Mastodawn

Steve Troughton-Smith

Xcode's MCP is just impossible to use, since every command you run in the Codex app pops up a 'do you want to allow this connection' dialog in Xcode, and pauses the debugged app. I know Apple can't actually use the consumer version of any of this stuff internally, because of the security risks, and you can really feel that by how it behaves

Laksh Chakraborty Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith i’ve found that this doesn’t happen nearly as much with Claude Code

Perhaps that’s an indication as well haha

Oliver Ames Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith happens constantly with Claude code too

@stroughtonsmith @simonbs ☝️

Simon B. Støvring Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith I’ve found it to be horrible either way Codex’ Mac app but to be reliable with the CLI, where it only prompts once per session. That’s annoying but I suppose it’s the classic overly privacy-aware approach we can expect from Apple.

@simonbs @stroughtonsmith I think this is only a bug, as it has a setting in Xcode prefs which does nothing

Ricky Witherspoon Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith It only pops up for new session for me with Claude or Codex. Annoying, but I know that Apple is working on improving the experience.

Ben Syverson Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith Yes, you're basically forced to "Allow all commands," which is the exact opposite of what they're trying to encourage.

AXIØM apps/games @ Derk.io Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith So impossible I just went from an idea to a pre-order with Claude Agent since 26.3 beta was released.

I respect everything about you EXCEPT how much you speak in absolutes. I am positive your work and observations have improved my, and countless others', experiences with Xcode and #apple frameworks; it could have more impact as fair critique, rather than glib platitudes. 🙏

Steve Troughton-Smith Feb 18

@nicholasderk great for you; I find it impossible to use, and had to turn off Xcode's MCP server. Did you consider our experiences might be different?

AXIØM apps/games @ Derk.io Feb 21

@stroughtonsmith You didn’t, since you didn’t say it was impossible for you to use, but rather you as in everyone reading your post. That is a damaging statement to make as people trust your deep knowledge. The deep knowledge is to your credit, the absolutism that everyone else’s experiences are like yours is not.

Steve Troughton-Smith Feb 21

@nicholasderk Apple calls it out in the latest release notes as a known issue. It pops up every time you command-tab between the Codex app and Xcode, and it blocks Xcode's debugger. It was released in a nonviable state. You came back to me with your experience with Claude Agent, which as far as I can tell has absolutely no relevance to me, my post, or Xcode's 'known issue'

erin sparling Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith Edit: "failing to" repay you for all of the years of defaults: https://gist.github.com/everyplace/0a1e2637261325ea1d47447f4085bf37#file-disable-xcode-s-permissions-checks-md

defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEChatAgenticChatSkipPermissions -bool YES

Edited: Gist updated to indicate this is from Xcode to external MCP servers, and not the other way around.

Configure Xcode 26.3 with agent support to use the iOS-simulator mcp server

Configure Xcode 26.3 with agent support to use the iOS-simulator mcp server - Disable Xcode's permissions checks.md

Gist

Steve Troughton-Smith Feb 18

@everyplace that doesn't stop this prompt, which is my problem 🫤

erin sparling Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith Oooh, shoot. Well... it does the reverse? If you run the agent from within Xcode now, it will no longer need to ask to access things outside of itself? Darn, thought I had something good. I see what you mean though, mine is the solution for running it from Xcode without permissions, but running things outside of Xcode with pre-approval to use Xcode is still an open question.

erin sparling Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith I think the question is, why does the following NOT work, because it clearly wants to:

defaults write com.apple.dt.Xcode IDEAllowUnauthenticatedAgents -bool YES

Finn Voorhees Feb 19

@stroughtonsmith @everyplace there's a default to silence these prompts - IDEChatInternalAllowUntrustedAgentsWithoutUserInteraction - but it's gated behind isInternalOS, only for apple engineers 🙃

erin sparling Feb 19

@finnvoorhees @stroughtonsmith yeah I have that one document and 😢 https://gist.github.com/everyplace/0a1e2637261325ea1d47447f4085bf37#all-known-idechat-defaults

Configure Xcode 26.3 with agent support to use the iOS-simulator mcp server

Configure Xcode 26.3 with agent support to use the iOS-simulator mcp server - Disable Xcode's permissions checks.md

Gist

erin sparling Feb 19

@fatbobman I know you already linked to this gist earlier (thank you!) but I’ve updated it with a LOT more detail. Most importantly I found the below flag that one can flip to enable the agents IN Xcode to run (in Claude’s case, as an example) with --dangerously-skip-permissions to give the agent superpowers. It doesn’t work for agents outside of Xcode, but it’s still a huge benefit… if one is also willing to accept the risks.

@stroughtonsmith same but it seems codex problem, tried claude code cli and it worked after single “allow”, also tried cursor, it worked with single “allow” but couldn’t actually use it saying xcode mcp gives answers in different format than it says it will do. Seems like codex and xcode can both improve.

Felix Lapalme Feb 18

@stroughtonsmith Seriously is there a patched version of Xcode that bypasses this somewhere??? It's driving me nuts hahaha there is no way this alert is still mandatory a year from now

Jan Batora Feb 27

@stroughtonsmith have you found the mcp proxy for this ? i think it was a cli to http proxy so codex uses the proxy and proxy keeps persistent connection to xcode so it doesn’t change id with each focus change

Steve Troughton-Smith Feb 27

@jab11 yeah I did see you have to use a web proxy to make it go away, and I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole