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Xcode MCP Server

Provides tools to manage Xcode projects via MCP, including listing projects, reading configurations, targeting builds, and triggering xcodebuild actions.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airdrop-alpha-xcode-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/xcode-mcp/dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

You can use the Xcode MCP Server to give AI assistants access to your Xcode projects. It lists projects, reads project configurations, inspects targets, and triggers builds through natural conversation, enabling seamless AI-assisted development workflows for iOS apps.

How to use

You interact with the MCP server through an MCP client. Start by running the MCP server locally, then configure your client to connect either via a local stdio interface or through a configured MCP endpoint. Use natural language prompts to list projects, inspect targets, list schemes, and initiate builds. Example actions you can perform include listing all Xcode projects in a directory tree, reading the structure of a specific project, retrieving available build targets and schemes, and triggering a build for a chosen scheme on a specified destination.

How to install

Follow these concrete steps to install and run the MCP server locally.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/airdrop-alpha/xcode-mcp.git
cd xcode-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build TypeScript
npm run build

Configuration

Configure your MCP client to connect to the Xcode MCP Server. Two examples show how to connect via different clients.

// Claude Desktop configuration
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xcode": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/xcode-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

// OpenClaw configuration
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xcode": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/xcode-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Example Conversation

You: List Xcode projects in my Developer folder Claude: Found 3 Xcode projects: • MyApp.xcodeproj • TestFramework.xcodeproj • SampleProject.xcodeproj You: What targets does MyApp have? Claude: MyApp has 3 targets: • MyApp (application) • MyAppTests (unit-test) • MyAppUITests (ui-test) You: Build it for iPhone 15 simulator Claude: ✅ Build succeeded!

Tool reference

The server exposes a set of tools you can call to interact with Xcode projects.

Architecture

The MCP server is organized to parse Xcode project files, expose build-related actions, and execute builds through standard Xcode tooling.

Current limitations

- Parses .xcodeproj files with a simplified parser - .xcworkspace support coming soon - Build output is truncated to the last 5KB for large projects - Code signing is disabled by default to speed up builds

Roadmap

Planned improvements include workspace support, simulator management, test execution with result parsing, Swift Package dependencies, provisioning profile management, and App Store Connect integration.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Start by exploring the project locally and running development commands.

# Development mode (hot reload)
npm run dev

# Test with MCP Inspector
npm run inspect

License

Available tools

list-projects

Find Xcode projects in a directory recursively up to five levels deep.

read-project

Parse an Xcode project file to reveal its structure, including targets, configurations, and files.

list-targets

List build targets with their product types for a given project.

list-schemes

List available build schemes for a project.

build

Trigger a build using xcodebuild with configurable options such as scheme, configuration, and destination.

xcodebuild-info

Provide Xcode version and available SDKs information.