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:

Code

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):

bash

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

Build

bash

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:

config.json

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

Example Workflow

Code

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

Code

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│     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