swift-development

name

swift-development

description

Comprehensive Swift development for building, testing, and deploying iOS/macOS applications. Use when Claude needs to: (1) Build Swift packages or Xcode projects from command line, (2) Run tests with XCTest or Swift Testing framework, (3) Manage iOS simulators with simctl, (4) Handle code signing, provisioning profiles, and app distribution, (5) Format or lint Swift code with SwiftFormat/SwiftLint, (6) Work with Swift Package Manager (SPM), (7) Implement Swift 6 concurrency patterns (async/await, actors, Sendable), (8) Create SwiftUI views with MVVM architecture, (9) Set up Core Data or SwiftData persistence, or any other Swift/iOS/macOS development tasks.

Swift Development

Prerequisites

• macOS with Xcode 15+ installed (Xcode 16+ for Swift 6)
• Xcode Command Line Tools: xcode-select --install
• Verify: xcodebuild -version and swift --version

Quick Start

New Swift Package

# Use the included script for full setup
./scripts/new_package.sh MyLibrary --type library --ios --macos

# Or manually
swift package init --type library --name MyLibrary

Build and Test

# SPM packages
swift build
swift test

# Xcode projects
xcodebuild -workspace App.xcworkspace -scheme App \
    -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 15' build

# Use included script for common options
./scripts/run_tests.sh --parallel --coverage

Format and Lint

# Use included script
./scripts/format_and_lint.sh Sources/

# Check mode (CI)
./scripts/format_and_lint.sh --check

Simulator Management

# Use included script
./scripts/simulator.sh list
./scripts/simulator.sh boot "iPhone 15"
./scripts/simulator.sh screenshot
./scripts/simulator.sh dark

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Core Workflows

Building iOS Apps

# Debug build for simulator
xcodebuild -workspace App.xcworkspace -scheme App \
    -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 15' \
    build

# Release archive
xcodebuild archive \
    -workspace App.xcworkspace -scheme App \
    -archivePath ./build/App.xcarchive \
    -configuration Release

# Export IPA (use templates from assets/ExportOptions/)
xcodebuild -exportArchive \
    -archivePath ./build/App.xcarchive \
    -exportPath ./build/export \
    -exportOptionsPlist assets/ExportOptions/app-store.plist

Testing

# All tests
xcodebuild test -workspace App.xcworkspace -scheme App \
    -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 15'

# Specific test
xcodebuild test -only-testing:AppTests/MyTestClass/testMethod

# With coverage
xcodebuild test -enableCodeCoverage YES \
    -resultBundlePath ./TestResults.xcresult

App Installation

# Install on booted simulator
xcrun simctl install booted ./Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/App.app

# Launch
xcrun simctl launch booted com.company.app

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Official Documentation

Reference Links (for humans)

These are Apple's official documentation links for manual browsing:

Resource	URL
Swift Documentation	https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift
SwiftUI	https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui
Swift Concurrency	https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/concurrency
Swift Testing	https://developer.apple.com/documentation/testing

Note: Apple's documentation sites are JavaScript SPAs and cannot be fetched programmatically with WebFetch. Use GitHub-based sources below instead.

WebFetch-Compatible Sources (Raw GitHub URLs)

Always use raw.githubusercontent.com URLs — regular github.com URLs return garbled HTML/JSON.

Base URL prefix: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple

Swift Testing (/swift-testing/main/):

Resource	Path
README	README.md
Defining Tests	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/DefiningTests.md
Organizing Tests	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/OrganizingTests.md
Expectations	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/Expectations.md
Parameterized Testing	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/ParameterizedTesting.md
Traits Overview	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/Traits.md
Trait Reference	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/Traits/Trait.md
Adding Tags	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/AddingTags.md
Adding Comments	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/AddingComments.md
Associating Bugs	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/AssociatingBugs.md
Bug Identifiers	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/BugIdentifiers.md
Attachments	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/Attachments.md
Enabling/Disabling Tests	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/EnablingAndDisabling.md
Limiting Execution Time	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/LimitingExecutionTime.md
Parallelization	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/Parallelization.md
Exit Testing	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/exit-testing.md
Known Issues	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/known-issues.md
Testing Async Code	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/testing-asynchronous-code.md
Testing for Errors	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/testing-for-errors-in-swift-code.md
Migrating from XCTest	Sources/Testing/Testing.docc/MigratingFromXCTest.md
Vision & Design	Documentation/Vision.md
CLI Debugging	Documentation/CommandlineDebugging.md
Environment Variables	Documentation/EnvironmentVariables.md

Other Swift Packages:

Resource	Full Raw URL
Swift Async Algorithms	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple/swift-async-algorithms/main/README.md
Swift Collections	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple/swift-collections/main/README.md

For Swift Evolution proposals, construct the raw URL from the proposal number: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple/swift-evolution/main/proposals/NNNN-proposal-name.md

Example: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apple/swift-evolution/main/proposals/0409-access-level-on-imports.md

For directory discovery (finding proposal numbers, doc file names): use WebSearch instead of WebFetch — directory listings on GitHub are not parseable.

When to Fetch Documentation

Use WebFetch with raw GitHub URLs in these situations:

1. Swift Testing: When you need details on @Test, #expect, #require, traits, or parameterized tests
2. Swift Evolution: When checking accepted proposals for new language features
3. Framework Details: When implementing features from Apple's open-source Swift packages
4. Uncertainty: When you're unsure about current API patterns or best practices

URL conversion rule: Replace github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{branch}/ with raw.githubusercontent.com/{owner}/{repo}/{branch}/

Fallback: If WebFetch fails on a raw URL, use WebSearch with the query site:github.com/apple {topic} to discover the correct file path, then construct the raw URL.

Example prompt for WebFetch: "Extract the main features, macros, and usage examples from this documentation"

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Reference Files

Detailed documentation for specific topics:

Topic	File
SwiftUI patterns	references/swiftui-patterns.md
Testing patterns	references/testing-patterns.md
Swift 6 concurrency	references/concurrency.md
Architecture patterns	references/architecture.md
Best practices	references/best-practices.md
Swift Package Manager	references/spm.md
xcodebuild commands	references/xcodebuild.md
Simulator control	references/simctl.md
Code signing	references/code-signing.md
CI/CD setup	references/cicd.md
Troubleshooting	references/troubleshooting.md

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Included Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/new_package.sh	Create new Swift package with config files
scripts/run_tests.sh	Run tests with common options
scripts/format_and_lint.sh	Format and lint Swift code
scripts/simulator.sh	Quick simulator management

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Asset Templates

Asset	Purpose
assets/Package.swift.template	Swift package template
assets/.swiftformat	SwiftFormat configuration
assets/.swiftlint.yml	SwiftLint configuration
assets/ExportOptions/	Archive export plist templates

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Quick Reference

Essential Commands

Task	Command
Build package	swift build
Build release	swift build -c release
Run tests	swift test
Update deps	swift package update
List simulators	xcrun simctl list devices
Boot simulator	xcrun simctl boot "iPhone 15"
Install app	xcrun simctl install booted ./App.app
Format code	swiftformat .
Lint code	swiftlint

Common Destinations

# iOS Simulator
-destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 15'

# macOS
-destination 'platform=macOS'

# Generic iOS (for archives)
-destination 'generic/platform=iOS'

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