Understand app behavior in one local player

Review captured screens, logs, telemetry, and app data together, follow live sessions, and inspect test results from your browser.

Use the local host player to connect what someone saw in your app with the logs, telemetry, and app data captured at the same moment. Follow a live session, revisit an issue after the app disconnects, or review a test’s evidence and outcome in your browser.

The player is included with the Ansight CLI and served by the resident host. It uses the same local evidence and host services as ansight commands.

The player is local. Its URL points to the resident host on the developer machine. Normal capture, review, test, and management requests do not pass through an Ansight cloud relay. Cloud sharing and hosted features are explicit actions.

Start and open the player

Start the host and open the player in the default browser:

ansight host run --open

If the host is already running, open it from another terminal and optionally select a session:

ansight serve --open
ansight serve --open --session <session-id>

On macOS and Windows, the packaged host also starts a tray helper with Open Ansight, Copy Local URL, and Stop Ansight actions. ansight host status --json reports the same local URL for scripts and agents.

Player areas

Setup

Mobile App Setup and Pairing

Connect a local development build automatically or pair a physical device for live inspection.

Monitoring

External App Monitoring

Record simulator and emulator apps automatically, browse their files, and run automation without an embedded SDK.

Capture

Record for Session Replay

Preserve what the app showed and reported while you reproduce an issue.

Review

Session Replay and Review

Reconstruct what happened by reviewing screens, logs, and app state on one timeline.

Guidance

Annotations

Guide agents to problems and point developers and testers to the moments or screen areas that need attention.

Connections

Connectivity Review

Review disconnects, reconnects, and quality estimates in live sessions or imported offline captures.

Devices

Device Preview

Reproduce issues and test location-dependent behavior on a supported simulator or emulator.

Evidence

Live Files and Viewers

Inspect app files and databases, then save snapshots for investigation after the app disconnects.

Handoff

Exports and Handoff

Give teammates and agents the captured evidence behind an issue, with control over what you share.

Automation

Workspace Getting Started

Keep reusable app checks in source control so your team and agents can run them as the app changes.

Agents

CLI

Let agents, scripts, and CI investigate the same app evidence and run repeatable checks.

Player and CLI responsibilities

Use the player for visual, interactive work: selecting sessions, scrubbing the timeline, reviewing screenshots and trees, running a known test, inspecting Trends, pairing an app, and managing local session storage.

Use the CLI for agent access, scripting, workspace authoring, automation, CI, and precise JSON output. Both interfaces call the same host services, so a session selected visually can be inspected by ID from the terminal without exporting it first.

  1. Complete Getting Started to install the CLI and add the SDK to a development build, then start the host with ansight host run --open.
  2. Launch the development build. Simulators, emulators, Mac Catalyst, and desktop apps on the host computer connect automatically; for a physical device, scan a one-use pairing QR.
  3. Confirm a live session appears in the player.
  4. Reproduce the behavior while the host records evidence.
  5. Review the session timeline, screenshots, logs, telemetry, touches, visual trees, annotations, and artifacts.
  6. Add annotations to explain the problem and mark areas of interest for agents, developers, and testers.
  7. Give an agent the session ID and ask it to investigate the annotated moments when structured investigation or app-tool access is needed.
  8. Export, sanitize, or explicitly share a focused session for handoff.