ShipSwift

What the ShipSwift MCP server does

The ShipSwift MCP server provides an AI-accessible catalog of SwiftUI recipes for iOS applications. The recipes include complete source code, implementation steps, and development guidance for common interface and application features. The repository describes more than 40 production-ready recipes and components, covering animations, charts, display and input controls, authentication, camera features, chat, settings, subscriptions, background removal, and TikTok attribution.

The server is intended for coding assistants that can retrieve reference material while generating or modifying an app. Example prompts include asking for a shimmer animation, exploring chart components, or building an authentication flow with Cognito. The source repository remains available when direct file access is preferred.

How it works

The ShipSwift MCP server is hosted at https://api.shipswift.app/mcp and is added to an MCP-compatible client using HTTP transport. Once connected, an assistant can query the recipe catalog rather than relying only on its general coding knowledge.

Three tools are documented:

• listRecipes returns the available recipe catalog.
• getRecipe retrieves a selected recipe.
• searchRecipes finds recipes matching a query.

Recipes are grouped into areas such as animation, chart, component, and module work. Free material covers the iOS client code. Pro recipes add backend implementations, integration checklists, compliance templates, and known-pitfall guidance for selected features.

Setup and configuration

For Claude Code, add the hosted endpoint with:

claude mcp add --transport http shipswift https://api.shipswift.app/mcp

For Gemini CLI, use:

gemini mcp add --transport http shipswift https://api.shipswift.app/mcp

Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, and other tools require client-specific MCP setup instructions referenced by the project’s skills repository. The repository also supports a local, non-MCP workflow: install its skills with npx skills add signerlabs/ShipSwift so an assistant can read the source files directly. That option works offline and does not provide the additional Pro recipes available through the hosted server.

No environment variables are documented for connecting to the hosted endpoint. The repository is MIT-licensed, and its iOS code targets Swift 5.0 or newer and iOS 18.0 or newer.

Tools and capabilities

The ShipSwift MCP server can help an agent locate reusable SwiftUI implementation material for:

• Animation effects such as shimmer, typewriter text, gradients, procedural backgrounds, and canvas-rendered visuals.
• Line, bar, area, donut, ring, radar, scatter, and activity heatmap charts.
• UI elements including alerts, loading states, onboarding views, search bars, steppers, FAQs, and video players.
• Larger modules for Cognito or Amplify authentication, camera capture, StoreKit 2 paywalls, chat, settings, Vision-based subject lifting, and TikTok event tracking.
• Shared utilities such as logging and common Swift extensions.

The ShipSwift MCP server is most useful when an agent needs to discover an existing recipe, inspect its source, or apply a documented pattern to an iOS project. It is not described as a general backend service or an app deployment system.

Limitations and notes

The hosted MCP connection supplies recipes; it does not replace the Xcode project, local source files, or the implementation work required to adapt a recipe to an application. Some full-stack material is marked Pro, while the related iOS client code may remain available under the MIT license. The project’s dependency rules also separate low-level utilities, animations, charts, UI components, and multi-file modules, so not every component can be used without its permitted shared dependencies.