iOS Watch Logs

Overview

Streams logs from a USB-connected iPhone in real-time using pymobiledevice3, filtering to show only the app's explicit log messages (those with [APP] prefix).

When to Use

Invoke this skill when the user:

• Asks to "watch iOS logs"
• Wants to "see what the app is doing"
• Says "monitor the iPhone"
• Asks to "stream logs from iPhone"
• Wants to debug or see real-time app behavior
• Says "show me the logs"

Prerequisites

• iPhone connected via USB
• pymobiledevice3 installed (pip3 install pymobiledevice3)
• Device must be trusted
• App must be running on the device to see logs

Option 1: Use Screen Capture App (Recommended)

The iPhone screen capture app has an integrated console:

cd miso/platforms/ios/development/screen-capture/imp
./iphone_screencap.sh

Click the ">" button to open the live log console.

Option 2: Terminal Streaming

Stream logs directly in terminal:

pymobiledevice3 syslog live 2>/dev/null | grep "\[APP\]"

Option 3: Claude Reading Logs

Claude can read recent logs with:

timeout 3 pymobiledevice3 syslog live 2>/dev/null | grep "\[APP\]" | tail -30

Log Format

The app's Logger class prefixes messages with [APP]:

NoobTest{...}[12345] <INFO>: [APP] [PostView] Loading post 14
NoobTest{...}[12345] <DEBUG>: [APP] [Network] Response: 200 OK

Adding Logs in Code

Use the app's Logger class in Swift:

Logger.shared.info("[MyFeature] Something happened")
Logger.shared.debug("[MyFeature] Debug info: \(value)")
Logger.shared.error("[MyFeature] Error: \(error)")

Common Issues

No logs appearing:

• Ensure the app is running on the device
• Check that logs use [APP] prefix
• Verify pymobiledevice3 is installed: pip3 install pymobiledevice3
• Device must be trusted and unlocked

pymobiledevice3 not found:

• Install: pip3 install pymobiledevice3

Only system logs showing:

• The app's Logger must prefix messages with [APP]
• This filters out thousands of framework/system messages

Notes

• The [APP] prefix filters out thousands of system messages
• Screen capture app console auto-scrolls to latest logs
• Use timeout command to get a snapshot without blocking