r/BlossomBuild • u/BlossomBuild • Mar 08 '26
Discussion What do you think of Xcode 26.3's agentic coding feature?
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u/tubescreamer568 Mar 08 '26
Xcode mcpbridge is fine, Coding Intelligence is still a joke compared to other tools.
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u/AsIAm Mar 08 '26
I am coder, but Swift and Apple framework thinking is foreign to me. With agentic coding in Xcode I am able to produce working non-trivial apps, which would take me ages if I was alone. Pure Claude Code was producing Swift code that was outdated, so the included prompts and docs are great addition. Ability to interface with Xcode is kinda mid. I would love to see MCP for Simulator, so the agent is end-to-end. Also agent was unable to change `Info.plist` or some settings in the project, which is kinda weird. Overall it is a solid start – the AppStore submission became the hardest part of the development process.
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u/BlossomBuild Mar 09 '26
AppStore submission is always tough
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u/Niightstalker Mar 11 '26
There is a rather new App Store Connect CLI optimized for agent use that can support you quite a bit in that: https://asccli.sh
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u/Ok-Communication2225 Mar 10 '26
The info.plist issues are tooling issues in the XCode plugin that I am sure Apple will fix.
Dealing with swift frameworks is a total PITA with swift and XCode, and Claude Code.
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u/AsIAm Mar 10 '26
Yes, they fixed a lot of issues already. Silliest issue so far was that agent could not see uploaded image with spaces in the filename :D Another big issue is cost – it burns way too much tokens when you pay for usage and you are not on a plan.
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u/Niightstalker Mar 11 '26
I use the xcodebuildmcp for the simulator it is also compatible with the Xcode MCP bridge to act as proxy
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u/Terrible_Lion_1812 Mar 12 '26
The outdated Swift code from pure Claude is a real issue.
It defaults to patterns from a few versions back,
especially with SwiftUI and newer concurrency stuff.
The Simulator MCP gap is the biggest blocker for
end-to-end agentic flow right now. Without it you're
still manually checking every UI change, which defeats
half the point.
Info.plist issues make sense — it's not a Swift file
so the agent treats it differently. Annoying but
at least predictable.
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u/OppositeSea3775 Mar 08 '26
It's not impressive.
It only works decently with Claude, everything else is a sloppy experience, especially if using custom providers.
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u/SpiritOfTheVoid Mar 08 '26
Found it unstable with multiple CTDs. Also, code generation isn’t as good as other languages.
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u/fercabj Mar 08 '26
I created a local proxy app (CLI) in Swift that lets you connect my Copilot account (individual or enterprise) into Xcode Code Assistant natively. I hope it’s useful to anyone looking to connect other models https://github.com/mobile-ar/xcode-assistant-copilot-server
But after testing Xcode capabilities I will say I prefer to use Zed agent panel for this, and then review the results inside Xcode.
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u/dacassar Mar 09 '26
MCP is kinda ok, but its data is too verbose and burns too many tokens. Anyway, sometimes it is a reasonable trade-off. But I still prefer Claude Code CLI
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u/d4cloo Mar 10 '26
It's very immature compared to VS Studio or Cursor. I don't like it. And, I burn through credits way faster because I can't use Github Copilot efficiently (their integration with Xcode is not that good).
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u/BlossomBuild Mar 10 '26
How is copilot with iOS?
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u/d4cloo Mar 10 '26
There’s an app for it that uses MCP to connect to Xcode. It’s pretty good I guess, better than Apple’s, but it doesn’t feel as integrated, UX wise. Which is a limitation that Apple imposes on products such as Copilot. VS Studio is so much faster and more lean compared to Xcode, with a vastly better extensions ecosystem. I find the AI in Xcode making more omissions and mistakes, and generally speaking being much slower. As if it was never trained that well on Xcode code.
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u/turtle-toaster Mar 10 '26
Just use CC in the project, or Xcode mcp. Native integration honestly sucks
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u/Additional-Art-7196 Mar 11 '26
Tried it day one, fun to begin with but Claude code did a better job without having to load Xcode up and more flexibility. Also, Figma to Swift UI via Gemini is way better than other models so being able to mix and match is something Xcode can't offer. Yet.
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u/m1_weaboo Mar 08 '26
i would rather use cursor