# Cline on Android: give Cline a cloud phone over MCP

Add Mobilebox in Cline’s Remote Servers tab or its MCP settings JSON with type streamableHttp, or from the Cline CLI; a first prompt, auto-approve and what a run costs.

Guides4 min read

In this article

To give Cline an Android phone, add the Mobilebox MCP server to Cline’s MCP settings with `"type": "streamableHttp"`, `url` set to https://mobilebox.dev/mcp and your API key in an `Authorization` header. Cline then has 14 phone tools: it starts a cloud Android phone, installs your APK, reads the screen, taps, types, takes screenshots and stops the phone.

## The shortest way: let the agent do it

Paste this into Cline:

```
Set up Mobilebox for me: read https://mobilebox.dev/setup.md and follow it.
```

It asks for your email, gets a key at once, stores it without printing it and adds the server; the 6-digit code from your inbox keeps the workspace.

## Add the server in the editor

[Sign up](https://mobilebox.dev/signup) and create a key in the dashboard, or let the agent get one through setup.md. Then either:

- **Remote Servers tab:** click the MCP Servers icon in the Cline panel, open Remote Servers, enter `mobilebox` as the name and https://mobilebox.dev/mcp as the URL, choose Streamable HTTP and click Add Server. Add the header in the JSON afterwards.

- **The JSON:** in the MCP Servers panel open Configure, click Configure MCP Servers, and add the entry under `mcpServers`:

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mobilebox": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://mobilebox.dev/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer mbx_your_key" },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}
```

Set `"type": "streamableHttp"` explicitly: without it Cline uses the older SSE transport, and Mobilebox speaks Streamable HTTP. Cline’s docs don’t describe environment variables in this file, so the key is written in as text. The file lives in Cline’s own settings, outside your repository; keep it there, and use a key you can revoke.

## From the command line

Cline’s CLI keeps its servers in `~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json`. Add the server with:

```
cline mcp add mobilebox https://mobilebox.dev/mcp --transport http \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $MOBILESANDBOX_API_KEY" --yes
```

Here the shell fills in the key once, when you run the command. `cline mcp` with no arguments opens a wizard whose Authorize OAuth step signs in to a remote server in your browser, without a key: sign in to Mobilebox and choose Allow.

## Check it

The MCP Servers panel shows the server and its tools; call one tool to be sure, for example "list my Mobilebox phones". Cline asks before every tool call. `autoApprove` takes tool names that may run without asking; if you add any, start with the ones that only read, `list_phones`, `observe` and `screenshot`.

The format is from Cline’s [MCP docs](https://docs.cline.bot/mcp/mcp-overview), reviewed on November 10, 2026. We ran `cline mcp add` from the npm `cline` package to see the file it writes; we didn’t run the extension itself. The endpoint and header are the ones every client on this site uses.

## A first task

```
Start a Mobilebox phone, install the APK at <your APK URL>, walk the sign-up flow, take a screenshot of each step, then stop the phone.
```

Cline calls `create_phone`, which returns the first screen, then `install_app` with your URL. For each step it calls `act` to tap or type and reads the new screen it gets back, and `screenshot` for the pictures. Stopping is `park_phone`: the phone stops billing and keeps the app and its login for the next run. Say "delete the phone" when you want nothing kept. `watch_phone` gives you a link to watch it work. The mental model: a phone per agent per PR, started, checked, screenshotted, stopped.

## What it costs

A phone costs $0.01 a minute while it is ready, billed per second with a one-minute minimum. Boot time and parked phones are free. On our [November 8 benchmark](https://mobilebox.dev/benchmarks) one tap plus a fresh screenshot took 1.45 s at the median, so most of a run is your model thinking between steps. A sign-up walk that keeps the phone ready for 3 minutes costs 3 cents; our [framework examples](https://mobilebox.dev/integrations) finished their short task in 31 to 38 seconds, about a cent. The [agent guide](https://mobilebox.dev/docs/agents) covers the observe, act, verify loop in full.

## Try it in your agent in 60 seconds

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any agent that can read a web page. It asks for your email, gets its own key at once and adds the phone tools; the 6-digit code from your inbox keeps the workspace.

```
Set up Mobilebox for me: read https://mobilebox.dev/setup.md?via=cline-android-mcp and follow it.
```

[What your agent reads](https://mobilebox.dev/setup.md?via=cline-android-mcp)

In this article

[All articles](https://mobilebox.dev/blog)

## Next questions

- [Mobilebox or Firebase Test Lab?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-vs-firebase-test-lab?via=next-firebase)

- [Mobilebox or BrowserStack?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-vs-browserstack?via=next-browserstack)

- [Cloud phone or a local emulator?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-vs-local-emulator?via=next-emulator)

- [Mobilebox, Limrun or Mobilerun?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/mobilebox-vs-limrun?via=next-limrun)

- [How do I add it to Cursor, Codex or VS Code?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/android-mcp-cursor-codex-vscode?via=next-setup)

- [Can my agent run 50 phones in parallel?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/run-android-phones-in-parallel?via=next-parallel)

- [Can my agent use an iPhone?](https://mobilebox.dev/ios?via=next-iphone)

- [Can each phone get a residential IP?](https://mobilebox.dev/blog/residential-ip-per-phone?via=next-residential-ip)