SwiftLee Weekly - Issue 340


This week's SwiftLee Weekly covers:

  • iOS Simulator inside Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex
  • Reducing memory usage caused by Xcode Simulators
  • Foundation Models and images

Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly!

THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST

The iOS Simulator Inside Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex

The way we develop apps changes, has changed, and will continue to change. In this week's article, I'm shining a light on my perspectives for today and for the future of agentic app development.
avanderlee.com

SPONSORED

Mobile apps now drive core revenue

Learn the questions senior leaders must ask about mobile AppSec. Join former AT&T CSO and founder of TAG Infosphere, Dr. Ed Amoroso and Guardsquare CPO, Ryan Lloyd, on September 15th for a candid discussion about what's really happening inside mobile AppSec programs today and the questions every security leader should be asking their teams. Register now.

CURATED FROM THE COMMUNITY

MobAI-App/simslim: Run more iOS simulators on one Mac by disabling background daemons

Disabling background daemons a simulator doesn't need is a smart trick to reduce memory pressure. Some devs consider this useful for regular development instead of only CI, but watch out: unexpected behavior could be caused by this (so I'm not yet doing this!)
github.com

Building a sunburst diagram in Swift Charts

Swift Charts are powerful and you might not always realize how much you can do with this. How about a sunburst diagram, as Natalia Panferova explains?
nilcoalescing.com

Working With Images Using Foundation Models

The Foundation Models improvements we got this year open up doors for many new app ideas. Working with images is another angle that could spark your next app idea, explained by Mohammad Azam.
azamsharp.com

Codable errors are finally readable in Swift 6.3

Codable errors in Swift, printed in your console, hard to read. It's no longer the case, as Sarunw explains!
sarunw.com

Teaching Siri to talk about your favorite walks in Walk Mate

Siri on iOS 27 should be able to talk about your app's data. Emre Degirmenci explains how it works.
emredegirmenci.substack.com

SWIFT EVOLUTION

An overview of last week's Swift Proposal state changes. Check them out when they're in review, as it's your opportunity to influence the direction of Swift's future.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON

Finding new ways to integrate RocketSim into AI

This week's article shines a light on this more, but I want to share a bit more insight into the journey towards the first preview of RocketSim 17.

I’ve been exploring integration with Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex for a while. There are options to do it natively, but none of them were built once, run everywhere. Adding another release pipeline is far from ideal, and I already have the CLI and Agent Skill.

As I’m sure many of you do, I often build web pages using AI. What’s great about it is that I can run and validate the website directly inside the browser in Cursor. It made me wonder: why can’t we do the same for app development?

I started streaming the Simulator, which I had implemented fairly quickly: RocketSim’s CLI allows agents to stream and create screenshots or videos.

At first, I figured I’d rebuild RocketSim entirely, so I started creating the side window in the browser. Quickly, though, I realized I was optimizing for a completely different flow: agentic development. You’re not looking for the same tools, because you could do that using RocketSim natively. Instead, it should be a way to follow along with what the agent is doing and to provide the agent with feedback to continue its journey.

That’s how I started to evolve into a Simulator stream, combining worktree and branch information with accessibility tree insights and design feedback. Agents will write the code; you will provide feedback on the app’s behavior.

It’s still early days, and I’m actively using this version myself, but I’m keen to see where this goes. I’d love to get your ideas on the future of app development, so don’t hesitate to hit reply and share your dreams with me.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Refer one developer. Get my 5 agent workflows

Know a Swift or iOS developer who would enjoy SwiftLee Weekly? Refer one confirmed subscriber, and I’ll send you the five agent-powered workflows I use for marketing, App Store metadata, support, performance, and Xcode disk cleanup.

Your rewards continue from there: reach three referrals to unlock 50% off RocketSim Pro Yearly.

Your personal referral link

[RH_REFLINK GOES HERE]

Share by email · WhatsApp · LinkedIn · X/Twitter · Bluesky

Rewards:

  • 3 referrals unlock 50% off RocketSim Pro Yearly
  • 10 unlock Swift Concurrency Course access
  • 30 unlock RocketSim Pro Lifetime.

See your rewards and progress →

Thank you so much for your support, and until next Tuesday,

Antoine

SwiftLee Weekly by Antoine van der Lee

Swift Evolution updates, 5 top community articles covering Swift development topics.

Read more from SwiftLee Weekly by Antoine van der Lee

This week's SwiftLee Weekly covers: Data dependencies and SwiftUI redraws MVVM in SwiftUI A new warning in Xcode 27 Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly! THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST MVVM in SwiftUI: Using view models without overengineering As an iOS developer, should you use MVVM in SwiftUI? You'll get many different answers, but here's at least an article explaining how I think you should use it, if you end up doing so.avanderlee.com SPONSORED Does Xcode Instruments Feel Too Intimidating? Xcode...

This week's SwiftLee Weekly covers: Dynamic Profiles in Apple Foundation Models StateReporter & MetricKit in iOS 27 What's new in Swift 6.4 Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly! THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST @StateObject vs. @ObservedObject: The differences explained The Observable framework makes these obsolete, but many projects still have old code using these property wrappers. Knowing their differences is important and also teaches you more on how SwiftUI works.avanderlee.com SPONSORED Turn Xcode...

This week's SwiftLee Weekly covers: ContentBuilder in SwiftUI Headless Xcode 27 MCP iOS 26' DataDetector Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly! THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST Swift Testing explained with code examples Are you yet using Swift Testing? Apple continued to improve the framework and I barely touch XCTest anymore. Here's an update on all the latest.avanderlee.com SPONSORED Fastlane alternative - Codemagic CLI tools Are you tired of Ruby and Fastlane installation issues? There's got to be a...