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

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 — Build the server (once)

Open Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.dpr in Delphi and compile it. The EXE lands next to the .dpr, as Source\McpServer\Autopilot.Mcp.exe.

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 the EXE you built in step 1. Restart the assistant if it was already running. It now has thirteen new tools, all prefixed autopilot.

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. The server hands these steps to your assistant the moment it connects, so once step 2 is done you can simply say: "Wire Autopilot into this project." It 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.
• 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.

Source-available, not open source.

Future plans

Support for Mac.

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