xcindex

xcindex

Semantic Swift/ObjC symbol lookups for Claude Code, powered by Xcode's on-disk SourceKit index.

A Claude Code plugin that lets Claude query Xcode's existing symbol index instead of falling back to grep. References, overrides, conformances, and refactor impact analysis on Swift/ObjC code hit the same indexstore-db library SourceKit-LSP uses — USR-authoritative, sub-millisecond warm, no re-indexing.

It reads the index Xcode already writes to DerivedData during build. No daemon, no second copy of your source, no builds on your behalf. It warns when the index is stale rather than acting.

Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later — indexstore-db requires macOS 14+.
• Xcode 16 or later with command-line tools (xcode-select --install).
• Claude Code.
• An Xcode project (.xcodeproj / .xcworkspace) built at least once.

Install

claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community
claude plugin install claude-xcindex@claude-community

First run downloads the matching xcindex binary from the GitHub release and caches it under the plugin directory — no npm install, no manual build.

Then, in a Swift project:

/xcindex-setup

This confirms the binary is ready, locates your Xcode project, and — with your confirmation — runs xcodebuild per scheme so the index is populated. Skip it if you build in Xcode yourself.

Verify with /plugin and /xcindex-status. If anything looks off, run ./bin/xcindex-doctor.

git clone https://github.com/drewalth/claude-xcindex.git
cd claude-xcindex/service && swift build -c release

/plugin marketplace add /absolute/path/to/claude-xcindex
/plugin install xcindex@xcindex-local

Usage

The skills trigger automatically based on what you ask — no special syntax.

• "Where is UserService used?"
• "What calls fetchUser?"
• "What depends on NetworkClient.swift?"
• "What will break if I change AuthManager?"
• "Rename fetchUser to loadUser across the codebase."
• "What tests cover ModelData.swift?"

You: Find all callers of fetchUser.
Claude: [mcp__xcindex__find_symbol → mcp__xcindex__find_references]
        → 6 call sites across 4 files. Reads ±10 lines around each.
        Returns a focused summary instead of 8 full-file reads.

/xcindex-status checks index freshness and reports which files have been edited since the last build.

Tips

• Build first. The index only updates when you build. After a large edit, rebuild in Xcode (or via /xcindex-setup) before asking for references — stale results are annotated, not silently wrong.
• Lead with the symbol. "Where is X used" beats "find usages of the thing that fetches users" — name lookups disambiguate, USR lookups are authoritative.
• Use it for renames. Rename requests delegate to a subagent with isolated context, so large renames don't bloat your main session.

MCP tools

Exposed under mcp__xcindex__*. Signatures and examples in docs/tools-reference.md.

Skills & hooks