Building and Shipping Mac and iOS Apps Without Ever Opening Xcode
The author discusses how to develop Mac and iOS applications by leveraging AI coding tools instead of manually navigating the complex Xcode interface. It provides a guide on configuring the necessary command-line toolchains to enable this 'vibe-coding' workflow.
Why it matters
It highlights a shift in software development where AI agents are increasingly used to abstract away complex, legacy development environments.
Saturday, 11 Jul 2026 Lately, I’ve heard several Apple related podcasters talk about how bad Xcode is, and how Apple needs to make vibe-coding Mac and iOS apps better by making Xcode less inscrutable. They’re not wrong, but also I don’t understand why they’re even opening Xcode in the first place. With a little bit of pre-work, you can vibe code Mac and iOS apps to your heart’s content without looking at Xcode anymore.
And if you’re ever in doubt about how to make any of the following work, point Claude Code or your LLM coding tool of choice to this blog post, and let it figure it out. That’s literally its job, figuring out things you don’t want to have to.
The one-time setup is the only part with any friction, so let’s get it out of the way first.
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