xcode-studio-mcp

Unified MCP server for Xcode + iOS Simulator — build, deploy, screenshot, and interact with your iOS app from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or any MCP client.

Built in Swift. Single binary. No Node/Python runtime required.

Why This Exists

Today you need 2-3 separate tools to do the full iOS dev loop with an AI agent. xcode-studio-mcp combines them into one:

Write code → Build → Deploy to Simulator → Screenshot → Tap/Type → Verify

Tools

Tool	Description
xcode_build	Build an Xcode project with structured error output (file, line, column, severity, message)
xcode_run	Build and launch an app in the iOS Simulator
simulator_screenshot	Capture the Simulator screen as a PNG image
simulator_tap	Tap at x,y coordinates on the Simulator screen
simulator_type	Type text into the currently focused field
simulator_describe	Get the accessibility tree of the current screen (JSON)

Tool Parameters

xcode_build

Parameter	Required	Description
project_path	Yes	Path to Xcode project directory, .xcodeproj, or .xcworkspace
scheme	No	Build scheme (auto-detected if omitted)
configuration	No	Debug (default) or Release
destination	No	Build destination (defaults to booted simulator)

xcode_run

Parameter	Required	Description
project_path	Yes	Path to Xcode project
bundle_identifier	Yes	App bundle ID (e.g. com.example.MyApp)
scheme	No	Build scheme (auto-detected)
simulator_udid	No	Target simulator (defaults to booted)

simulator_screenshot

Parameter	Required	Description
simulator_udid	No	Target simulator (defaults to booted)

simulator_tap

Parameter	Required	Description
x	Yes	X coordinate
y	Yes	Y coordinate
duration	No	Hold duration in seconds (for long press)
simulator_udid	No	Target simulator

simulator_type

Parameter	Required	Description
text	Yes	Text to type
simulator_udid	No	Target simulator

simulator_describe

Parameter	Required	Description
simulator_udid	No	Target simulator

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• macOS with Xcode installed
• For UI interaction tools (tap, type, describe):

  brew tap facebook/fb && brew install idb-companion
  pip3 install fb-idb
  

Build

git clone https://github.com/kevinswint/xcode-studio-mcp.git
cd xcode-studio-mcp
swift build -c release

Configure Claude Code

Add to your Claude Code MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xcode-studio-mcp": {
      "command": "/path/to/xcode-studio-mcp/.build/release/XcodeStudioMCP"
    }
  }
}

Example Workflow

You: Build and run my app at ~/Projects/MyApp
Claude: [calls xcode_build] Build succeeded with 0 errors
        [calls xcode_run] App launched (PID 12345)
        [calls simulator_screenshot] Here's what the app looks like...
        [calls simulator_describe] I can see a "Sign In" button and email/password fields
        [calls simulator_tap] Tapped the email field
        [calls simulator_type] Typed "test@example.com"
        [calls simulator_screenshot] Here's the current state...

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│     MCP Protocol Layer      │  stdio transport (Swift MCP SDK)
├─────────────────────────────┤
│   Tool Implementations      │  6 tools, structured error output
├──────────┬──────────────────┤
│ xcodebuild│  simctl  │  idb │  native process calls
│  wrapper  │  wrapper │ CLI  │
└──────────┴──────────┴──────┘

Built in Swift with zero Node/Python runtime dependencies (idb CLI is only needed for UI interaction tools).

Roadmap

• v0.1 (current): Core build + simulator tools
• v1.0: Semantic UI navigation ("tap the Sign In button"), visual diff, Xcode project file manipulation, compound operations, SwiftUI preview capture

Related Projects

Project	What It Does	Difference
XcodeBuildMCP	Build + test only	No simulator UI interaction
mobile-mcp	Cross-platform simulator UI	No Xcode build support
ios-simulator-mcp	Simulator via IDB	No build, depends on IDB for everything

xcode-studio-mcp combines build and interact into a single server.

Contributing

PRs welcome. The codebase is ~750 lines of Swift organized into Tools, Services, and Models.

License

MIT