Skip to content

Open the iOS project in Xcode

kivyforge generates a complete Xcode project in <app>-ios/, where <app> is your [project].name. You can build and run entirely from the command line, or open the project in Xcode to pick a destination, press Run, and use the debugger and Instruments.

Before you begin

Open the project

  1. Generate the project. A bare build generates it for both the Simulator and a device:

    kivyforge build -p ios

  2. Open it in Xcode:

    kivyforge open -p ios

    open launches Xcode on <app>-ios/<app>.xcodeproj and prints the path it opened. If the project does not exist yet, open fails and tells you to run kivyforge build first.

  3. In Xcode, pick a Simulator or a connected device and click Run.

What Xcode owns

  • Compiling and signing. Xcode compiles the project and, for a device or release build, signs it. kivyforge writes the signing build settings from your [tool.kivy.ios.signing] table. See Sign your iOS app.
  • Swift Package Manager. Xcode resolves and builds any Swift packages that you declare.

Regenerate the project

kivyforge owns the generated <app>-ios/ folder and regenerates it on every build. Changes you make to the project in Xcode do not survive a regenerate, so put configuration in pyproject.toml instead. For extra Xcode build settings, use [tool.kivy.ios.xcode.build_settings]; see the iOS overlay reference.

To start from a clean slate, remove the generated trees and build again:

kivyforge clean
kivyforge build -p ios

kivyforge clean removes the generated output for every platform in the project, not only iOS.

Verify

Xcode opens with your app's project, and the scheme builds and runs on the destination you selected.

What's next