Apple generated host

iOS uses the official Apple build system through a generated host. The application author does not create or maintain an Xcode project, plist, Swift target, or extension target.

Simulator pipeline

1. Require macOS and discover full Xcode, the selected developer directory, iPhone Simulator SDK, xcodebuild, xcrun, plutil, Cargo, and the Rust simulator target.
2. Load Cargo metadata and strict ferry.toml.
3. Generate deterministic host metadata below target/ferry/ios/.
4. Cross-compile Rust for aarch64-apple-ios-sim on Apple Silicon.
5. Stage the Rust executable into the generated host and let Xcode assemble metadata, resources, and enabled extension targets into an .app.
6. Inspect bundle identifier, executable, architecture, metadata, resources, linked content, and every required .appex before success.

A Simulator runtime/device is optional for build-only work. It is required for install/launch observation, which has a separate status.

Extensions

Widgets and Live Activities require generated SwiftUI/WidgetKit/ActivityKit adapters because Apple owns their presentation and lifecycle. cargo-ferry exposes a restricted serializable Rust snapshot rather than attempting to reproduce SwiftUI. An extension is not complete until its .appex, executable, plist, identifier, and embedding relationship are inspected.

Physical devices

Device builds use only official Xcode signing/provisioning. Team, profile, entitlement, and application-group constraints can differ from the Simulator. No unsigned install, jailbreak, or signing bypass is supported. Device compile, artifact, install, and launch evidence are recorded separately.

See ADR-003, iOS Simulator, and Apple’s Xcode build system.