apple-skills

Best practices and example-driven guidance for building SwiftUI views and components, including navigation hierarchies, custom view modifiers, and responsive layouts with stacks and grids. Use when creating or refactoring SwiftUI UI, designing tab architecture with TabView, composing screens with VStack/HStack, managing @State or @Binding, building declarative iOS interfaces, or needing component-specific patterns and examples.

Fact lookup: Apple Human Interface Guidelines corpus (greppable markdown). Query on demand for accessibility and ergonomic minimums (hit-target sizes, Dynamic Type), platform terminology, system component capabilities, and App-Review-relevant conventions. Not design direction.

Start here for any iOS or SwiftUI task. Coordinates best-practice guides, correctness checks, and full Apple API references. Use before navigating to other Apple skills — for building, reviewing, refactoring, or debugging iOS apps.

API reference: XCUITest. Query for element queries, waiting patterns, Swift 6 @MainActor, assertions, screenshots, launch arguments.

Refactor and review SwiftUI view files with strong defaults for small dedicated subviews, MV-over-MVVM data flow, stable view trees, explicit dependency injection, and correct Observation usage. Use when cleaning up a SwiftUI view, splitting long bodies, removing inline actions or side effects, reducing computed `some View` helpers, or standardizing `@Observable` and view model initialization patterns.

UX and visual design consultant for iOS apps using Apple's Liquid Glass design system (iOS 26+). Use when asking about element positioning, layout decisions, visual hierarchy, or whether a design choice is "Apple-approved." Provides design rationale and guidance—not code. Helps create Apple Design Award-worthy apps.

Production-grade SwiftUI with Apple Design Award-quality aesthetics. Use when building visually striking iOS interfaces — screens, components, redesigns. Screenshot-driven visual iteration, Liquid Glass (iOS 26+), bold design direction. For design advice without code, use ios-design-consultant instead.

API reference: Liquid Glass (iOS 26+). Query for glass effects, navigation patterns, GlassEffect modifiers, design principles.

API reference: App Intents. Query for Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight integration, exposing app functionality.

Index of Apple developer documentation for iOS, macOS, and related frameworks. Use when looking up what APIs exist in a framework, browsing available documentation, or deciding what docs to fetch. Covers SwiftUI, UIKit, Core Animation (QuartzCore), XCTest, HealthKit, Combine, SwiftData, and more.

API reference: BackgroundTasks. Query for BGTaskScheduler, app refresh, background processing.

API reference: HealthKit. Query for HKHealthStore, HKQuantitySample, workouts, health data read/write.

API reference: MapKit for SwiftUI. Map view, Marker, Annotation, camera positions, map features.

API reference: PhotosUI. Query for PhotosPicker, PHLivePhotoView, photo selection.

API reference: StoreKit 2. Product, Transaction, subscriptions, StoreView, SubscriptionStoreView.

API reference: Swift Concurrency. async/await, Task, TaskGroup, actors, AsyncSequence, AsyncStream, continuations.

API reference: Swift Testing framework. @Test, @Suite, #expect, #require, traits, parameterized tests, migrating from XCTest.

API reference: SwiftData. Query for @Model, ModelContext, @Query, schema migrations.

API reference: SwiftUI. Query for views, layouts, navigation, @State/@Binding/@Observable, view modifiers, NavigationStack, iOS 26+ features.

API reference: UIKit. Query for UIView, UIViewController, controls, table and collection views, navigation controllers, scenes, Auto Layout, images, colors, gestures, presentation, and SwiftUI hosting.

API reference: UserNotifications. Query for local/remote notifications, triggers, notification content.

API reference: TipKit. Tip protocol, TipView, PopoverTipView, Tips.configure, inline and popover tips.

API reference: Core Animation (QuartzCore). Query for CALayer, CAAnimation, CABasicAnimation, CAKeyframeAnimation, CASpringAnimation, CATransaction, CAShapeLayer, CAGradientLayer, CAEmitterLayer, CATransform3D, CADisplayLink.

API reference: Combine. Query for publishers, subscribers, operators, async data streams.

API reference: Core Haptics. Query for CHHapticEngine, haptic patterns, tactile feedback.

API reference: EventKit. Query for EKEventStore, EKEvent, EKReminder, calendar access.

API reference: WidgetKit. Query for widget timelines, entries, providers, home/lock screen widgets.

Swift concurrency patterns — actors, structured concurrency, cancellation, async streams, GCD migration, strict-concurrency diagnostics, common bug patterns. Use when writing, reviewing, or debugging concurrent Swift code.

Swift Testing patterns — structs over classes, async confirmations, parameterized tests, exit tests, attachments, common agent mistakes. Use when writing, reviewing, or migrating Swift Testing code.

SwiftData patterns — autosave, relationships, dangerous predicates, CloudKit constraints, indexing, class inheritance. Use when writing, reviewing, or debugging SwiftData code.

SwiftUI animation patterns — implicit/explicit animations, transitions, phase/keyframe animations, the Animatable protocol, and the @Animatable macro. Use when implementing animations, transitions, or motion in SwiftUI views.

Swift Charts patterns — marks, axes, selection, styling, composition, Chart3D, accessibility, and Audio Graph. Use when building or improving charts in SwiftUI.

Scaffold, build, and package SwiftPM-based macOS apps without an Xcode project. Use when you need a from-scratch macOS app layout, SwiftPM targets/resources, a custom .app bundle assembly script, or signing/notarization/appcast steps outside Xcode.

Audit and improve SwiftUI runtime performance from code review and architecture. Use for requests to diagnose slow rendering, janky scrolling, high CPU/memory usage, excessive view updates, or layout thrash in SwiftUI apps, and to provide guidance for user-run Instruments profiling when code review alone is insufficient.

Optimize Apple App Store metadata in store.config.json for ASO (App Store Optimization). Use when working with store.config.json, App Store keywords, titles, subtitles, descriptions, or localizing app metadata. Helps maximize app visibility and downloads.

iOS Simulator utility commands for screenshots, resizing, and common operations. Use these commands when taking simulator screenshots, resizing images for API compatibility, or performing common simulator operations.