ever sent to your DeviceRent app over HTTPS to mint short-lived tokens; it never reaches the Pi.
• Tokens are serial-scoped and expire in ~10 minutes; revoke a key any time at <app>/account/automation.
• The local adb server binds 127.0.0.1 only.