📅 November 15, 2026 • github.com Pinky is an Apache 2.0 desktop bridge that lets any Model Context Protocol agent operate a real iPhone or Android phone while a human watches, approves risky steps and can take over. DIYgod open-sourced it on November 6, 2026, and version 2026.1115.4 came out on November 15, 2026 at 02:38 UTC, with 2,158 stars, 235 forks, 1,352 commits and 151 releases, rolling every few hours. The about 35 MB download needs no account, no API key or GPU, runs on Linux, macOS or Windows, and a real phone needs Android 10 to 17 or an iPhone on iOS 17.4 or later.
Agent surface. The agent-facing side is an MCP server over standard input speaking JSON-RPC 2.0, exposing 26 tools, all prefixed phone_, from phone_connect and phone_tap to phone_task_steer, and every action returns the new screen. The documentation names Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Copilot CLI, Windsurf and Gemini CLI as supported agents, connected over standard input or HTTP. Pinky ships no model of its own, and its phone app runs tasks with a model the user picks, from DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi and GLM to Claude, GPT, Gemini or local models in Ollama or LM Studio.
Approvals inside the gateway. Approvals sit in Pinky's gateway, not in the prompt, so an agent cannot approve itself even if screen text talks it into it. By default payments, trades and transfers wait for a click, settings can extend that to messages, orders, deletions, calls, installs, links leaving the app and setting changes, and Pinky says it spots these buttons in 10 languages. Banking, wallet and password-manager apps are invisible to agents, which cannot type into password or one-time-code fields, and if an agent needs one it asks, so the user can allow it for that task only.
Who approves, and what is recorded. A Tokenstrom code review found only the desktop interface can grant an approval, requests are denied after 60 seconds, and each approval is tied to the session, device, tool and arguments and used once. On Android 13 and later agents work on a hidden second screen, older Androids and iPhones use the main screen, and clicking the mirror or touching the phone on Android pauses the agent. Every run is recorded in plain words, with screenshots and a screen recording marked per step, exportable as an HTML report, and the data stays on the user's computer.
IMPACT: The project calls its status pre-alpha and points to docs/ACCEPTANCE.md for what works today, so it is for one phone you own with you in the loop, not for unattended infrastructure or a device farm. The approval model is a claim from the authors rather than an independently tested result, button detection is the weak link because a gate only helps if it recognises the risky tap first, and the project is nine days old and moves several releases a day, so the pattern to copy is to put the safety control where the agent cannot reach it.
Sources:
github.com/DIYgod/pinky
github.com/DIYgod/pinky/releases/tag/v2026.1115.4
aifrontierpost.com/articles/pinky-let-ai-use-your-phone-tutorial
theagenticweekly.com/news/pinky-ai-agents-control-iphone-android-mcp
Continue the conversation: https://t.me/AIAutomationArchitecture · Bluesky
