Autopilot for Delphi

An AI assistant can already write and compile your Delphi code — but it cannot push the buttons. Autopilot for Delphi hands the controls of your running VCL or FMX app (supports Android) to the AI: it clicks, types, reads state, and screenshots the live form over MCP.

The assistant runs the whole open-click-check-fix-recompile loop on its own — no human at the keyboard.

For full overview, demos & tool reference see www.GabrielMoraru.com/autopilot

What's new

September 2026

• No compile step for the server. Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.exe now comes ready to run in the download: register it with your assistant and go. You compile only the demo and your own app.
• Lighter on every session. The text the server gives your AI at the start of every session shrank from 1,397 to 857 characters (39% less). The bridge setup steps used to ride along in every session; now the AI gets them only when it needs them. Want the rest too? Register the server only where you use it - see step 2 below. On the author's machine that took 3,604 characters out of every session that does not drive a Delphi app.
• A clear answer when your app is not running. Every tool now answers with error -32099 target_not_running plus the steps to start the app or link the bridge in (for an Android target, also the adb forward step). attach always carries the setup steps too.
• wait_for stops at once when no app is running, instead of waiting out its whole timeout.
• Plain-ASCII tool descriptions, so no AI host shows stray characters where a dash or an arrow was meant.

August 2026

• dismiss_dialog tells you when it cannot confirm a click. When it had to send the click by command id instead of pressing the button itself, the answer says via:"WM_COMMAND", so the AI knows to list the dialogs again and check.

Requirements

• Delphi 11 Alexandria, 12 Athens or 13 Florence.
• Targets: Windows 32/64 bit (VCL and FMX) and Android (FMX).
• An AI assistant that speaks MCP: Claude Code, Kai, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline.

Quick start

Step 1 — The server is ready, nothing to build

The server is Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.exe, already in the download. Keep it in that folder: when your app is not wired yet, the server looks for the bridge units in Source\Bridge\ beside it to tell your assistant how to link them in.

The EXE is not code-signed yet, so an antivirus may warn about it.

Never start this EXE yourself. It has no window and it does nothing on its own. Your AI assistant launches it and talks to it through its standard input and output.

Step 2 — Tell your AI assistant where that EXE is (once)

In Claude Code this is one command:

claude mcp add autopilot -- C:\Your\Path\Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.exe

Write the real full path of that EXE on your disk. Restart the assistant if it was already running. It now has thirteen new tools, all prefixed autopilot.

Register it only where you need it. Without --scope, as above, the server loads only in that project, so a session that never drives a Delphi app pays nothing for it. On the author's machine, moving two machine-wide registrations to this setup took 3,604 characters out of every session that does not drive a Delphi app. One catch: when the project is not a git repository, Claude Code finds such a registration only when the session starts in that exact folder, not in its subfolders. To cover every project and every subfolder at once, register it from the folder that holds all your projects with claude mcp add autopilot --scope project -- C:\Your\Path\Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.exe. That writes a .mcp.json file there, which Claude Code finds from any folder below. It asks you to approve that server; to approve it once for every folder, add "enabledMcpjsonServers": ["autopilot"] to C:\Users\<you>\.claude\settings.json.

Step 3 — Try it, on the demo that is already wired

1. Open DemoVCL\Autopilot.Demo.dproj, compile it, run it. Leave the app on screen.
2. Ask your assistant: "List the controls of my running Delphi app, then click btnIncrement five times and read lblCounter."

You do not tell the assistant where Autopilot.Demo.exe is. When the demo starts, it writes a small discovery file into %TEMP%\Autopilot\active\ that holds the name of its communication channel. The server reads that folder. One Delphi app running means it connects to it without being asked; several running means you name the one you want by its process id.

Step 4 — Wire it into your own application

Two lines in your project's .dpr:

uses
  Vcl.Forms,
  Autopilot.Bridge.Vcl in '..\Source\Bridge\Autopilot.Bridge.Vcl.pas',   // 1. add the unit
  ...
begin
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.CreateForm(TfrmMain, frmMain);
  Autopilot.Bridge.Vcl.StartBridge;                                      // 2. start the bridge
  Application.Run;
end.

For an FMX application use Autopilot.Bridge.Fmx instead of Autopilot.Bridge.Vcl.

Then add AUTOPILOT to the conditional defines of your Debug build configuration only — Project > Options > Building > Delphi Compiler > Conditional defines.

That define carries the whole safety story. The working code of the bridge sits inside {$IFDEF AUTOPILOT}. Without the define StartBridge compiles down to an empty procedure: your Release build opens no communication channel, starts no thread, and exposes nothing. There is nothing to remember to strip out before you ship.

You do not have to do step 4 by hand. Once step 2 is done you can simply say: "Wire Autopilot into this project." The assistant gets these steps from the server (its attach tool always returns them), edits the .dpr and sets the define for you.

A working example of exactly the code above: DemoVCL\Autopilot.Demo.dpr.

Step 5 — Now use it

Talk to the assistant about your own app in plain words. It resolves the control names itself:

"Start my app, type 'Gabriel' in the name field, press Save, and tell me what the status label says."

"The Next Page button does nothing. Run the app, press it, and find out why."

AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md — optional, and you write nothing in it

AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md in this repository is already written. It is a briefing for the AI, not for you: the thirteen tools, their arguments, the error codes, and how to drive an application in few and cheap turns.

To use it, copy the file into your own project folder and add one line to your project's CLAUDE.md so the assistant reads it:

Driving the GUI: see AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md

Skip this and everything still works. The assistant just finds its way around more slowly and spends more of your tokens.

When nothing happens

• The assistant says the target is not running. The app must be running at the moment you ask, and it must be the build that has the AUTOPILOT define. A Release build is deaf by design.
• No tools named autopilot in the assistant. Step 2 did not take effect. Check the path in claude mcp add and restart the assistant. If you started the assistant in a subfolder of a project that is not a git repository, use the .mcp.json registration described in step 2.
• Both the app and the server must run as the same Windows user. The communication channel is locked to the account that created it.

License

Dual-licensed:

• Noncommercial use — free, under the SciVance Noncommercial License 2.0 (personal, study, research, hobby, charity, school, public research / health / safety). Nothing to register, no key, no activation — just use it.
• Commercial or government use — paid, $25 per developer, one-time. See COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md.

No redistribution, under either tier. Use it, change it for yourself, and ship your own compiled application with the Autopilot units built in — all free. Handing the code itself to anyone else is not allowed: not the source, not the .dcu files, not a changed copy, not folded into a library, component set, template or sample project. Exact wording: LICENSE → Distribution.

The bridge is source-available, not open source. The server ships as a ready-made EXE.

Future plans

Support for Mac.

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