mozdevice

What it is and what it does

mozdevice is a Mozilla-authored library for managing and controlling connected mobile devices and emulators. It abstracts the complexity of device communication, allowing test automation and tooling to interact with Android devices and emulators through a unified interface. The package depends only on mozlog for structured logging, keeping its dependency footprint minimal.

The library is part of Mozilla's mozbase testing infrastructure and is primarily used within Firefox testing workflows. However, its maintenance is dormant—the last release was over 645 days ago—meaning it receives no active development, bug fixes, or feature additions. It remains functional for existing use cases but should be considered stable-but-unsupported; if you need active maintenance or modern device support, you may need to fork it or seek alternatives.

Use it for:

• Automate testing on connected Android devices or emulators in CI/CD pipelines for Firefox or other projects.
• Write test scripts that push APKs, run commands, or collect logs from multiple devices in parallel.
• Integrate device control into custom test harnesses that need to interact with mobile hardware.
• Manage device state and lifecycle (reboot, clear data, install apps) programmatically during test runs.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Manages and controls connected mobile devices and emulators for testing and automation purposes, with a single runtime dependency on mozlog for logging.

Yes, if you are already part of Mozilla's testing ecosystem or need to maintain existing Firefox test infrastructure that depends on it. No, if you are starting a new mobile test automation project—the dormant maintenance status and lack of active development make it a poor choice for new work. Consider it only as a legacy dependency or when integrating with existing Mozilla tooling.

Install

mozdevice on PyPI

pip install mozdevice

uv add mozdevice

poetry add mozdevice

Installing mozdevice

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Maintenance is dormant—last release was 645 days ago—so expect no active bug fixes or feature updates, though the package remains functional for its intended use.

License in practice

Licensed under MPL (copyleft), which requires derivative works and modifications to be distributed under the same license; acceptable for internal testing tools but review required if you plan to redistribute or embed this in proprietary software.

Quickstart

pip install mozdevice

from mozdevice import DeviceManager
device = DeviceManager.from_config({})

Requires a connected device or emulator to be present; the package itself has no strict Python version requirement declared, but supports Python 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11.

Verify before relying

• Exact API surface and supported device types (Android, iOS, etc.) not documented in the fact sheet.
• Whether the package works with current versions of Android emulators and device SDKs given its dormant status.
• Real-world compatibility with modern CI/CD pipelines and test frameworks.

Package facts

Evidence: mozdevice-4.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Tags

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