Skill v1.0.1

version: "1.0.1" name: using-fdb description: Uses fdb (Flutter Debug Bridge) CLI to interact with running Flutter apps on devices and simulators. Launches or attaches to apps, hot reloads, screenshots, reads app logs (fdb logs) and native system logs (fdb syslog — Android logcat, iOS syslog, macOS log), fetches OS-level crash records (fdb crash-report — jetsam, LMK, native .ips), inspects widget trees, describes screens including off-screen GridView/ListView children, taps/inputs/scrolls/swipes/navigates, forces garbage collection (fdb gc), and grants/revokes/resets runtime permissions (fdb grant-permission). Use when launching or attaching to a Flutter app on device (including apps started outside fdb via Xcode/simctl/adb), hot reloading, taking screenshots, reading app or native system logs, diagnosing native crashes (jetsam, LMK), fetching post-mortem crash reports, inspecting or describing the UI, interacting with widgets via fdb, forcing a GC to disambiguate live-retained vs unreachable-but-uncollected memory, or pre-granting runtime permissions before automated tests. license: MIT compatibility: opencode

Overview - skill version 1.11.0

Version check: Run fdb --version. Expected: fdb 1.11.0. This skill may describe unreleased branch behavior.

Update: dart pub global activate --source git https://github.com/andrzejchm/fdb.git

Install

dart pub global activate --source git https://github.com/andrzejchm/fdb.git

Verify: fdb status

fdb_helper setup (required for in-app UI/data commands)

The describe, tap, double-tap, longpress, input, scroll, scroll-to, wait, swipe, swipe-path, back, clean, and shared-prefs commands require fdb_helper in the Flutter app under test. Some platform screenshot fallbacks also use it. Adding fdb_helper also enables automatic VM service URI discovery for fdb attach on Android and iOS — no manual --debug-url needed.

`pubspec.yaml`:

dev_dependencies:
  fdb_helper: ^1.11.0

`main.dart`:

import 'package:fdb_helper/fdb_helper.dart';
import 'package:flutter/foundation.dart';
 
void main() {
  if (!kReleaseMode) {
    FdbBinding.ensureInitialized();
  }
  runApp(MyApp());
}

After adding fdb_helper, run flutter pub get and relaunch the app.

Command index

Run fdb skill <topic> to print full docs, flags, output tokens, and best practices for a topic.

Session directory

All state lives in <project>/.fdb/. fdb auto-resolves by walking up from CWD — no need to cd to the project root. Key files: logs.txt, vm_uri.txt, platform.txt, app_id.txt, screenshot.png. Full reference: fdb skill launch.