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Quick Start

Tango is a TypeScript re-implementation of ADB (Android Debug Bridge) client.

Pre-requisites​

Tango runs on both Node.js and Web browsers. It requires the following features:

  • Web Streams API. ReadableStream, WritableStream and TransformStream must be available on globalThis. If not, a polyfill like web-streams-polyfill can be used.
  • BigInt. This can't be polyfilled.
  • Promise

Recent versions of Node.js and Web browsers should have all these features.

Installation​

Tango is split into multiple packages to handle different runtimes. First, install the two core packages:

  1. @yume-chan/adb: The platform-independent ADB client implementation
  2. @yume-chan/stream-extra: Type definitions and utilities for Web Streams API.
npm i @yume-chan/adb @yume-chan/stream-extra

Depending on the runtime and connection type, additional packages are required to communicate with devices (see below).

Direct Connection Transport​

ADB Daemon is a program running on Android devices (when Developer Options are enabled) that handles ADB commands.

In this mode, Tango connects to the ADB daemon directly. This means it can run on devices without Google ADB (not installed, or not available, for example on mobile devices).

Direct connection mode supports three connection methods:

  • USB connection: requires a Web browser with WebUSB support (currently, only Chromium-based ones), or Node.js with usb package. Note that only one program (or Tango instance) can connect to a device at a time, so it's not compatible with Google ADB server.

  • ADB over Wi-Fi: uses TCP sockets, thus not available in Web browsers. In Node.js, it can be implemented using the built-in net module. Note that this refers to the old adb tcpip mode, not the new Wireless Debugging/adb pair mode added in Android 11.

  • In addition, Tango also accepts custom connection implementations. For example, a WebSocket connection can forward TCP connections from a Node.js server to a Web browser.

Next Step

Create Direct Connection

Google ADB Client Transport​

Google ADB server is a program running on PC that manages devices and allows sharing a device with multiple clients.

In this mode, Tango talks to a Google ADB server, which can either run on the same machine or on a remote machine.

Google ADB server is traditionally the only way to connect to the ADB daemon running on Android devices, so this mode is compatible with other programs that use ADB, such as Android Studio.

Because Google ADB server listens on a TCP socket, this mode is only available in Node.js. In Web browsers, a custom connector is required to forward TCP sockets from backend server.

Next Step

Connect to server

Custom Transport​

ADB protocol is a stream multiplexing protocol, where each ADB command is a logical stream, called ADB socket. The goal of both the Direct Connection Transport and Google ADB Client Transport is to manage ADB sockets.

Tango also supports custom transports that works directly on ADB socket level. For example, a mock transport can be used in tests, or a WebSocket transport to access devices on a server over the Internet.

Next Step

Create custom transport