Pinky Lets Your AI Agent Use Your Phone — With You in Control

An open-source project called Pinky, released on GitHub on November 6, 2026, lets AI agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor control a real iPhone or Android phone through MCP while the user watches and approves risky steps. The project reached 2,068 stars within a week and is pre-alpha, with an approval gateway that blocks agents from approving their own payments, transfers, or deletions and keeps banking and password apps hidden by default. The developer reports screen reads of about 70 ms with the Android companion app versus 2 s without it, and screenshot latency of 5 s over Wi-Fi versus 1 s over a cable.

Pinky is a free, open source app. It lets an AI agent use your real iPhone or Android phone. You watch the agent work on your computer. You approve the risky steps. You can take over at any time. Pinky appeared on GitHub on November 6, 2026. By November 13, it had 2,068 stars. That is fast growth for a project one week old. The project is pre-alpha. The author says so on the front page. You install Pinky on your computer. Pinky runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. You connect your phone with a cable or over Wi-Fi. You add Pinky to your agent with one click in Settings. Then you ask the agent to do a task on the phone. For example, you can say: "Open Messages on my phone and tell Sam I am running late." The agent taps and types on the phone. You see each step in Pinky's window. An agent here means software such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor. Pinky connects the agent to the phone through MCP. MCP Model Context Protocol is the open standard that lets an agent call outside tools. The key idea is the approval gate. Payments, trades, and transfers wait for your click. You can make sends, orders, deletions, calls, installs, and settings changes wait too. These rules run in Pinky's gateway. The agent cannot approve itself. Screen text cannot talk the agent into it either. Banking, wallet, and password manager apps stay hidden from agents by default. Agents cannot type into password or one-time code fields. Every new agent needs your approval first. Each agent gets only the scope you give it. Pinky can also work without a second agent. Pinky on the phone does tasks by itself. You pick the model: DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, Claude, GPT, Gemini, or a local model in Ollama or LM Studio. On Android 13 and later, the agent works on a hidden second screen. Your own screen stays yours. It can stay off and locked. Every run leaves a record. Pinky lists each step in plain words. It keeps screenshots and a screen recording. You can export the record as an HTML report. The record stays on your computer. Android is the easy path. Turn on USB debugging in Developer options. Plug the phone in and tap Allow. Pinky offers to install its phone app. The app reads the screen in about 70 ms instead of 2 s. iPhone setup takes more work. Plug the iPhone in and trust the computer. Turn on Developer Mode in Settings. Pinky mounts Apple's developer disk image on the phone. On iOS 27 and later, nothing gets installed on the phone. On iOS 17.4 to 26, you install Pinky on the iPhone once from a Mac with Xcode. You sign it with your Apple ID. With a free Apple ID, the signature lasts 7 days. You install it again each week. iOS 17.3 and earlier do not work at all. Pinky is pre-alpha. Some parts still wait for a person to try them. The author lists what works in docs/ACCEPTANCE.md. Read that file before you trust a task to it. Wi-Fi is slower than a cable. The author measured a screenshot at 5 s over Wi-Fi and 1 s on a cable. A swipe shows after 80 to 210 ms over Wi-Fi and 60 to 90 ms on a cable. Short tasks may feel slow on Wi-Fi. Screen sharing has side effects on iPhone. While Pinky streams the screen, some banking apps refuse to run. The camera shows black, so scanning a code fails. Pinky streams only while the phone page is open, while an agent works, or for 30 s after. Then those apps work again. The Windows installer is not signed yet. Windows SmartScreen may warn you. You click More info, then Run anyway. That is normal for a young project. It is still a warning you should see with your own eyes. Pinky costs nothing. The license is Apache-2.0. There is no account to create. Your model costs still apply. A call to Claude, GPT, or Gemini bills through your own account. A local model in Ollama or LM Studio costs nothing extra. Pinky solves the right problem. Most phone agents ask you to trust the agent. Pinky asks you to trust a gate instead. The gate sits outside the agent. The agent cannot change it. That is the honest way to give an agent your phone. The project is still early. Android users get the smooth path today. iPhone users on iOS 17.4 to 26 face Xcode, signing, and a weekly reinstall. Wait for a later release if that sounds like work you do not want. Try it if you like to test new tools. Start with the demo mode. It runs two scripted fake phones. You can see the approval flow before you connect your real phone. I test AI tools and build in public: