System Properties

Android system properties on a connected device — read, list (optionally by prefix), inspect metadata (SELinux context/declared type), and set ordinary mutable ones. Control-property namespaces (ctl.*, sys.powerctl) are refused, since they represent lifecycle/power operations rather than plain property mutation.

get_property

Get the value of one Android system property: adb shell getprop NAME.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
serial	str	The target device's adb serial (see list_connected_devices).	required
name	str	The property name to look up, e.g. "ro.build.version.release".	required

Returns:

Type	Description
Property	The property's name and value. An empty value does not necessarily mean the property was set to empty — see Error handling below.

Error handling

Propagates the same way most tools do (unlike check_adb_available): if the adb binary itself can't be found or is unresponsive, or the serial doesn't match a connected device, that surfaces as an actual tool error. An empty name raises INVALID_ARGUMENT — a bare getprop dumps every property, never what a single-property lookup meant. getprop itself can't distinguish "property exists and is set to an empty string" from "property doesn't exist at all" — both produce identical empty output, exit code 0 — so this tool returns an empty value as ordinary success data in both cases rather than guessing which one happened or raising an error.

Example

Called with serial="emulator-5554", name="ro.build.version.release". A typical response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "ro.build.version.release='14' on emulator-5554.",
  "data": {"serial": "emulator-5554", "name": "ro.build.version.release", "value": "14"},
  "error": null
}

get_property_metadata

Get metadata for one Android system property: value plus (where supported) its SELinux security context and declared type, via adb shell getprop NAME and adb shell getprop -Z NAME.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
serial	str	The target device's adb serial (see list_connected_devices).	required
name	str	The property name to look up.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
PropertyMetadata	The property's name, value, SELinux context (e.g. "u:object_r:build_prop:s0"), and declared type (the "type" component of that context, e.g. "build_prop"). selinux_context and declared_type are both None when this device/Android version doesn't support the underlying capability — see Error handling below.

Error handling

Propagates the same way most tools do (unlike check_adb_available): if the adb binary itself can't be found or is unresponsive, or the serial doesn't match a connected device, that surfaces as an actual tool error. An empty name raises INVALID_ARGUMENT. If the SELinux-context lookup specifically isn't supported on this device/Android version (rather than the device being unreachable), that's not treated as an internal failure — this tool falls back to selinux_context=None, declared_type=None and still returns the property's value.

Example

Called with serial="emulator-5554", name="ro.build.version.release". A typical response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "ro.build.version.release='14' on emulator-5554 (type=build_prop).",
  "data": {
    "serial": "emulator-5554",
    "name": "ro.build.version.release",
    "value": "14",
    "selinux_context": "u:object_r:build_prop:s0",
    "declared_type": "build_prop"
  },
  "error": null
}

list_properties

List Android system properties as structured data: adb shell getprop.

Parses getprop's "[name]: [value]" output into individual name/value entries rather than exposing the raw text. Optionally scoped to properties whose name starts with a given prefix — filtering happens after parsing, inside this tool's service, not via a shell pipeline or grep.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
serial	str	The target device's adb serial (see list_connected_devices).	required
prefix	str | None	If set, only properties whose name starts with this string are returned, e.g. "ro.build." for build-identity properties. None (the default) returns every property on the device.	None

Returns:

Type	Description
PropertyList	The serial, the prefix requested (if any), and every matching property as name/value pairs.

Error handling

Propagates the same way most tools do (unlike check_adb_available): if the adb binary itself can't be found or is unresponsive, or the serial doesn't match a connected device, that surfaces as an actual tool error. A prefix that matches nothing is not an error — it comes back as an empty properties list.

Example

Called with serial="emulator-5554", prefix="ro.build.". A typical response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "2 properties matching 'ro.build.' on emulator-5554.",
  "data": {
    "serial": "emulator-5554",
    "prefix": "ro.build.",
    "properties": [
      {"serial": "emulator-5554", "name": "ro.build.version.release", "value": "14"},
      {"serial": "emulator-5554", "name": "ro.build.version.sdk", "value": "34"}
    ]
  },
  "error": null
}

set_property

Set an ordinary mutable Android system property: adb shell setprop NAME VALUE.

Refuses to touch control-property namespaces that represent a distinct semantic operation rather than a plain property mutation — at minimum "ctl.*" (service start/stop/restart) and "sys.powerctl" (device shutdown/reboot). Those belong to dedicated lifecycle/power tools, not this one. Beyond that, this does not attempt to work around any Android/SELinux/property-service restriction — if the device itself refuses the write (e.g. an already-set read-only property), that failure is surfaced as a real tool error, not silently bypassed.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
serial	str	The target device's adb serial (see list_connected_devices).	required
name	str	The property name to set. Rejected up front if it falls under a control namespace (see above) — never sent to the device at all.	required
value	str	The value to set the property to.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
SetPropertyResult	The serial, name, and value that were set. Only returned on success — see Error handling below.

Error handling

A prohibited namespace (ctl.*, sys.powerctl) is a tool error raised before any adb call is made, not success:false data. Beyond that, this propagates the same way most tools do: if the adb binary itself can't be found or is unresponsive, or the serial doesn't match a connected device, that's an actual tool error. If the device/ property-service/SELinux rejects an otherwise-permitted write (e.g. a read-only property that's already been set), that's also a tool error — the underlying adb/setprop failure message is preserved rather than hidden.

Example

Called with serial="emulator-5554", name="debug.myapp.loglevel", value="verbose". A typical response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Set debug.myapp.loglevel='verbose' on emulator-5554.",
  "data": {"serial": "emulator-5554", "name": "debug.myapp.loglevel", "value": "verbose"},
  "error": null
}