ios-tooling

iOS Tooling

Consolidated skill for the full iOS/macOS development toolchain: build, run, test, debug, profile, and release.

Responsibility

Owns:

• Build, run, test, and debug workflows (simulator, device, macOS)
• XcodeBuildMCP tool orchestration and session management
• Simulator and device lifecycle (boot, install, launch, erase, configure)
• LLDB debugging via MCP (attach, breakpoints, stack, variables)
• UI automation (tap, swipe, type, screenshot, snapshot hierarchy)
• xctrace Time Profiler recording and CLI-only analysis
• Apple documentation lookup via xcdocs CLI
• App Store changelog generation from git history
• macOS SwiftPM app packaging, signing, and notarisation
• Build validation commands, linting, and zero-warning enforcement

Does NOT own:

• What to build (feature design, product decisions)
• How to write views, models, or test assertions
• Design system rules or UI style guidelines
• Architecture patterns (see ios-architecture skill)

Core Principles

1. Tools serve workflows -- use XcodeBuildMCP tools instead of raw xcodebuild/simctl unless a tool gap exists.
2. CLI-first -- every action (build, profile, docs lookup, packaging) must work without opening Xcode or Instruments.
3. Automate the build-run-debug loop -- set session defaults once, then iterate with build_run_sim, snapshot_ui, and log capture.
4. Profile before optimising -- record with xctrace, symbolicate, rank hotspots, then act on data.
5. Zero-warning policy -- fix warnings immediately; never commit code with warnings.

Workflow Quick Reference

Task	Tool / Command
Discover projects and schemes	discover_projs, list_schemes
Set session context	session_set_defaults (project, scheme, simulator)
Build + run on simulator	build_run_sim
Run unit tests	test_sim or test_device
Inspect UI hierarchy	snapshot_ui then tap / swipe / type_text
Capture logs	start_sim_log_cap / stop_sim_log_cap
Attach debugger	debug_attach_sim, set breakpoints, inspect variables
Record Time Profiler	xcrun xctrace record --template 'Time Profiler'
Look up Apple API docs	xcdocs search --json --omit-content, then xcdocs get --json
Generate App Store changelog	collect release changes from git history, triage, draft bullets
Package macOS SwiftPM app	the project packaging/signing scripts, if present
Full build validation	the project full build validation command, if present
Lint	the project formatter/lint command, if present

References

• references/xcode-mcp-tools.md -- Complete XcodeBuildMCP tool reference (40+ tools by category)
• references/debug-agent-workflow.md -- Step-by-step build, run, interact, and log capture recipe
• references/ui-automation-workflow.md -- UI automation execution model, targeting, tool parameters, verification, gesture presets, keycodes
• references/profiling.md -- xctrace CLI recording, ASLR-aware symbolication, helper scripts
• references/apple-docs-cli.md -- xcdocs search and get commands, JSON shapes, recommended flow
• references/release-workflows.md -- App Store changelog and macOS SwiftPM packaging/signing/notarisation
• references/build-performance.md -- Build Timeline, type-checking warnings, compilation caching, explicitly built modules, compilation mode
• references/build-validation.md -- Canonical build/test/lint commands, when-to-run-what matrix