---
id: software-mansion/argent/argent-android-emulator-setup
version: "1e42dacb"
license: Apache-2.0
install: manual
updated: 2026-07-27
---

# argent-android-emulator-setup — This skill automates the initialization and startup of Android emulator instances for development and testing pipelines. It handles the configuration steps needed to get a fresh emulator running, reducing manual setup overhead and enabling faster iteration cycles for mobile app projects.

Publisher: software-mansion · Stars: 1824 · Updated: 2026-07-27

Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/software-mansion/argent`

## SKILL.md

## 1. Prerequisites

- **Android SDK Platform Tools** on PATH — provides `adb`.
- **Android Emulator** on PATH — needed to boot AVDs. If you will only use an already-running emulator or a physical device, adb alone is sufficient.
- An AVD created via Android Studio or `avdmanager create avd`.

Verify with `adb version` and `emulator -list-avds`.

## 2. Setup

1. **Find a ready device** — call `list-devices`. Filter for entries with `platform: "android"`. Ready devices (`state: "device"`) come first. Pick the first `serial` (e.g. `emulator-5554`) unless the user specified one.
2. **Boot if needed** — if nothing Android is ready, call `boot-device` with `avdName: <name>` from the same call's `avds` list. The tool transparently picks hot vs cold boot: it probes the AVD's `default_boot` snapshot, restores it under a tight deadline when usable, and falls back to a full cold boot otherwise. Hot path is typically ~30s; cold path takes 2–10 min. On any stage failure the tool kills the emulator process it started so your next call starts from a clean state.
3. **Metro (for React Native)** — once a device is up, run `adb -s <serial> reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081` so the device can reach Metro on your host. Repeat if the device restarts. See the `argent-metro-debugger` skill.

## 3. Using the device

Pass the Android serial as `udid` to the unified interaction tools — `gesture-tap`, `gesture-swipe`, `describe`, `screenshot`, `launch-app`, `keyboard`, etc. Dispatch is automatic based on the id shape. See `argent-device-interact` for platform-neutral interaction tooling and the Android-specific gotchas section at the bottom of that skill.

## 4. Notes

- **Android TV / leanback AVDs** boot through this exact flow (same `boot-device` + `avdName`), but they are **focus-driven, not touch-driven** — do not use `gesture-tap`/`gesture-swipe` on them. `list-devices` tags a leanback device with `runtimeKind: "tv"` (detected via the system feature list, not the serial — a TV AVD's serial looks just like a phone's). When you see `runtimeKind: "tv"`, drive it with the focus-driven tools (`describe` / `tv-remote` / `keyboard`) and the `argent-tv-interact` skill (it covers Android TV as well as Apple TV, including the full TV setup flow).
- Serials are the adb device id. iOS UDIDs and Android serials are not interchangeable, but you do NOT need to tell the tools which platform — dispatch is automatic.
- `describe` on Android returns a shallower tree than iOS (no accessibility-service equivalent), but covers most tap-target discovery.
- `reinstall-app` on Android always installs with `-g` so first-launch runtime permissions are pre-granted.
- To stop the emulator, run `adb -s <serial> emu kill` from a shell (clean shutdown). Never `pkill -9`/`kill -9` qemu — a hard kill leaves the userdata image dirty, after which cold boots can hang for many minutes doing recovery (runaway writes, `boot_completed` never flips). If an image gets into that state, boot once with `-wipe-data` to reset it.


[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/software-mansion/argent/argent-android-emulator-setup) · [View on GitHub](https://github.com/software-mansion/argent)