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How do you automate your app’s release process?
Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all had a fantastic couple of weeks — welcome to another issue of the newsletter!
Last week I ran another edition of my free webinar series exclusive to iOS CI Newsletter. In the session, I set up a full CI/CD release pipeline from scratch for an iOS app to automate** testing, archiving** and uploading builds to App Store Connect.
I used this opportunity to try a set up that I have been meaning to test for a long time: using GitHub Actions as the CI/CD service with a Namespace macOS runner.
I have to admit that I am very impressed with how easy the set up was and how running on Apple Silicon M2/M4 machines dramatically improved my runs compared to running the same workflow in Xcode Cloud.
I was able to run for a production app (not just a simple TODO test app) in just 6 minutes!
I think I found my favorite set up for my indie apps, I would thoroughly encourage you to check it out.
Now, let’s dive into today’s issue 👀…
🔨 How to reduce your build times with Xcode’s compilation caching
Xcode 26 introduced a brand new feature called Compilation Caching, which improves build times when switching branches or doing clean builds.
If you’d like to know how it works, check out this awesome article by Dan Žďárek on the Bitrise blog. Oh, and if you’re a Bitrise user, you’ll be happy to know that they have already added support for it 👏.
🧠 Start formatting your CI/CD output with AI in mind
When working with an AI coding agent, providing the right amount of context is key. Too little context can lead to poor results, while too much can waste valuable tokens — and money.
This is especially true when debugging CI/CD issues, where logs from tools like xcodebuild are often verbose and span thousands of lines. This challenge inspired Łukasz Domaradzki to build xcsift, a command-line tool that transforms build output into structured data that’s easier for AI agents to process.
🐙 Use GitHub Copilot directly from the Terminal
Last week, GitHub announced the public preview release of the GitHub Copilot CLI. Similarly to Anthropic’s very popular Claude Code, the Copilot CLI allows you to interact directly with Copilot’s AI agents from your terminal.
All you need to try it today is a GitHub account and access to Copilot Pro.
🎥 CI/CD for iOS Developers webinar recording
Last week I ran a free webinar for all iOS CI Newsletter subscribers about how to get started with CI/CD and how to set up a release pipeline from scratch for an iOS app.
If you weren’t able to attend or if you’d like to watch it again, you can now access the recording here.