adbex

A friendlier adb wrapper. Adds glob expansion, device selection, backups, screenshots, and more — and passes anything it doesn't recognize straight through to adb.

Install

npm install -g adbex

Requires adb to be installed and on your PATH (part of Android Platform Tools).

Commands

Command	Description
adbex pull <source...> [dest]	Pull files; globs like *.png are expanded on the device
adbex push <source...> <dest>	Push files; globs like *.mp4 are expanded locally
adbex apk-pull <package>	Pull all APKs for an installed package
adbex screenshot [dest]	Capture the screen and save it locally
adbex backup <package> [--data]	Back up an APK and optionally its sdcard data
adbex restore <dir> [--data]	Reinstall APKs and optionally push data back
adbex install <file|glob...>	Install one or more APKs; supports wildcards like *.apk
adbex devices	List connected devices with friendly info
adbex select	Pick a default device (saved to ~/.adbex.json)
adbex packages [filter] [-3] [-s] [--all] [-n]	List user apps by default (-3); -s shows system apps, --all shows both, -n includes names
adbex logcat [package]	Stream logcat for a package; auto-resolves its PID
adbex launch <package|app name> [-s] [-n]	Launch an app by package or exact installed app name
adbex exit <package|app name>	Force-stop an app by package or exact installed app name
adbex alias [list]	List custom command aliases
adbex alias set <name> <command> [args...]	Create a persistent alias for an adbex command
adbex alias delete <name>	Delete a custom command alias

Any command adbex doesn't recognize is passed directly to adb:

adbex shell                  # same as: adb shell
adbex reboot bootloader      # same as: adb reboot bootloader
adbex forward tcp:8080 ...   # and so on

Flags

Flag	Description
-d <serial>	Target a specific device, overrides the saved default
-v, --verbose	Show what adbex is doing under the hood
-h, --help	Print help

Device selection

If you work with multiple devices, pick one as the default so you don't have to type -d every time:

adbex select

Your choice is saved to ~/.adbex.json. Override it at any time with -d <serial>.

Examples

# Pull all screenshots from the device
adbex pull /sdcard/DCIM/Screenshots/*.png ./screenshots

# Install every APK in the current directory
adbex install *.apk

# Back up an app and its data, then restore it to a new device
adbex backup com.example.app --data
adbex restore ./backup-com.example.app --data

# Pull the APK for an installed app
adbex apk-pull com.example.app

# List packages with their app names
adbex packages -n

# Include system packages too, or show only system packages
adbex packages --all
adbex packages -s

# Watch logs for a specific app
adbex logcat com.example.app

# Launch by app name, with or without quotes around names containing spaces
adbex launch Genshin Impact
adbex launch "YouTube"

# Force-stop an app by name or package
adbex exit "YouTube"

# Create and use a command alias
adbex alias set l launch
adbex l "YouTube"
adbex alias list
adbex alias delete l

# Use a specific device for one command
adbex -d emulator-5554 screenshot

Aliases are stored in ~/.adbex.json alongside the selected device. They expand to adbex commands (not shell commands), and any extra arguments are passed through.

License

MIT