Xcode Run Simulator

Build + run on iOS Simulator

Build the Xcode workspace or project under the current working directory and launch it on an iOS Simulator. If a simulator is already booted, that one is used. Otherwise the latest available iPhone simulator is booted automatically and Simulator.app is brought to the foreground.

How to run

The shared agent-skill-xcode.el lives in the sibling xcode-shared directory at skills/xcode-shared/agent-skill-xcode.el in the emacs-skills plugin. All four /xcode-* skills load it from there.

emacsclient --eval "(progn (load \"/path/to/skills/xcode-shared/agent-skill-xcode.el\" nil t) (agent-skill-xcode-run-simulator :project-dir \"$(pwd)\"))"

The function:

• Locates the workspace/project and picks a scheme (same heuristic as /xcode-build-simulator).
• Picks a simulator: first booted iOS simulator if any; else the latest available iPhone (boots it and opens Simulator.app).
• Runs xcodebuild build against the simulator's specific UDID.
• Reads BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR / WRAPPER_NAME / PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER from -showBuildSettings -json.
• Installs (xcrun simctl install) and launches (xcrun simctl launch).
• Returns a multi-line status string with the bundle id, simulator UDID, .app path, install result, and launch result. On build failure, returns the same error format as /xcode-build-simulator.

Rules

• Pass the agent's current working directory as :project-dir via $(pwd).
• The shared elisp lives under xcode-shared/agent-skill-xcode.el — load it from there.
• Run via the Bash tool with a single emacsclient --eval invocation. Builds can take minutes; consider extending the Bash timeout if known to be slow.
• Report the returned status string verbatim. It already contains everything the user needs.
• Do not try to choose a different simulator if one is already booted — the whole point is reuse.
• If the build fails, point at the truncated tail in the output; do not re-run the build.