Skip to main content

XcodeGen

XcodeGen generates your .xcodeproj from a YAML manifest (project.yml), so the project file never has to be edited, or merged, by hand. SweetPad works with XcodeGen projects out of the box: generate the project, and the schemes show up in the Build view like any other.

Install XcodeGen from the Tools panel in the SweetPad sidebar, or with Homebrew:

brew install xcodegen

Generate the project​

Run > SweetPad: Generate an Xcode project using XcodeGen from the command palette. SweetPad runs xcodegen generate at the workspace root and refreshes the scheme list when it finishes.

Auto-regenerate when Swift files change​

XcodeGen projects list their source files in the generated project by default, so every added or deleted .swift file needs a regeneration. Let SweetPad do that automatically:

.vscode/settings.json
{
  "sweetpad.xcodegen.autogenerate": true
}

Then restart VSCode to apply the change. SweetPad watches for new or removed Swift files and re-runs xcodegen generate in the background, so the project stays in sync while you work. The watcher only activates when a project.yml exists at the workspace root.

tip

XcodeGen 2.44 and newer can make this unnecessary. Give a source type: syncedFolder, or set defaultSourceDirectoryType: syncedFolder under options, and the generated project points at the folder instead of listing the files inside it. Xcode then picks up new and deleted files from disk on its own. Changes to project.yml itself still need a regenerate.

tip

Prefer Tuist? SweetPad has the same integration for it, including the matching sweetpad.tuist.autogenerate setting.

note

Working from a terminal too? The SweetPad CLI handles generated projects differently. It doesn't regenerate for you, but it warns when the spec is newer than the project and refuses edits that a regenerate would overwrite. It's a separate product with its own install.