The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #46
Agentic workflows in Xcode, Observation framework deep dives, and why your SwiftUI animations break
🆕 What’s New
Hello Developer: February 2026
Xcode 26.3 just dropped, and honestly, this one feels different. Apple isn't just improving autocomplete anymore – they're going all-in on agentic workflows. Built-in agents like Anthropic’s Claude Agent and OpenAI Codex can now act autonomously inside Xcode, exploring your codebase, searching docs, fixing bugs, and running tests. It's less "AI suggests the next line" and more "AI helps you ship the whole feature." That's a pretty big shift, and I think it shows where Apple believes all of this is heading.
Upcoming SDK minimum requirements
Starting April 28, 2026, any app you upload to App Store Connect needs to be built with SDK 26. Apple keeps tightening this up, which basically means we all need to stay current with toolchains and, whether we like it or not, adopt newer APIs and design patterns sooner.
Every week: 3 stories of how it all went wrong.
Real devs. Real failures. Real lessons.
📚 Must Read
Agentic Coding in Xcode 26.3 with Claude Code and Codex
Jordan Morgan wrote about his experience with agentic workflows in Xcode, and it's worth your time. What caught my attention is that Apple didn't reinvent the wheel here – they actually embraced what's already working: agents.md, skills, MCPs. They just made Xcode a first-class environment for it.
Migrating to the Observation framework in SwiftUI
A great walkthrough of what really changes when you move from ObservableObject to Observation. Not just the syntax – the actual concepts. The property-level tracking piece is huge for performance, especially if you're working on a bigger SwiftUI app. If you've been treating Observable like a simple find-and-replace, this article will show you why that's not enough. You need to rethink how you use State, Bindable, and Environment.
On-demand resources in iOS app
liked this one because it reminds us that On-Demand Resources aren't just for games with huge asset bundles. You can actually use them for security – moving API tokens and sensitive configs out of your main binary to make reverse engineering harder. The article includes a clean async wrapper around NSBundleResourceRequest. Sure, Apple considers this legacy now, but it's still useful knowledge before you move to Background Assets.
Objectively Better, Observably Trickier
Danny Bolella explained why Observation isn’t just Combine 2.0. The shift from push to pull model is explained really well here, and then it walks through real traps: lazy initialization, nested observables, arrays, and property wrappers. If you migrated to Observable and your UI mysteriously stopped updating, this will probably explain exactly what went wrong.
🛠️ Toolbox
SwiftUI Agent Skill: Build better views with AI
Antoine built an open-source SwiftUI Agent Skill that teaches coding agents how to write better SwiftUI code. It's structured, reusable knowledge that agents can actually apply consistently. Layout patterns, performance tips, modern APIs, Liquid Glass – it's all in there! If you're serious about using agents and don't want to accumulate SwiftUI tech debt even faster, check this out.
🍬 One More Thing…
This is one of those deep dives that makes everything click. If you've ever wondered "why is this animation broken?", this article breaks down SwiftUI animations from first principles: state changes, render trees, transactions, and transitions. SwiftUI animations can feel like magic in the worst way – this article turns that into actual understanding.
🗳️ Weekly Poll
📊 Last Week’s Poll Results
When using AI to build apps, what hurts you the most?
Top Answer: High costs & rate limits
🗓 Upcoming Conferences
February
10–12 — Arctic Conference (Oulu 🇫🇮)
March
April
12–14 — Try! Swift Tokyo 2026 (Tokyo 🇯🇵)
12–14 — Deep Dish Swift (Chicago 🇺🇸)
May
18–20 — Swift Craft 2026 (Folkestone 🇬🇧)
19–21 — MAU Vegas 2026 (Las Vegas 🇺🇸)
June
3–4 — MDevCamp 2026 (Prague 🇨🇿)
July
7–10 — MacAdmins Conference (State College 🇺🇸)
22–23 — Swift Rockies 2026 (Calgary 🇨🇦)
September
7–11 — Swift Island 2026 (Texel 🇳🇱)
October
7–9 — Next.App DevCon 2026 (Berlin 🇩🇪)
November
20–22 — SwiftSonic 26 (Nashville 🇺🇸)
👋 That’s it for this week
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Until next Friday — keep shipping 🍏