Platform Gotchas

Platform Gotchas

iOS development has quirks that Claude Code's training data may not cover, especially for iOS 26 and Liquid Glass. When you hit one, document it immediately so you never hit it again.

The Pattern

Add a ## Known Gotchas section to your CLAUDE.md. Every time you or Claude Code discovers a platform-specific issue, add it as a one-liner. This section grows over the life of your project.

## Known Gotchas
- NO .background() before .glassEffect() — causes rendering issues
- NavigationStack inside TabView, not the other way around
- @Query must be used in views, not in ViewModels
- SwiftData @Model classes must be final
- [Add new gotchas here as you discover them]

Seed Gotchas (Known Issues as of iOS 26)

Start every new project CLAUDE.md with these. Sourced from community experience:

SwiftUI

- Use @Observable macro, not ObservableObject (iOS 17+)
- @Query properties only work in SwiftUI views, not in standalone classes
- NavigationStack must be inside TabView, never wrap TabView in NavigationStack
- .searchable modifier must be inside NavigationStack to render correctly
- .sheet and .fullScreenCover retain their content view, beware of state leaks
- GeometryReader is rarely needed — use layout priorities and flexible frames first
- .task modifier cancels automatically on view disappear (preferred over .onAppear)
- List selection requires NavigationSplitView on iPad, NavigationStack on iPhone
- Text(AttributedString) silently drops paragraphStyle — even with the \.uiKit AttributedScopes requested, SwiftUI's Text doesn't honor NSParagraphStyle.minimumLineHeight / maximumLineHeight on multi-line strings; bridge to UILabel via UIViewRepresentable when you need an absolute line-height lock
- .lineSpacing(N) is additive, not absolute — it adds to the font's natural line height; there is no SwiftUI-native way to lock multi-line text to an exact line height
- UIFont.systemFont(...) ignores scene-level .fontDesign(.rounded) — when bridging to UIKit, resolve fontDescriptor.withDesign(.rounded) explicitly or your bridged label renders in default SF Pro while the rest of the app stays Rounded
- Canvas without an explicit .frame() grows to fill its GeometryReader and can intercept hit-tests via its backing layer — add .allowsHitTesting(false) to render-only Canvas surfaces or taps meant for views below it get eaten
- @FocusState on a vertical-axis TextField (axis: .vertical) is unreliable for keyboard dismissal — setting it to false doesn't always lower the keyboard; pair with window.endEditing(true) via the UIKit responder chain as a fallback
- .frame(maxWidth: .infinity) on a frosted-glass capsule with leading-aligned inner content leaves visible empty trailing space — for snug-fit bars, omit maxWidth so the capsule shrinks to its content
- SwiftUI's Text body type-checker can stack-overflow on monolithic bodies — extract nested view chunks into @ViewBuilder properties or wrap conditional sub-trees in AnyView when the compiler complains

Liquid Glass (iOS 26)

- .glassEffect() must be applied AFTER background modifiers, not before
- Liquid Glass on custom shapes may need .clipShape before .glassEffect
- System navigation bars and tab bars get Liquid Glass automatically with iOS 26
- Do not manually apply .glassEffect to system chrome — it doubles the effect
- Liquid Glass intensity and tinting are best left at system defaults for v1
- Use Sosumi MCP to check latest Liquid Glass API docs — these APIs are new and changing

SwiftData

- @Model classes must be marked final
- SwiftData model containers must be set up in the App struct, not in individual views
- Relationships need explicit inverse declarations for reliable behavior
- Migration is automatic for simple changes but manual for renames or type changes
- Preview crashes with SwiftData often mean the preview needs its own ModelContainer

Xcode / Build

- NEVER let Claude Code modify .pbxproj files (see xcode-integration skill)
- Clean build folder (Shift+Cmd+K) fixes most phantom build errors
- SwiftUI Previews crash ≠ app crash — preview bugs are often preview-specific
- Minimum deployment target must match all SPM dependencies
- Archive builds (for TestFlight) use Release configuration, which may behave differently

Concurrency

- Use async/await for all asynchronous work, not completion handlers
- @MainActor for all UI-related code and ViewModels
- Swift 6 strict concurrency checking may flag warnings — address them, don't suppress
- Task cancellation should be handled explicitly in long-running operations

Drawing / Canvas

- Rectangle().path(in: rect).stroke(lineWidth: N) paints CENTERED on the path — a 2pt stroke covers 1pt INSIDE and 1pt OUTSIDE the rect; for selection borders or any stroke that should sit entirely outside a region, rect.insetBy(dx: -N/2, dy: -N/2) before stroking
- An overlapping stroke combined with anti-aliasing on an animating dashPhase produces sub-pixel flicker that emanates from the region's corners — usually mistaken for a Core Animation bug; it's stroke-on-cell-boundary

How to Capture New Gotchas

When you hit an issue during development:

1. Fix the immediate problem
2. Identify the root cause (API quirk, modifier order, platform limitation)
3. Write a one-line rule that prevents it
4. Add it to CLAUDE.md under ## Known Gotchas
5. Commit the CLAUDE.md update

Prompt for Claude Code

Add this to the Known Gotchas section of CLAUDE.md:
"[One-line description of the issue and the correct behavior]"

This compounds. By the end of your project, your CLAUDE.md has a battle-tested list of rules that prevents every mistake you've encountered. When you start your next project, copy the gotchas section over as your seed.

Anti-Patterns