charleswiltgen SwiftUI
You MUST use this skill for ANY SwiftUI work including views, state, navigation, layout, animations, architecture, gestures, and debugging.
Auditors are skills here. Where this router says "Launch
some-auditoragent", invoke the matching Codex skill instead — same procedure, no Claude Code agent required.Available:
axiom-analyze-swiftui-performance,axiom-audit-liquid-glass,axiom-audit-swiftui-architecture,axiom-audit-swiftui-layout,axiom-audit-swiftui-nav,axiom-audit-textkit,axiom-audit-ux-flow.The ones that shell out — builds, tests, simulators, crash symbolication — need shell access to run.
Quick Reference
| Symptom / Task | Reference |
|---|---|
| View not updating | See skills/debugging.md |
| View update still broken after debugging | See skills/debugging-diag.md |
Slow previews / building good previews / @Previewable / PreviewModifier / variant matrix |
See skills/previews.md |
Preview API reference (#Preview, traits, modes, Development Assets) |
See skills/previews-ref.md |
| Preview crashes / won't load | See skills/debugging.md (Preview Crashes section) |
| Hot reload / live editing / edit the running app on device | See skills/hot-reload.md |
| Navigation issues | See skills/nav.md |
| Navigation still broken after debugging | See skills/nav-diag.md |
| Navigation API reference | See skills/nav-ref.md |
| Layout breaks on iPad/rotation | See skills/layout.md |
| State lost on resize/rotation (scroll, selection, focus, drafts) | See skills/layout.md (State Survives the Transition) |
| Layout API reference | See skills/layout-ref.md |
| Performance/lag/slow scroll | See skills/swiftui-performance.md |
| Architecture/testability | See skills/architecture.md |
@State object rebuilt every view init, or an init assignment ignored at runtime |
See skills/architecture.md (@State is a macro now) |
| Animation issues | See skills/animation-ref.md |
| Stacks/grids/outlines | See skills/containers-ref.md |
| Custom containers / List replacement (iOS 18+) | See skills/containers-ref.md Part 7 |
| Search implementation | See skills/search-ref.md |
| Toolbars, ToolbarItem, sheet button placement, customization | See skills/toolbars.md |
| Sheets, detents, popovers, fullScreenCover, presentation adaptation | See skills/presentations.md |
| Multi-column Table, sortable/resizable columns (iPad/Mac; collapses to first column in compact) | See axiom-macos (skills/swiftui-differences.md) |
Inspector panel (.inspector — trailing column in regular width, sheet in compact) |
See axiom-macos (skills/swiftui-differences.md) |
| Gesture conflicts | See skills/gestures.md |
| Section index — the vertical A–Z index strip / alphabet scrubber on a list's trailing edge, jump-to-section | See skills/26-ref.md (Section Index) |
List section margins / insets around a Section |
See skills/26-ref.md (Section Margins) |
Web content — WebView / WebPage, scroll modifiers, WebView-in-NavigationStack |
See skills/26-ref.md (WebView & WebPage) |
| iOS 26 features | See skills/26-ref.md |
Non-SwiftUI UI Routes
These topics are part of the broader iOS UI domain but live in separate suites:
UIKit issues
- Auto Layout conflicts → See axiom-uikit (skills/auto-layout-debugging.md)
- Animation timing → See axiom-uikit (skills/uikit-animation-debugging.md)
- SwiftUI ↔ UIKit bridging → See axiom-uikit (skills/uikit-bridging.md)
Design & guidelines
- Liquid Glass adoption → See axiom-design (skills/liquid-glass.md)
- SF Symbols → See axiom-design (skills/sf-symbols.md)
- HIG compliance → See axiom-design (skills/hig.md)
- Typography → See axiom-design (skills/typography-ref.md)
- TextKit/rich text → See axiom-uikit (skills/textkit-ref.md)
Other
- tvOS (focus, remote, text input) → See axiom-swift (skills/tvos.md)
- App-level composition (root, auth, scenes) → See axiom-design (skills/app-composition.md)
- Drag/drop, sharing, copy/paste → See axiom-swift (skills/transferable-ref.md)
- VoiceOver, Dynamic Type →
/skill axiom-accessibility - UI test flakiness →
/skill axiom-testing - UX dead ends, dismiss traps →
axiom-audit-ux-flow
watchOS-specific patterns
- Glanceable UI, watch navigation, Smart Stack widgets → See axiom-watchos
Conflict Resolution
axiom-swiftui vs axiom-performance: When UI is slow (e.g., "SwiftUI List slow"):
- Try axiom-swiftui FIRST — Domain-specific fixes (LazyVStack, view identity, @State optimization) often solve UI performance in 5 minutes
- Only use axiom-performance if domain fixes don't help — Profiling takes longer and may confirm what domain knowledge already knows
Decision Tree
digraph swiftui {
start [label="SwiftUI issue" shape=ellipse];
what [label="What's wrong?" shape=diamond];
start -> what;
what -> "skills/debugging.md" [label="view not updating"];
what -> "skills/nav.md" [label="navigation"];
what -> "skills/swiftui-performance.md" [label="slow/lag"];
what -> "skills/layout.md" [label="adaptive layout"];
what -> "skills/containers-ref.md" [label="stacks/grids/outlines"];
what -> "skills/architecture.md" [label="feature architecture"];
what -> "skills/animation-ref.md" [label="animations"];
what -> "skills/gestures.md" [label="gestures"];
what -> "skills/search-ref.md" [label="search"];
what -> "skills/toolbars.md" [label="toolbars / sheet buttons"];
what -> "skills/presentations.md" [label="sheets/detents/popovers"];
what -> "skills/26-ref.md" [label="iOS 26 features"];
what -> "skills/previews.md" [label="slow previews / building good previews"];
what -> "skills/previews-ref.md" [label="preview API reference"];
what -> "skills/debugging.md" [label="preview crashes / won't load"];
what -> "skills/hot-reload.md" [label="hot reload / live editing"];
what -> "axiom-macos (skills/swiftui-differences.md)" [label="Table / .inspector\n(large-window density)"];
what -> "axiom-uikit (skills/uikit-bridging.md)" [label="UIKit interop"];
what -> "axiom-design (skills/app-composition.md)" [label="app-level (root, auth)"];
what -> "axiom-swift (skills/transferable-ref.md)" [label="drag/drop, sharing"];
}
Automated Scanning
- Architecture audit →
axiom-audit-swiftui-architecture - Performance scan →
axiom-analyze-swiftui-performance - Navigation audit →
axiom-audit-swiftui-nav - Layout audit →
axiom-audit-swiftui-layout - UX flow audit →
axiom-audit-ux-flow - Liquid Glass scan →
axiom-audit-liquid-glass(detects migration opportunities AND adoption-completeness gaps: variant discipline for media surfaces, glass-on-glass nesting, missingif #availablegates, primary-action tinting,.tabRole(.search); scores ADOPTED / PARTIAL / NOT ADOPTED) - TextKit scan →
axiom-audit-textkit(detects fallback triggers, glyph APIs that corrupt complex scripts, missing Writing Tools wiring, AND architectural gaps like missing fallback observation, SwiftUI wrappers dropping TextKit 2 properties, missingisWritingToolsActiveguards; scores MODERN / MIXED / LEGACY)
Anti-Rationalization
| Thought | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Simple SwiftUI layout, no need" | SwiftUI layout has 12 gotchas. skills/layout.md covers all of them. |
| "I know how NavigationStack works" | Navigation has state restoration, deep linking, and identity traps. skills/nav.md prevents 2-hour debugging. |
| "It's just a view not updating" | View update failures have 4 root causes. skills/debugging.md diagnoses in 5 min. |
| "I'll just add .animation()" | Animation issues compound. skills/animation-ref.md has the correct patterns. |
| "No architecture needed" | Even small features benefit from separation. skills/architecture.md prevents refactoring debt. |
| "I know .searchable" | Search has 6 gotchas. skills/search-ref.md covers all of them. |
| "I'll just add a Done button" | Sheets without Cancel break the HIG (updated 2026-03-24). .cancellationAction / .confirmationAction produce HIG-correct placement automatically — skills/toolbars.md Pattern 2 has the rules. |
| "A sheet is a sheet, nothing to configure" | Detents, compact adaptation, background interaction, and iOS 18 sizing decide how it behaves across window shapes. skills/presentations.md covers the adaptation traps (landscape sheets silently become full-screen covers). |
| "Previews are slow forever, I'll just use the simulator" | Five concrete fixes in skills/previews.md. Rule 4 (auto-refresh off) is 30 seconds and often halves perceived slowness. |
"@State is lazy in Xcode 27, I read the release notes" |
Only when the property is private/fileprivate. skills/architecture.md has the gate, the three TN3211 breaks, and the one that compiles and is wrong at runtime. |
"I'll just write a wrapper view for @State in this preview" |
@Previewable @State (Xcode 16+) eliminates that boilerplate. skills/previews-ref.md has the macro signature. |
| "I'll just rebuild and relaunch every time" | Hot reload edits the running app in place, state preserved. skills/hot-reload.md has the InjectionNext + Inject setup and the verify-via-xclog loop. |