Building and shipping Mac and iOS apps without opening Xcode

Post by sunnybeetroot » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 5:44 AM UTC

NamlchakKhandro wrote: post #172

999_cirno wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> require you to run the agent on your Mac instead of in a Sandbox You don't have to! All recent Macs come with nearly zero perf cost virtualization. You can easily run Mac or Linux VMs assuming same architecture. Use it all the time for development and whatever. Use Tart [1] or VirtualBuddy [2], both open-source, for a packaged solution. Or in the spirit of this post, vibe code your own wrapper around the OS API [3]…

"Apple Containers" I love how people say this like Apple finally created a native solution... They didn't. It's just a linux vm running normal docker engine.

Post by Someone » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 5:49 AM UTC

pmontra wrote: post #171

DrewADesign wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, assuming an RYO solution is a reasonable first approach is is a trap beginners fall into.

RYO is the best way to learn, if you have the time to learn. After building one own solution one is able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of what other more experienced people built. Without the learning phase those other solutions are incomprehensible black boxes. The trick is not to skip the phase in which one researches available solutions.

Post by sunnybeetroot » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 5:52 AM UTC

dostick wrote: post #162

searls wrote: post #160

I've been using agents to develop Mac and iOS apps for over a year now and I would say this post is bad advice, particularly because the excellent Xcode MCP requires Xcode to be running. The MCP tool gives you faster, better access to a number of functions for which xcodebuild is much slower and much chattier and a number of others (like the #Preview generation and rendering) that aren't possible at all while Xcode i…

There’s Xcode-mcp-proxy that proxies Xcode’s mcp and adds clicking dialog and reconnects. How do you deal with macOS app testing? Do you use Peekaboo or plain screenshotting automation?

Post by resonious » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 6:08 AM UTC

Tiberium wrote: post #3

It's kind of funny to be reading this: > I had Claude Code create mine: I told Claude, more or less: I want to archive, Developer ID-sign, notarize, staple, and install this app to /Applications without ever opening Xcode. Write me a script that does the whole chain and fails loudly if any step breaks. Even though the text we're reading is Claude talking to us as well :) Also it was weird to see the mention of "ask y…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 6:17 AM UTC

Someone wrote: post #183

pmontra wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RYO is the best way to learn, if you have the time to learn. After building one own solution one is able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of what other more experienced people built. Without the learning phase those other solutions are incomprehensible black boxes. The trick is not to skip the phase in which one researches available solutions.

> RYO is the best way to learn, if you have the time to learn The problem is that nowadays, people roll their own solution, don’t take the time to learn (somewhat understandably, given the complexity of today’s stuff. You simply cannot learn all details about your hardware, OS, and third-party libraries anymore) but immediately deploy things in production. Eating your own dog food can be good, but for security relate…