connecting-to-devices

connecting-to-devices is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from skydoves/android-testing-skills. It costs 235 tokens per session (4,192 once invoked), scanned B, original, Apache-2.0.

A guide to connecting Android phones and emulators to ADB, the Android Debug Bridge command-line tool used to communicate with Android devices.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to list and select devices, target a specific connection, wait for a device to become ready, diagnose connection states, and handle basic USB setup problems.
Why use it?
It helps avoid common connection errors involving multiple devices, unauthorized or offline devices, devices that are still starting, and missing Linux permissions.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: positional $N argument.

Good fit Use it to list and select devices, target a specific connection, wait for a device to become ready, diagnose connection states, and handle basic USB setup problems.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add skydoves/android-testing-skills --skill connecting-to-devices
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/skydoves/android-testing-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for connecting-to-devices

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for connecting-to-devices

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/skydoves/android-testing-skills/connecting-to-devices.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 235 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,192 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00235 $0.04192
Opus 5 $0.00118 $0.02096
Sonnet 5 $0.00047 $0.00838
Haiku 4.5 $0.00023 $0.00419

Measured 9d ago against content hash 5825d747900c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

connecting-to-devices scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
adb/devices/connecting-to-devices/SKILL.md · 283 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 283 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Connecting to Devices — Listing, Selecting, and Waiting on Transports

adb devices is the most-typed adb command. The follow-on traps are real: scripts run before the device is actually online, multi-device shells fail with more than one device/emulator, Linux misses udev rules, and tutorials reference a fictional wait-for-device-online form. This skill encodes the truth set.

When to use this skill

  • The user runs adb shell with two devices plugged in and gets error: more than one device/emulator.
  • The user reports a device showing as unauthorized, offline, or no permissions in adb devices.
  • The user wants a CI script to wait until a device finishes booting before running tests.
  • The user copy-pasted adb wait-for-device-online from a blog post and it errors with usage text.
  • The user is on Linux and a freshly plugged phone never appears in adb devices.

When NOT to use this skill

  • The user wants the high-level architecture / server lifecycle / env vars — use ../../architecture/understanding-adb-architecture/SKILL.md.
  • The user wants Wi-Fi / wireless debugging — use ../connecting-over-wifi/SKILL.md.
  • The user wants to install or clear app state on the connected device — use ../../apps/installing-and-managing-apps/SKILL.md.

Prerequisites

  • Working ADB server (see ../../architecture/understanding-adb-architecture/SKILL.md).
  • Device with USB debugging enabled in Settings → System → Developer options. On Android 4.2+ developer options is hidden until "Build number" is tapped seven times in About phone.
  • On Linux: ability to write /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules with sudo.
  • On Windows: a vendor USB driver (Google USB Driver via SDK Manager for Pixel/Nexus; OEM driver for other manufacturers).

Workflow

  • 1. Run adb devices first, every time. It prints one line per attached transport in the form <serial> <state> [details...]. Add -l whenever scripting:
    adb devices -l
    # List of devices attached
    # emulator-5556  device  product:sdk_google_phone_x86_64 model:Android_SDK_built_for_x86_64 device:generic_x86_64 transport_id:1
    # 0a388e93       device  usb:1-1 product:razor model:Nexus_7 device:flo transport_id:2
    
    -l adds product, model, device, transport_id, and (for USB) the USB bus path.

Read the full file on GitHub · 283 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 283 lines · 235 tokens per session scan B 5825d747900c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

connecting-to-devices is a skill published in the GitHub repository skydoves/android-testing-skills (319 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 235 tokens to every session and 4,192 once invoked, about $0.0012 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (asks for root). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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