Kyle Hughes
Xcode is several generations behind the latest AI-assisted programming tools. I’m not sure how they catch up at their cadence, but the vertical integration Apple has should be the greatest advantage here. The AST should be exposed to an agent to allow symbol navigation; it should have access to structured diagnostics; the entire documentation surface for all symbols should be available. The harness they could build is amazing. I don’t know if they want to.
https://mastodon.pepicrft.me/@pedro/115633547285745211
Pedro Piñera (@[email protected])

@swiftlang's swift-build being open source means we get build-time data at build time. Info that never surfaces in .xcresult, .xcactivitylog, or xcodebuild logs. We forked it to output structured data to SQLite. Tested on @[email protected] iOS and @[email protected] . Agents identify bottlenecks, parallelization issues, and surface actionable warnings. Open-sourced as Argus. Install via mise, set XCBBUILDSERVICE_PATH, configure agent memory. https://tuist.dev/blog/2025/11/27/teaching-ai-to-read-xcode-builds

Mastodon
Nov 30 at 1:33amWeb
Show threadMatt MassicotteNov 30
@kyle Most of this is accessible via SourceKit-LSP right now
Show threadKyle HughesNov 30
@mattiem yes, and the community will build plenty of tools around this, but the “I” in IDE is the selling point!
Show threadDaniel LyonsNov 30
@kyle @mattiem Apple has the advantage for Xcode Cloud as well, and yet it seems to always crash.
Show threadKyle HughesNov 30
@dandylyons @mattiem I just can’t get it out of my head that they are incentivized to make my builds slow :(
Show threadDaniel LyonsNov 30

@kyle @mattiem Yeah you're totally right. It's like paying a plumber by hour.

In Xcode Cloud's case I don't think you even get to decide what hardware, OS, and region your build happens on.

Show threadIvan MirNov 30

@kyle but does it even need to be one?

I still have JetBrains AI sub I grabbed in April and I've not used it for months.

It's all Claude Code with Rider plugin (sees selections, calls MCP), then switching back to the IDE to adjust things I'm not happy with after Claude's pass.

Show threadKyle HughesNov 30

@ivmirx I do think it “needs” it insofar as an IDE is intentionally an integrated environment—a one stop shop. So I think it “needs” it to fulfill that vision, from the perspective of a product manager for Xcode. Their internal mission statement is not “an editor for people to come back to to touch things up.”

Am I having a grand old time mostly outside of Xcode? Yes. But there’s no reason Claude Code has to be the best harness. Apple should be able to make something proprietary and better.

Show threadKyle HughesNov 30
@ivmirx I would say I want it but don’t need it. But Apple needs it.
Show threadDanielNov 30
@kyle There is no incentive for Xcode to improve when Apple has a distribution monopoly.