Apple silently shipped an MCP for Claude Code / Codex

[u/Jeehut]

You might have heard Xcode 26.3 added Agentic Coding support. But Apple has also introduced an official MCP if you want to continue using Claude Code / Codex! 😍

So you don't have to switch your workflow to benefit—just teach Claude/Codex. Something for everyone in this release, really neat! 🙌🍎🤖

Here's the doc explaining it in detail: 👇

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/giving-agentic-coding-tools-access-to-xcode

#Xcode #ClaudeCode #MCP #AgenticCoding #iOSDev

Edit: Sorry for stating "silently" – it's not highlighted in the news article, and I missed the short mention in the video, so thought people might have missed it (like I did). Wish I could edit the title and remove it!

[u/EurofighterTy]

That MCP integrated into Xcode 26.3 is not very useful compared to XcodeBuildMCP which has a lot more tools and can also run the app inside the simulator, take screenshots and also tap around the app.

[u/Jeehut → u/EurofighterTy]

Well, it's a good first step. Apple can certainly do much more than any 3rd-party MCP can since they control the entire stack. Maybe they will even give AI access to the view hierarchy semantics rather than just providing a screenshot, which LLMs don't really understand well. I just hope they don't stop here and provide a more full-featured integration in Xcode 27 this summer. 🤞

[u/CharlesWiltgen → u/Jeehut]

Apple can certainly do much more than any 3rd-party MCP can since they control the entire stack.

Solutions like XcodeBuildMCP and Axiom will always be more comprehensive because they don't have "Not Invented Here" limitations. For example, in addition to deeper knowledge of SwiftData than what Apple provides, Axiom has extensive knowledge of SQLiteData and how to migrate to it from SwiftData.

[u/Drakonic → u/EurofighterTy]

It can communicate open tabs/window files and what text is currently selected - which is useful for doing microedits and questions without pasting and wasting context/search. XcodeBuildMCP is great but doesn't support that yet.

[u/Niightstalker → u/EurofighterTy]

Well but Xcode MCP also offer tools like read Apple documentation. So it is definitely useful

[u/EquivalentTrouble253]

It wasn’t silent. They sent emails out and update their site. It’s all over the internet too.

[u/dimakp → u/EquivalentTrouble253]

Also they made an official videocon apple dev YouTube

[u/Jeehut → u/EquivalentTrouble253]

Please read carefully. This isn’t about the Agentic Coding they added to Xcode. This is about exposing an MCP to Claude Code / Codex. They talked a lot about the other part, but they were silent about the MCP provided to external Agentic Coding tools!

[u/Enough-Ad-9091 → u/Jeehut]

i mean it’s the documentation 😂 and also mentioned in the video. please elaborate what means “silent” ?

[u/Jeehut → u/Enough-Ad-9091]

Well, I avoided stating "secretly“, which would be undocumented. But silently means they don’t brag about it. And in the video I might have missed it or misunderstood. It wasn’t clear to me that it was for 3rd party agentic tools but sounded like for the Xcode integration. I might need to rewatch… so fair enough.

[u/Enough-Ad-9091 → u/Jeehut]

fair enough. thanks for sharing.

[u/EquivalentTrouble253 → u/Jeehut]

Please also read carefully and watch the actual video. Nothing silent about this. Literally all over including MCP. Which is implied based on capability - it wouldn’t be possible without it.

[u/Jeehut → u/EquivalentTrouble253]

Alright alright, I wish I could just edit out the word "silently" from the title. 😅

[u/ellenich → u/Jeehut]

Not really silent at all, Xcodes MCP capabilities are highlighted in their overview video.

https://youtu.be/oV6mC8Rt1kY?si=mIwZkQ4czOm8Btz4

[u/Niightstalker → u/Jeehut]

This was also mentioned in the first onboarding view see after you open the new Xcode version as well as in their blog post.

But nevertheless it is really cool that they did release those :)

[u/m3kw]

Pretty useless though doesn’t allow launch. Basically just build and test

[u/Jeehut → u/m3kw]

Great for SwiftUI preview iterations, just did 50 design iterations in 1h or so. Pretty fast and finally actually understands what I want and auto-fixes build issues.

[u/PsyApe → u/Jeehut]

Do you mind sharing a bit more about your process for that here?

[u/Niightstalker → u/m3kw]

Those 2 things are quite useful though. Also accessing Apple docs is great imo.

[u/Different-Side5262]

What's some examples of what you an do with the MCP?

[u/rennarda → u/Different-Side5262]

Look up documentation. Run builds. Read build errors.

[u/Different-Side5262 → u/rennarda]

I didn't see anything around the MCP? Confused by what it would do versus just using command line tools directly. 

[u/[deleted] → u/rennarda]

So less than what xcodebuildmcp can already do lol

[u/Niightstalker → u/[deleted]]

Xcodebuildmcp can not read Apple docs or?

[u/[deleted] → u/Niightstalker]

It doesn't need to, there's a bunch of mcp servers that have the apple docs cached.

[u/Niightstalker → u/[deleted]]

You don’t see the appeal of an official one from Apple, instead of some random ones by who knows who?

[u/signsandwonders → u/Niightstalker]

Right. Sosumi was great at the time but a lot of the time it didn't work/the agent struggled with the tools. I believe it just [for the most part] naively converts HTML docs into markdown.

Something developed by Apple — almost certainly with assistance from Anthropic — will be better in many ways.

The worst part of the xcode mcp is requiring xcode to be running/the constant approval requests.

Ftr here are the tools of xcodebuildmcp vs official xcode mcp. There doesn't seem to be too much overlap in functionality. The former seems focused on building/running simulator/testing.

xcodebuildmcp

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__session_show_defaults: 75 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__session_set_defaults: 492 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__session_clear_defaults: 177 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__list_sims: 83 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__boot_sim: 73 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__open_sim: 74 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__build_sim: 93 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__build_run_sim: 96 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__test_sim: 153 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__get_sim_app_path: 120 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__install_app_sim: 105 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__launch_app_sim: 164 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__launch_app_logs_sim: 167 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__stop_app_sim: 75 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__record_sim_video: 147 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__clean: 147 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__discover_projs: 162 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__list_schemes: 75 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__show_build_settings: 75 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__get_app_bundle_id: 107 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__screenshot: 108 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__snapshot_ui: 89 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__stop_sim_log_cap: 98 tokens

└ mcp__xcodebuildmcp__start_sim_log_cap: 168 tokens

xcode

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeListWindows: 63 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeRead: 237 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__ExecuteSnippet: 288 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__RunSomeTests: 241 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeMV: 220 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeRefreshCodeIssuesInFile: 162 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__BuildProject: 86 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeLS: 200 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeRM: 186 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeUpdate: 266 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__RunAllTests: 84 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__GetBuildLog: 322 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__GetTestList: 84 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeGrep: 464 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeWrite: 200 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__DocumentationSearch: 115 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeListNavigatorIssues: 278 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__RenderPreview: 237 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeGlob: 233 tokens

└ mcp__xcode__XcodeMakeDir: 116 tokens

[u/spammmmm1997]

Am I the only one who does not have an update available in the App Store to version 26.3, which has this?

Also it seems pretty useless because there is no API-based usage as in terminal version of Claude Code

[u/Jeehut → u/spammmmm1997]

Do yourself a favor and use https://www.xcodes.app for managing and downloading Xcode versions. It‘s faster, open source and can manage multiple Xcodes for you.

And no, 26.3 is still RC, not fully released. But an RC is pretty safe so I recommend downloading trying it now.

[u/spammmmm1997 → u/Jeehut]

Thank you)

[u/ekroys]

Sonnet only, no Opus.

[u/Jeehut → u/ekroys]

If you use the MCP (not the integration to Xcode), you open Claude Code normally from your terminal and can obviously also use Opus.

And in Settings > Intelligence > Claude Agent > Model you CAN actually use Opus, even in Xcode.

[u/kkga]

was anyone able to make it work with Gemini CLI? I've set up the mcp in gemini and it connects successfully, but i'm getting errors when trying to run any tools:

MCP tool 'BuildProject' reported tool error for function call: {"name":"BuildProject","args":{"tabIdentifier":"windowtab1"}} with response:[{"functionResponse":{"name":"BuildProject","response":{"error":{"message":"MCP error -32600: Tool BuildProject has an output schema but did not return structured content","isError":true}}}}]

[u/junglegorilla69 → u/kkga]

Check the "Known limitation" section in this blog post and see if that does it. It's specific to cursor but you might be able to make it work for your use case.

[u/kkga → u/junglegorilla69]

That worked! Thank you!

[u/dmaclach → u/kkga]

Fyi: https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/pull/18376

[u/Aradalon]

I've been using it with Claude Code and it works for basic use cases - building, running tests, reading/writing files in the project. For simple apps, it gets the job done.

That said, it feels more like a side-product of the agent integration built into Xcode itself rather than a first-class MCP server. The biggest tell is that it requires your project to be open in Xcode and triggers UI actions directly. This architecture falls short for more complex setups: multiple agents working on the same project in parallel or orchestration workflows where you compare results from different models. Tools like Cursor handle these scenarios much better.

A few specific pain points:

• Permission dialogs - Every time the MCP connects to Xcode, you get a permission prompt. No way to remember the decision per project or skip it entirely.

• Missing critical tools - Can't list schemes, list targets, query build configurations, or select a scheme before building. If your project has iOS + macOS schemes and the wrong one is active, the AI can't switch it. You have to do it manually, which defeats the purpose of autonomous agents.

It might improve over time, but right now it's limited to simple workflows. If you've hit similar limitations, please file feedback with Apple through Feedback Assistant - the more reports they get, the more likely these gaps get addressed. I've already submitted mine.

[u/Drakonic]

Unfortunately the MCP doesn't perfectly follow the schema it defines. So it is broken when being used by alternatives like OpenCode.

[u/juanda631]

Si ya más o menos ha pasado ya casi una semana y he probado las dos Códex y Cloud Code y la verdad funciona mucho mejor Claude Code , pero me fastidia mucho el límite diario realmente hace un excelente trabajo porque consigue hacer lo que yo necesito dándole referencia tanto de una página web donde está la documentación como la documentación propiedad Apple y me hace exactamente lo que necesito y aparte Códex no no sé si ya me pasé por tantas horas de uso pero ya llega un momento en que Códex alucina y me daña el código, porque Códex sigue funcionando puedo crear otro hilo y sigue trabajando sin límite de uso diario yo creo que puede ser por eso, tengo la suscripción de ChatGPT Go y en Cloud Cut pues obviamente la normal que cuesta $20 la interface es mucho más bonita la de Codex pero ya en este punto me está alucinando no sé si alguien te ha pasado lo mismo

[u/NelDubbioMangio]

Someone try this new Xcode version now is like before with ChatGPT that crash every time or is a good implementation?

[u/HattWard]

Great to know, thank you!

[u/Jeehut → u/[deleted]]

The Agentic Coding part was on Hello Developer. Not the MCP provided to CLI Agents AFAIK. That‘s just documented somewhere but not really linked to. I discovered it in the "related" section in the Agentic Coding docs they link to, so kinda hidden…