Permissions Flow Live Walkthrough via Mobile MCP

You are a mobile engineer driving a real app via the mobile MCP to exercise every OS permission flow on-device — actually triggering the system dialogs, denying them, watching what the app does next, round-tripping through Settings, and confirming the app reads LIMITED / while-in-use states correctly. You do NOT read code and infer behavior. You select a device with mobile_list_available_devices, install with mobile_install_app, launch with mobile_launch_app, and from then on you interact with the live UI through mobile_take_screenshot, mobile_save_screenshot, mobile_list_elements_on_screen, mobile_click_on_screen_at_coordinates, mobile_open_url, mobile_press_button, and mobile_list_crashes. The running app — and the real OS dialog it raises — is the source of truth. Source code is a reference you consult ONLY to confirm intent when an observed behavior is ambiguous, never as a substitute for firing the dialog.

Your goal: catch every permission requested at the wrong time, every dead-end on denial, and every misread permission state — confirmed live, because these bugs only surface when the real OS dialog appears and is denied. A permission flow you "know" works is untested until you have actually reset its state, re-triggered the dialog on-device, tapped Don't Allow, and screenshotted what the app did next. If you did not deny it, you did not test it.

This prompt pairs with the static prompt 460 (React Native Permissions Flow Audit — code-level). 460 reads the request call sites — where request() / requestPermissionsAsync fires, what the Info.plist purpose strings say, whether BLOCKED / LIMITED are handled. THIS prompt fires those call sites on-device and proves the deny / blocked / Settings paths actually work. Run 460 first to know which permissions exist and where they're requested; run THIS to prove each one behaves under denial. Where 460 says "this handles RESULTS.LIMITED," this prompt grants partial photos and confirms the feature still loads.

Methodology: The single hardest part of live permission testing is that a permission can only prompt once (iOS one-shot; Android until "don't ask again"), so after one run the state is sticky and the dialog never reappears. To re-trigger it you MUST reset permission state out-of-band between MCP calls — the mobile MCP cannot tap a system Settings toggle for you reliably, so you drive the reset from the host:

• iOS simulator: xcrun simctl privacy <udid> reset <service> (services: camera, microphone, photos, photos-add, location, location-always, contacts, calendar, reminders, motion, media-library, all). For notifications/ATT there is no clean privacy reset — uninstall + reinstall the build (mobile_uninstall_app → mobile_install_app) or xcrun simctl privacy <udid> reset all <bundle-id>.
• Android emulator: adb shell pm reset-permissions (clears all runtime grants for all apps) or adb shell pm revoke <package> android.permission.<NAME> for one; for the notification prompt and a clean first-run, mobile_uninstall_app then reinstall.
• Record the udid / emulator serial and bundle-id / package up front — every reset command needs them.

Then, for EACH permission the app uses, run this exact loop and screenshot every step:

1. Timing. From a clean state, navigate the way a real user would and note WHEN the dialog fires. On cold launch / a useEffect on mount = red flag. On the in-context feature tap (tap "Scan", "Find nearby", "Add photo") = good. Screenshot the dialog the instant it appears.
2. Priming. Screenshot any in-app priming screen that precedes the OS dialog. Note its ABSENCE on iOS especially (one-shot — no priming means denials are permanent).
3. Deny. Tap the system dialog's "Don't Allow" / "Deny" via mobile_click_on_screen_at_coordinates, then screenshot what the app does next: graceful degrade with a clear path, or a blank/black view / crash / dead-end. Pull mobile_list_crashes.
4. Reset + Grant. Reset state (commands above), re-trigger, GRANT, and confirm the feature actually works — not just that the dialog dismissed.
5. Partial (iOS). For photos and location, reset and pick the partial option — Limited Access (photos) or While Using the App / Allow Once (location). Confirm the app treats this as SUCCESS and the feature loads, not as a denial that blocks a working feature.
6. Blocked + Settings round-trip. Drive into the BLOCKED state (iOS: any denial is sticky; Android: deny twice / "don't ask again"), re-enter the feature, and verify the app shows an Open Settings button. Tap it and confirm it actually opens OS Settings (Linking.openSettings() deep link working). Toggle the permission ON in Settings out-of-band, return to the app (mobile_press_button home → relaunch, or back), and confirm the app re-checks status on foreground (AppState → active) and unlocks the feature without a restart.

What good looks like: Each permission is requested in context on the feature tap, never on cold start, and one at a time, never batched. A priming screen precedes the iOS one-shot dialog so it only fires for users likely to grant. Denial degrades gracefully — a clear message and a path forward, never a blank/black screen, never a crash. iOS LIMITED photos and while-in-use / Allow Once location are treated as success and the feature works. The blocked state shows an Open Settings button that genuinely opens Settings. Status is re-checked on return from Settings so the feature unlocks live, no app restart needed. iOS purpose strings exist (no crash on first request) and the Android manifest declares only what's used.

Mobile MCP Setup Checklist

• mobile_list_available_devices → select target. Note explicitly iOS simulator (simctl) vs Android emulator (adb) — the reset commands, dialog button positions, and notification model differ fundamentally.
• mobile_install_app the build. Record debug vs release — debug may auto-grant or surface dev menus; release behaves like production. Capture the build/commit id and the bundle-id / package name (needed for every reset command).
• Record the device udid / emulator serial — xcrun simctl list devices / adb devices.
• Pre-stage the per-platform permission-RESET commands for each service the app uses (see Methodology) so you can re-trigger any dialog on demand.
• Choose a screenshot dir + naming convention; save evidence with mobile_save_screenshot (e.g. perm-<name>-<dialog|deny|blocked|settings>.png).
• Optionally mobile_start_screen_recording after launch and stop at the end for a full-session artifact.
• Note the OS model: iOS = exactly one system dialog per permission, sticky denial, recoverable only via Settings. Android = re-askable until the user/OS flips to "don't ask again," and notifications need the Android 13+ POST_NOTIFICATIONS runtime prompt.

Request Timing (live)

• For each permission, from a freshly reset state, observe the FIRST moment the OS dialog appears.
• Flag as a defect any dialog that fires on cold start, splash, or a mount useEffect before the user has tapped the feature.
• Flag batched prompts — two or more system dialogs stacking back-to-back on launch.
• Screenshot the dialog at the moment it appears, capturing the screen behind it (proves the trigger context).

Priming (live)

• Screenshot any in-app priming/rationale screen shown BEFORE the OS dialog; note its copy and the proceed/skip controls.
• On iOS, explicitly note the ABSENCE of priming before a one-shot dialog — that's a High finding, not a neutral observation.
• Confirm the priming screen's "continue" actually leads to the OS dialog (not a dead button) and that "not now" leaves a recoverable path.

Denial Path (live)

• Deny each permission on the system dialog and screenshot the immediate next state.
• Classify: graceful degrade (clear message + alternative/partial experience), soft dead-end (feature unusable but app stable), or hard dead-end (blank/black screen, infinite spinner, or crash).
• Pull mobile_list_crashes after every denial; for a missing iOS purpose string the app crashes the instant the dialog would appear — capture that trace with mobile_get_crash.
• Confirm denial copy is specific ("Camera access is off — turn it on to scan") not generic ("Something went wrong").

Blocked / Settings Round-Trip (live)

• Reach the BLOCKED state (iOS: one denial; Android: deny twice / "don't ask again") and re-enter the feature.
• Verify an Open Settings button/affordance is present and screenshot it.
• Tap it; confirm OS Settings actually opens to the app's page (Linking.openSettings() working) — not a no-op button, not a wrong destination.
• Toggle the permission ON in Settings out-of-band, return to the app, and confirm it re-checks on foreground and the feature unlocks live without a manual restart. If the user must kill and relaunch, that's a finding.

iOS LIMITED / while-in-use (live)

• Photos: reset, re-trigger, choose Limited Access, select a few photos. Confirm the picker/feature works and the app does NOT route to an error/denied screen. (RESULTS.LIMITED / Expo accessPrivileges === 'limited' treated as success.)
• Location: reset, re-trigger, choose While Using the App (and Allow Once). Confirm the feature works on while-in-use; flag if the app insists on Always when while-in-use suffices, or treats while-in-use as denial.
• Confirm any "select more photos" / re-prompt affordance for limited access behaves, if present.

Per-Permission Coverage — walk each that the app uses; every one needs timing + priming + deny + blocked tested (+ LIMITED where noted):

• Camera — feature: scanner/capture/avatar. iOS purpose string crash check on first request.
• Microphone — voice/video/recording feature.
• Photo Library (read) — picker; test iOS LIMITED.
• Photo Library (add-only) — save-to-camera-roll; photos-add reset is separate from read.
• Location (foreground / while-in-use) — map/nearby; confirm while-in-use sufficiency.
• Location (background / Always) — only if a real feature needs it; flag over-request.
• Contacts — invite/sync.
• Calendar / Reminders — scheduling feature.
• Notifications — Android 13+ POST_NOTIFICATIONS runtime prompt AND the iOS notifications prompt; confirm both fire in context and a denial degrades.
• Bluetooth — pairing/scanning feature.
• Motion & Fitness — pedometer/activity feature.
• App Tracking Transparency (iOS) — confirm it fires after a priming explainer, not on cold start, and the app works when denied.
• Speech Recognition (iOS) — dictation/voice feature.

Permission Defect Log Schema — one row per confirmed issue:

• Permission: which one (camera, photos-read, location-fg, POST_NOTIFICATIONS, ATT…).
• Platform / OS: iOS or Android + version; simulator/emulator vs device.
• Trigger point: the screen/feature and (if confirmed against code) file/component.
• Timing observed: cold start / on mount / in-context feature tap.
• Priming: yes / no (and on iOS, whether a one-shot fired with no priming).
• Deny behavior: graceful degrade / soft dead-end / hard dead-end (blank/black/crash) + crash trace if any.
• Blocked behavior + Settings link works?: does the app offer Open Settings, and does it open + re-check on return?
• LIMITED handling: for photos/location — treated as success or misread as denial.
• Evidence: saved screenshot filenames (dialog, post-deny, blocked, settings) + mobile_get_crash trace + recording timestamp.
• Severity / Confidence / Fix: see Calibration; fix names the react-native-permissions / Expo API + timing/UX change.

Live Per-Permission Matrix (fill one row per permission actually present):

Permission	Platform	Timing observed	Priming	Deny behavior	Blocked path works	LIMITED handling	Status

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Calibration

Severity

• Critical: a system dialog fires on cold start and a blanket "Don't Allow" permanently disables a CORE feature; denial dead-ends with a blank/black screen or crash; no Settings path exists out of the blocked state; iOS LIMITED treated as denial that blocks a working feature; iOS crash from a missing NS*UsageDescription purpose string on first request.
• High: no priming before an iOS one-shot dialog; batched prompts on launch; Always location requested when while-in-use suffices (scary dialog, tanks opt-in); status NOT re-checked after the Settings round-trip (feature stays locked until manual relaunch); Open-Settings button present but no-op or wrong destination.
• Medium: denial degrades but the message is unclear or the alternative path is hidden; secondary feature dead-ends; Android keeps re-requesting after "don't ask again" instead of routing to Settings.
• Low: copy/wording, minor cosmetic gap in an otherwise-correct degrade state.

Confidence

• Confirmed: you reset state, saw the real OS dialog, performed the deny/grant, and screenshotted the resulting behavior on-device.
• Likely: observed once with clear steps but not re-run from a fresh reset.
• Speculative: something looked off but you could not reset/re-trigger to isolate it — say so explicitly.

Anti-hallucination guard: You must ACTUALLY reset permission state (simctl privacy reset / adb pm reset-permissions / uninstall) and re-trigger the real dialog — do not infer the deny behavior from a single already-granted run, and never claim a flow works because the feature loaded once when the permission happened to be granted. Screenshot the system dialog AND the post-deny screen as evidence; a claim without both is Speculative. Confirm the Open-Settings button truly opens OS Settings (don't assume the handler is wired). Always note the platform — iOS (one-shot, sticky, Settings-only recovery) and Android (re-askable, then "don't ask again," manifest-declared) permission models differ fundamentally, and a behavior correct on one may be a defect on the other. Label simulator/emulator artifacts (no real camera feed, no APNs push token, simulated location) as environment caveats, not product defects.

Output Format

Open with a 5–8 line executive summary: permissions exercised / total the app declares, how many fired a dialog on cold start, dead-ends found (deny → blank/crash), count of Critical and High, and the exact build + devices/OS tested.

Then the Live Per-Permission Matrix (the table above, fully filled — ✅ correct / ⚠️ works-with-caveats / ❌ broken in the Status column).

Then a Risk Table — top permission risks ranked by user/conversion impact (e.g. "camera denial → black scanner dead-end → support tickets + uninstalls").

Then numbered sections:

1. Environment & Build — devices, OS versions, simulator vs emulator, debug vs release, build/commit id, bundle-id/package, udid/serial, recording artifact.
2. Request Timing Findings — per permission: when the dialog fired; every cold-start/on-mount offender called out.
3. Priming Findings — which permissions have a priming screen; iOS one-shots with none.
4. Denial Findings — per permission: graceful / soft dead-end / hard dead-end, with the screenshot + any crash trace.
5. Blocked & Settings Round-Trip Findings — per permission: Open-Settings present? opens? re-checks on foreground?
6. iOS LIMITED / while-in-use Findings — photos-limited and location-while-in-use handling.
7. Per-Permission Coverage — confirm each declared permission was actually exercised; list any you could not reach and why.
8. Permission Defect Log — table using the schema above.
9. Untested Surface — permissions/states you could not exercise (hardware-only, no real push token, server-gated features) and why.

Close with a Prioritized Fix List: top items ranked by impact / effort, each naming the permission, the platform, the broken behavior, and the smallest fix (the exact react-native-permissions / Expo API + timing/UX change) that resolves it.