Research: Appium's supported commands / messages for XCUITestDriver and UIAutomator2Driver, assuming WebdriverIO as the client interface
Context note. The project root
/Users/tai2/acois currently a TypeScript CLI scaffold (commander.js based) with no Appium‑related source yet. The fileplan.mdis empty. There is therefore no in‑repo implementation to trace; this report is a topical/architectural deep‑dive into the subject requested. It captures the full surface area of commands that flow from a WebdriverIO test through the Appium server into the XCUITest driver (iOS) and UIAutomator2 driver (Android), with attention to the wire format, the legacy/W3C/mobile:triplication, and the practical edge cases. No changes are proposed and nothing is implemented.
The goal of this research is to understand, at the level of "what bytes go on the wire," the complete catalog of commands and protocol messages that an Appium‑backed mobile‑automation client (specifically Webdriver