Build and test an iOS app

From your repository to a passing test run on a cloud Mac, with the build, the results and screenshots back on your side. The next build is incremental.

1Put the project on the Mac

Clone it onto the drive, so the next session starts from it:

git clone https://github.com/acme/app ~/drive/src/app

Or send the folder on your machine: nomac sync . puts it in ~/drive/src/<folder> and sends only what changed, and --watch keeps sending as you edit. A private repository's token can come from your secrets.

2Build

cd ~/drive/src/app
xcodebuild -scheme App \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 17 Pro,OS=27.0' \
  build | xcbeautify

Give builds time: over MCP, wait_seconds: 40 and a timeout_seconds of up to 3600; with the CLI, nomac exec --wait 600. Each iOS runtime has devices with the same names, so name the OS version too.

Expo and Capacitor apps make their ios folder first: npx expo prebuild -p ios or npx cap sync ios.

3Test

xcodebuild test -scheme App \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 17 Pro,OS=27.0' | xcbeautify

4Look at the app

simulator-use is on every Mac. simulator-use run builds, installs and launches the project in the current folder, simulator-use look reads the screen as text, and simulator-use act 'tap "Sign In"' taps by label.

• screenshot_mac with target simulator returns the Simulator's screen as an image, and xcrun simctl io booted screenshot shot.png saves one.
• Launch arguments open a screen without tapping: xcrun simctl launch booted com.acme.App -ShowPaywall YES.

5Get the results back

nomac pull ./out --from build/export copies a folder to your machine. Over MCP, create_mac_link with direction download makes a link to a file or folder of up to 2 GiB that keeps working after the Mac stops, and read_mac_file reads a file of up to 3 MiB.

Your backend

Run it on the Mac with nomac-service start api -- npm run dev. The Simulator reaches it at http://localhost:PORT, and nomac ssh --forward 8787:8787 reaches it from your machine.