On iOS — actions — Busymate DevTools Docs

On your iPhone, BusyBro isn't only an answer engine — it can do things in the app for you. Ask it to start capturing a site, apply a service's setup, turn capture on or off, or hand off to a service specialist, and it carries those out with your own permissions — never more than you could do yourself.

BusyBro on iOS acts as the signed-in person holding the phone (not the device), and it knows which device this chat is on, so "this device" always means the right one.

What you can ask it to do

Two everyday asks:

"Intercept example.com." BusyBro adds example.com to this device's decrypt list (the SSL-proxy list) and makes sure capture is running — so the site's HTTPS starts showing up, decrypted, in your Network tab.
"Intercept the DoorDash service." BusyBro resolves your DoorDash service group, applies it to this device (so the device inherits the group's decrypt domains), makes sure capture is running, and hands off to the group's primary specialist agent to walk you through the DoorDash flow.

It applies the decrypt changes before turning capture on, so a freshly-started tunnel already has the right domains and you don't miss the first requests.

It reaches your device the remote way

BusyBro never reaches into iOS directly. It changes settings and sends control signals, and your device picks them up live:

Adding a decrypt domain or applying a service group is a settings write. The change broadcasts to your device over Realtime, and a running tunnel picks up the new decrypt list without restarting — so capture keeps going and the new site simply starts decrypting.
Turning capture on or off is a control signal (BusyBro asks the device to start or stop the VPN; for "on" it also sends a background wake so a sleeping tunnel can start).

Everything BusyBro can do autonomously, it does — edit the decrypt list, apply the service group, request capture-on. The one thing it can't do for you is the iOS system permission tap.

It's precondition-aware

BusyBro reads your device's live setup-readiness state each turn, so it knows what's actually blocking capture and guides you to exactly that step instead of guessing:

If the CA certificate isn't installed and fully trusted, decryption can't happen yet — BusyBro points you to that step on this phone. (This is the most common blocker; see Trust the certificate.)
If notifications aren't allowed, capture stays gated — BusyBro tells you to grant them.
The very first time capture turns on, iOS shows a one-time "Allow VPN Configuration" sheet. BusyBro can request capture, but it can't tap that for you — so it asks you to accept it once. After that, future capture-on requests just work.

Because of that last point, BusyBro requests capture and then verifies it actually started — if a gate is still unmet, it tells you the exact next step rather than claiming capture is on when it isn't.

In-app vs out-of-app guidance

BusyBro on the phone keeps you on the phone: it points you to in-app places — the setup sheet, the Network tab, the connection toggle on the home screen — and tap-by-tap steps, never to a desktop or a dashboard URL. For something that genuinely lives only on the dashboard (like wiping data or managing roles), it says so plainly rather than pretending it can do it from the app.

Permissions and confirmation still apply

Acting through BusyBro is exactly as safe as acting yourself — it has no extra power:

Your role bounds it. Adding a decrypt domain, applying a service group, or toggling capture all need devices:edit; reading a service group needs services:view. A read-only user gets read-only help — BusyBro explains it can't make the change instead of failing silently. See Roles.
Your devices only. Device actions are limited to devices you own (unless you're an admin).
Capture-on is confirmed. Turning on system-wide traffic capture is privacy-relevant, so BusyBro surfaces a confirmation describing the whole intent — the device and what it's about to do — before it acts. A chat can't be tricked into quietly turning on capture.
Powerful changes stay locked. Applying a service group's domains is fine at devices:edit/services:edit, but anything that runs custom code (scripts) still requires admin and a confirmation — BusyBro can't lower that bar.

The service-specialist hand-off

When you intercept a service, BusyBro hands off to that service group's primary specialist agent — a focused persona authored for that service — to guide the flow with the service-specific knowledge it was given. The specialist runs as a bounded helper inside the same chat; its progress and result stream into the conversation you're reading. It can't escalate its own permissions, and if a step needs a confirmation, that comes back to you. See Specialist agents for how a service's agents are set up.