Driver reference

The driver is what client.session() hands you inside a session. It’s the object every action runs on: finding, tapping, typing, swiping, and reading the screen. Methods that point at something return a Locator; reading the whole screen returns a Screen.

The detailed signatures below use Python. The Go SDK exposes the same DCP surface with Go naming and explicit duration arguments; see the method map at the end. Live phone actions are not REST operations.

from axilio.platform import Client

with Client().session("android", phone_id="ph_123") as driver:
    driver.get_by_text("Continue").tap()

Connection and capabilities

`driver.handshake()`

Return the executor’s protocol version, device descriptor, domains, and exact capability set. Gate optional behavior on these advertised capabilities.

hello = driver.handshake()
print(hello.protocol_version, hello.capabilities)

Returns HandshakeResult.

`driver.device_info()`

Return the phone’s static DCP descriptor.

device = driver.device_info()
print(device.screen_width, device.screen_height)

Returns DeviceInfo.

`driver.close()`

Close the underlying control transport. client.session() calls this and deallocates its phone automatically when the context exits.

Locating

`driver.get_by_text()`

Point at something by its visible text, read by OCR. Nothing is sent until you call an action on the result.

driver.get_by_text("Sign in", exact=False, ocr_engine="premium").tap()

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`text`	`str`	required	The visible text to match.
`exact`	`bool`	`False`	Require a case-sensitive exact match, not a substring.
`model`	`str`	session default	A vision model id, used when a refinement needs one.
`ocr_engine`	`"free" \| "premium"`	session default	Text-reading engine. `premium` handles harder screens.

Returns Locator.

`driver.locator()`

Point at something by describing it in plain English, for when there’s no text to match (an icon, an image). A description runs a vision-language model, so it costs more than text.

driver.locator(
    query="the heart icon under the photo",
    model="anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5",
).tap()

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`query`	`str`	`None`	A plain-English description of the target (keyword-only).
`text`	`str`	`None`	Visible text to match, as in `get_by_text()`.
`exact`	`bool`	`None`	Require an exact text match.
`model`	`str`	session default	A vision model id.
`ocr_engine`	`"free" \| "premium"`	session default	OCR engine used to ground the description.

Returns Locator.

Tapping

`driver.tap()`

Tap an exact point on the screen. To tap something you located, call locator.tap() instead.

driver.tap({"x": 540, "y": 1180})

Returns None. coords is a {"x": int, "y": int} dict.

`driver.long_press()`

Press and hold an exact point, for example to open a context menu. To hold a located target, read its position with locator.bounding_box().

driver.long_press({"x": 540, "y": 1180}, duration_ms=1500)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`coords`	`dict`	required	`{"x": int, "y": int}` screen coordinates.
`duration_ms`	`int`	`800`	How long to hold, in milliseconds.

Returns None.

Typing

`driver.type_text()`

Type into the field that’s already selected. To tap a field and type in one call, use locator.fill(). To press Enter (submit / search), use driver.key_press().

driver.type_text("hello")

Returns None.

Swiping

`driver.swipe()`

Swipe between two points. This is also how you scroll: swipe up (end higher than start) to move down a list. To drag one located target to another, see Swipe.

driver.swipe(
    {"x": 540, "y": 1600},
    {"x": 540, "y": 400},
    duration_ms=300,
)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`start`	`dict`	required	`{"x": int, "y": int}` where the swipe begins.
`end`	`dict`	required	`{"x": int, "y": int}` where it ends.
`duration_ms`	`int`	`300`	Duration of the swipe, in milliseconds.

Returns None.

Buttons

`driver.key_press()`

Press a named key. Key.ENTER submits a form or fires the on-screen keyboard’s Go / Search.

from axilio.drivers.mobile import Key

driver.key_press(Key.ENTER)

Returns None. key is a string; see Key for the constants.

`driver.press()`

Press a named key against whatever has focus, through the same path as a locator action. To focus a specific target first, use locator.press().

driver.press(Key.ENTER, timeout=5)

Returns LocatorResult with no bounds, since nothing was located.

Reading the screen

`driver.observe()`

Read everything on the screen at once, all text and icons, as a queryable snapshot you can search without going back to the phone.

screen = driver.observe()
prices = screen.find_all_text(pattern=r"\$\d+\.\d{2}")

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`ocr_engine`	`"free" \| "premium"`	session default	Text-reading engine for this observation.

Returns Screen.

`driver.screenshot()`

Take a picture of the screen as PNG image data, to save, log, or debug a run.

picture = driver.screenshot()
open("screen.png", "wb").write(picture)

Returns bytes: raw PNG data.

Go method map

Go constructs a driver with mobile.ConnectRemote(controlURL, options...). Use mobile.WithDefaultOCREngine, mobile.WithDefaultModel, and mobile.WithOpenTimeout for connection-wide defaults. Observe, Handshake, and DeviceInfo take mobile.WithOCREngine. Locators take the options listed in the Locator reference.

Python	Go
`handshake()`	`Handshake(opts...)`
`device_info()`	`DeviceInfo(opts...)`
`observe(ocr_engine=...)`	`Observe(opts...)`
`get_by_text(text, exact=..., model=..., ocr_engine=...)`	`GetByText(text, opts...)`
`locator(query=..., text=..., exact=..., model=..., ocr_engine=...)`	`Locator(opts...)`
`tap(coords)`	`Tap(coords)`
`long_press(coords, duration_ms=...)`	`LongPress(coords, durationMs)`
`swipe(start, end, duration_ms=...)`	`Swipe(start, end, durationMs)`
`type_text(text)`	`TypeText(text)`
`key_press(key)`	`KeyPress(key)`
`press(key, timeout=...)`	`Press(key, opts...)`
`screenshot()`	`Screenshot()`
`close()`	`Close()`

Go requires gesture duration arguments where Python supplies defaults.

Locator

What get_by_text() and locator() return, and the actions on it.

Screen

What observe() returns.

Client

Opening a session and calling Argus directly.

Key

Every device-button constant.

Drivers

Mobile driver

Models

Driver reference

Connection and capabilities

`driver.handshake()`

`driver.device_info()`

`driver.close()`

Locating

`driver.get_by_text()`

`driver.locator()`

Tapping

`driver.tap()`

`driver.long_press()`

Typing

`driver.type_text()`

Swiping

`driver.swipe()`

Buttons

`driver.key_press()`

`driver.press()`

Reading the screen

`driver.observe()`

`driver.screenshot()`

Go method map

See also

Locator

Screen

Client

Key

​Connection and capabilities

​driver.handshake()

​driver.device_info()

​driver.close()

​Locating

​driver.get_by_text()

​driver.locator()

​Tapping

​driver.tap()

​driver.long_press()

​Typing

​driver.type_text()

​Swiping

​driver.swipe()

​Buttons

​driver.key_press()

​driver.press()

​Reading the screen

​driver.observe()

​driver.screenshot()

​Go method map

​See also

Locator

Screen

Client

Key

Connection and capabilities

`driver.handshake()`

`driver.device_info()`

`driver.close()`

Locating

`driver.get_by_text()`

`driver.locator()`

Tapping

`driver.tap()`

`driver.long_press()`

Typing

`driver.type_text()`

Swiping

`driver.swipe()`

Buttons

`driver.key_press()`

`driver.press()`

Reading the screen

`driver.observe()`

`driver.screenshot()`

Go method map

See also