Price terms as published
Each line is the vendor’s own wording, split from the price capture checked on 2026-09-21. Nothing here is rounded, converted or re-worded — the full sentences stay in the review below. Lines that carry only a price continue the plan named on the line above, in the vendor’s own order.
| # | Plan / term | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free (open source, MIT) | 2026-09-21 |
One-liner: vphone-cli is a MIT-licensed command-line tool that boots a virtual iPhone using Apple’s Virtualization.framework with PCC (Private Cloud Compute) research VM infrastructure — a full iOS device environment you can script, snapshot, and clone on one Mac.
Verified facts (as of 2026-09-21)
| Attribute | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 14,118 | repo page snapshot, 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | 1,669 | repo page snapshot |
| License | MIT (LICENSE file read directly) | repo license field + raw LICENSE |
| Last commit | 2026-09-18 | commits feed |
| What it does | “Boot a virtual iPhone via Apple’s Virtualization.framework using PCC research VM infrastructure” | repo README |
| Host requirements | Apple Silicon, macOS 15+ (Sequoia), Xcode + iOS SDK, and SIP/AMFI relaxation for private PV=3 entitlements | repo README prerequisites |
| Pipeline | vphone-cli vm create <name> -V <variant> automates download → patch → DFU restore → CFW install → first boot |
repo README |
| Firmware variants | five: less (patchless, 4 boot-chain patches) → regular (42) → dev (53) → jb (113 + jailbreak with Sileo/TrollStore) → exp (141 + anti-VM-detection research patches) |
repo README table |
| Connect from host | SSH (port 22222) and VNC (port 5901) into the guest | repo README |
| Install | brew install zqxwce/tap/vphone-cli |
repo README |
Why people want this
Automated iOS testing, app-research workflows, and agent-driven device
manipulation have always bottlenecked on physical devices. A scripted iPhone
VM that clones with a fresh device identity (APFS clone) and exports to a
compressed bundle turns that into a ~/.vphone directory of disposable
snapshots.
The catches
- Hard platform wall: Apple Silicon + macOS 15+, no equivalents on Windows or Linux. The whole stack rides on Apple’s Virtualization.framework and iOS Simulator-adjacent tooling; there is no portable fallback.
- You must weaken your host’s security posture. Running it requires
either disabling SIP/AMFI (recovery-mode
csrutilsteps + boot-arg) or the narroweramfidontallowlist path. That is a deliberate, reversible but real security trade on the machine hosting the VM. - Patching Apple boot chains is legally and practically gray. The
jb/expvariants install jailbreak components; expect this to be research tooling, not a supported product path, and check Apple’s terms before any commercial use. - Multi-terabyte-class setup steps (IPSW downloads, guest builds via Xcode cross-compilation) mean first-run friction is non-trivial.
Who should use it
iOS researchers, security/compatibility testers, and automation developers on Apple Silicon Macs who want disposable, scriptable iPhones locally — and who understand the SIP/AMFI trade-off before running the setup.
Stats, license, requirements, variant table, and command surface verified against primary sources (GitHub repo page, raw README/LICENSE, commits feed) on 2026-09-21. No VM was booted for this page, so no hands-on claims are made.