omarchy-apple-dev builds and ships iOS SwiftUI apps from Omarchy, no Mac and no Xcode install

Building iPhone apps has long meant owning a Mac. omarchy-apple-dev, an open-source project by GitHub user joshuaswarren, says otherwise: it builds SwiftUI apps on Omarchy, installs them on a physical iPhone over USB, and does it with no Xcode and no macOS in the loop.

The project works on both Apple Silicon and x86_64 machines running Omarchy. Its install script sets up Swift 6.4 from the AUR, builds xtool from source, adds pymobiledevice3 for talking to the device, and installs the iOS SDK. The README says Omarchy users can also run these steps from the Install > Development > iOS menu.

There is one thing you still need from Apple: a single download of Xcode.xip from developer.apple.com, because the iOS SDK only ships inside it. That download works from any OS, and a free Apple ID is enough. The README says paid membership is not required for device installs.

From there, xtool new and xtool dev run create and run a first app, and device-run.sh pairs the phone, installs the app, launches it and attaches the LLDB debugger. Deployment is over USB. The README says wireless deploy is blocked on iOS 26 for Linux-only setups.

The project goes past hello-world. ship.sh builds a release package, signs and validates it, and with an App Store Connect API key uploads it for TestFlight or the App Store. It never submits a build for review. The README reports that builds made entirely on Linux come back as valid and App Store eligible, including NetNewsWire with its extensions. IceCubesApp and Mastodon for iOS are also reproduced in the repo’s compatibility folder.

According to the README, the device install was first proven on an M1. A community report from Jon Kinney confirms the same flow on a Framework Desktop with an iPhone 16, used for a real client project.

The repo is MIT-licensed and had 1,141 stars on GitHub at the time of writing. It was also posted to Hacker News on October 7, 2026.