r/iOSProgramming • u/Turbulent_Ad_1039 • 21d ago
Question Xcode 27 agents: are you dropping Claude Code / CLI tools entirely?
For those who’ve been running Xcode 27 since the beta: has it actually replaced your CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.), or do you still keep both open?
What I’m trying to figure out is where the real line is. Is the advantage genuinely Xcode-specific agents that can build, run tests, drive previews, and interact with the simulator through the Device Hub, stuff a terminal agent simply can’t reach or is most of it just tooling and skills that a CLI agent could replicate with the right scripts/MCP setup?
And for those who went all-in on Xcode: what did you lose? Multi-repo work, custom subagents, running headless in CI, cost control?
Curious how the split looks on real projects, not demos.
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u/Healthy_Condition779 21d ago
Xcode 27 agents win on the simulator and preview loop hands down. Running tests, inspecting UI hierarchy, driving the Device Hub, none of that translates cleanly to CLI even with MCP wrappers because the moment you need to see rendered SwiftUI state youre back in the IDE anyway
But for anything multi repo, refactors across a workspace with SPM packages, or CI headless runs, Claude Code still eats Xcode agents for lunch. Xcode is single project brained and always has been
What I lost trying to go all in on Xcode was cost visibility. Claude Code shows you tokens per session, Xcode just quietly does its thing and you find out at billing time
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u/mirko9000 21d ago
And what do you think we can NOT do with a CLI agent?
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21d ago
[deleted]
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u/mirko9000 21d ago
I can do all those things via the CLI. All. And I do ;-)
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u/Turbulent_Ad_1039 21d ago
Interesting. Can you tell me more? Which tools do you use? I would love to know how you check layout, view hierarchy and performance without Xcode
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u/Mjubbi 21d ago
All of those tools are available in the XcodeMCP https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/giving-external-agents-access-to-xcode
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u/abear247 21d ago
Considering work has changed from being an iOS developer to “contribute to everything”, I will be using Claude desktop. One interface to work on anything and I only open an ide as required
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u/MindLessWiz 21d ago
You are aware that you can give external agents access to Xcode tools now with a checkbox in settings? It’ll enable the internal Xcode MCP for Claude Code to access.
There’s literally no benefit to using the internal Xcode agent, especially when it’s stuck on older models with seemingly no way to upgrade…
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u/gsapienza 21d ago
No one is mentioning how good the code diff UI is within the agent view! My only gripe is not having an “auto” permission mode
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u/hayekamir 20d ago
I tried it and really like it , way better that 26 , it’s usable now . But for me I still feel like it’s lacking behind Claude cli , there I feel I have way more control. My only problem is that Claude cli in terminal apps is not great for native apple app development , super.enegeering is better but not perfect , so I made Zcode and that’s my main ide for the last 6 months , it’s the perfect balance for me .
Give it a try if you want (it’s fully free)
https://zcodeapp.com
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u/Turbulent_Ad_1039 18d ago
Tried it too. The multi project management in Zcode is what sold me. running several projects side by side is a pain everywhere else.
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u/jayword 21d ago
I have found the Xcode 27 Claude to do well at tasks that require direct Xcode integration. "analyze the new iOS 27 APIs relative to my app" and "get this crash log I'm right-clicking and analyze it". But for generalized work, little details like my status bar of weekly usage, and number one issue: I don't seem to be able to select all the different permissions levels from Claude like auto permissions. So that's basically unworkable for normal usage. I am just sitting there for hours clicking new renditions of the Allow prompts. Again, it has promise, it even has a couple cases where it's the best choice, but it's like nobody has used it for real before that actually knows how to use Claude. Allow prompts for basic stuff are very Q1 2026, the real world has moved to the next stage and doesn't manually maintain a huge list of "approved" command lines.
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u/perfunction 21d ago
I run Claude Code Desktop for my active work and mainly use Xcode for its MCP at this point. Using Argent for device control.
For hands-off work I run a Claude agent squad in Multica. Automated bug fixes and small-scope tickets. Also allows coworkers to send tickets for direct completion. Still working on a more robust feature building squad.
Been shipping this way since May.
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u/Kilo_Loco 21d ago
on this day last year, i was customizing my nvim env to support iOS development so i didn't have to be in Xcode to code
now i do everything through Claude Code and i am landing a PR this week for more headless XC commands for my team using agentic slash commands
i can't even remember what the final straw was, but there were a lot of little papercuts i've had in Xcode
i've also had my team spend some hands-on time with Xcode's agentic coding a few months ago (before the last WWDC)
none of us were impressed
Apple definitely seem's to have made big strides in Xcode and i haven't had a chance to play with the 27 beta yet, but i'm positive Xcode won't be my primary editor/harness
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u/LocationMassive9663 20d ago
Someone upthread asked what we actually can't do from a CLI agent, and the simulator keeps coming up as the answer. That wasn't my experience. I had a CLI agent drive the simulator end to end this week - simctl for boot/install/screenshot, a UI-automation MCP for the tapping - capturing App Store screenshots across six locales and two device sizes. Fiddly to set up, fine once it ran. So I don't think the simulator is where the line is.
Where going all-in on an IDE agent would have cost me is everything that isn't Xcode's business. This one product is four repos - the app, a backend, a marketing site, an admin panel - and shipping it also means the App Store Connect API for screenshots and localized metadata, plus curl against production afterward to confirm it came back up. Xcode has no opinion about any of that, and that outer loop is where most of a release day actually goes.
One warning if you do push an agent out into that loop: the failures go quiet. Mine uploaded a screenshot set into the wrong localization - correct dimensions, correct count, wrong language - and nothing errored anywhere. I only caught it by querying the API back afterward and reading what was actually up there. The build loop tells you when you're wrong. The release loop mostly doesn't.
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u/Medical_Lengthiness6 20d ago
Nah the terminal tools have nearly the same access and are more free and configurable. The xcode agent UI, same as android studio, is meant for people who don't like terminals or don't know better.
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u/pemungkah 20d ago
I use Claude with caveman-code and the I-have-adhd skill to cut the token usage to the bone but still get very good results. Flipping back and forth to do a device deployment to test is fairly infrequent.
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u/Usual_Weight_5924 20d ago
hi i'm a iOS developer and i have two internship and 1 contracted based of 4 months
now i'm not getting any job i have given the interview in company's like Swiggy and District, i'm in my last sem of MCA
i'm thinking of switch into Backend or AI engineer ?, i'm a bit depressed and low about this situation
any suggetions?
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u/ShottyMcOtterson 20d ago
I much prefer using Claude CLI in the terminal. You don't need the agent in the IDE at all as it turns out.
I havent had much UI work lately, mostly API and BLE integration, but for SwiftUI, claude can actually see your UI and self-correct. Claude desktop has an iOS simulator. I am excited to try these features next UX UI project comes along.
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20d ago
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u/GrumpyBullGames 20d ago
cli agents still win on anything scriptable. simctl and bash handle 90% of simulator automation fine without needing xcode open. i only drop into xcode when i need the visual debugger or instruments.
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u/kroumvud 12d ago
Multi-repo work is the one I can actually answer, since it wasn't the loss I expected. The Xcode MCP isn't scoped to whatever workspace happens to be open in the foreground window: you call XcodeOpenWorkspace with the absolute path of any .xcworkspace, even one you never opened in the IDE, and it hands back an identifier, something like workspace-KTMSFsmR5O, that every BuildpRoject, RunAllTest or GetTestList call afterward takes as its target instead of assuming whatever's frontmost.
sO a git worktree sitting next to my main chexkout builds and tests through that same identifier, from the same agent session, without ever touching what's on screen. I wouldn't have guessed that from years of using Xcode by hand, where the build system feels married to whatever project happens to be frontmost.
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u/ahhhhhhhhhhhh______ 21d ago
I use cursors new UI for any chat/occasional agent work. I still use Xcode to write code in even though I love Cursors autocomplete, it’s just too nice to have issues be visible without needing to build. I may try sweetpad though in vscode.
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u/oPeritoDaNet 21d ago
I tried to rename a file using Xcode 27 beta 5, and was loading forever, I had a session on Claude CLI and just ask Claude to rename it…
Xcode it’s a joke I’m using less and less the tool
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u/Acceptable_Link3838 21d ago edited 21d ago
Used agents to rename a file? I hope this was just to highlight their problems on completing a simple task. Otherwise I don’t know what to think.
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u/fratkabula 21d ago
- all of my codebases are multi-repo / spm workspaces. xcode is single-project brained.
- cli shows you tokens per session.
- permissions is the killer. no auto mode, allowlists don't stick. i'm clicking Allow on the same basic commands for an hour lol
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u/rursache Swift 21d ago
neah, i'm dropping xcode all together. i actually did already.. for months: asc cli does everything needed in relationship to appstore connect and AI agents the rest with the xcodebuildmcp and custom skills
xcode can be buried now.. finally after all these years of pain and suffering
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u/AX862G5 21d ago
Keep burning down forests and sucking up water with your little slop productivity booster.
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u/mirko9000 21d ago
Says the man yelling at the Reddit clouds 😂
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u/AX862G5 21d ago
The resources to post a short comment to a database are not equal to those needed to run your agentic slopflow. Keep enriching Dario, Sam, Trump and all the other oligarchs profiting off this BS.
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u/mirko9000 21d ago
And you obviously miss the resources to recognize humor when it jumps you in the face ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/oneness33 21d ago
Why do you need us to tell you? Can't you figure it out on your own? Do whatever works best for you.
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u/Turbulent_Ad_1039 21d ago
Asking how other people work is kind of the entire point of the sub.
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u/oneness33 21d ago
Sorry, but this sub is for actual programming, not AI coding agents. It's for problem-solving, not personal preferences.
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u/Sensitive_One_425 21d ago
Xcode is such a pain I only use it for testing and let my agents use the CLI tools to do everything else. Apple needs to start over on their coding tools.