Skip to content
lacquer

macos-ci-recipes

macOS CI Recipes

Section titled “macOS CI Recipes”

Two shapes, depending on whether an iOS target coexists in the same project. Both reuse the lacquer’s existing iOS CI conventions (dedicated runner, CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO for non-release jobs, the exit-65 spurious-failure handling, the error-tail grep on real failures) — nothing here is a new pattern, just the iOS pattern applied to -destination 'platform=macOS'.

Why the dedicated runner, not a GitHub-hosted macOS one: these jobs (and any other Xcode-touching job you add) must run on runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS, ARM64, dedicated] — never macos-latest or a stray label like mac-mini. Release jobs hold App Store Connect keys and unlock the login keychain, so signing must only ever happen on infrastructure you control; the pinned Xcode + simulator runtime lives only on the dedicated runner (GitHub-hosted macOS images drift); and GitHub-hosted macOS minutes are billed while the dedicated runner isn’t. A pure script/REST-call job with no Xcode dependency uses ubuntu-latest instead.

Which recipe

Section titled “Which recipe”
  • No iOS target at all (a macOS-only app on the ios profile): use “macOS-only app” below. It replaces the synced ios-ci.yml outright — exclude it in .lacquer.toml and add this file to your project’s root/ tree instead (the lacquer already supports excluding a synced file; this is that mechanism, just pointed at CI instead of release/testflight).
  • An iOS target plus a separate macOS scheme sharing code (e.g. a shared Core/+Shared/ compiled into both an iOS app and a MenuBarExtra/full macOS app): use “Hybrid” below. It adds one job to your project’s own copy of the synced ios-ci.yml — see “Living with a hand-edited managed file” for what that costs on future syncs.

macOS-only app

Section titled “macOS-only app”

Lint, build, and test jobs mirroring the lacquer’s iOS shape, with no simulator involved anywhere:

name: macOS CI


on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main, develop, 'feat/*', 'fix/*']
  push:
    branches: [main]


permissions:
  contents: read


concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true


jobs:
  lint:
    name: swiftformat + swiftlint (strict)
    runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS, ARM64, dedicated]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
      - name: swiftformat --lint
        run: swiftformat --lint {{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}.
      - name: swiftlint --strict
        run: swiftlint --strict --config {{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}.swiftlint.yml {{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}.


  build:
    name: xcodebuild build (macOS)
    runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS, ARM64, dedicated]
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
      # No actions/cache for SPM here: on a persistent dedicated runner,
      # DerivedData/SourcePackages already survives between runs on local
      # disk. actions/cache still tars+uploads+downloads on every run
      # regardless of whether anything changed — one fleet project measured
      # this at ~25 minutes of overhead against a 16-second compile. This is
      # an open question for the lacquer's OWN iOS ci.yml too (it still uses
      # actions/cache on the same runner class) — verify your runner is
      # actually the same persistent box across runs before dropping the
      # cache step; if it's ephemeral/rotating, keep it.
      - name: xcodebuild build
        run: |
          set -o pipefail
          xcodebuild build \
            -project "{{XCODEPROJ}}" \
            -scheme "{{SCHEME}}" \
            -destination 'platform=macOS' \
            -configuration Debug \
            CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
            | xcpretty --color || xcodebuild build \
              -project "{{XCODEPROJ}}" \
              -scheme "{{SCHEME}}" \
              -destination 'platform=macOS' \
              -configuration Debug \
              CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO


      - name: xcodebuild test
        run: |
          set -o pipefail
          xcodebuild test \
            -project "{{XCODEPROJ}}" \
            -scheme "{{SCHEME}}" \
            -destination 'platform=macOS' \
            -configuration Debug \
            CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
            -only-testing:<YourTestTarget> \
            | xcpretty --color || xcodebuild test \
              -project "{{XCODEPROJ}}" \
              -scheme "{{SCHEME}}" \
              -destination 'platform=macOS' \
              -configuration Debug \
              CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
              -only-testing:<YourTestTarget>


  ci-ok:
    name: CI OK
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: [lint, build]
    if: always()
    timeout-minutes: 2
    steps:
      - name: Verify required jobs passed (or were skipped)
        run: |
          for r in "${{ needs.lint.result }}" "${{ needs.build.result }}"; do
            if [ "$r" = "failure" ] || [ "$r" = "cancelled" ]; then
              echo "::error::A required job did not pass (result=$r)"
              exit 1
            fi
          done

UI tests are deliberately absent. macOS UI tests need a real WindowServer/GUI login session on the runner — there’s no simulator escape hatch like iOS has. One fleet project’s UI tests hung with “test runner hung before establishing connection” on their dedicated runner and were dropped rather than fought. If your macOS app has UI tests, expect to need a runner with an active GUI session (not a headless/SSH-only box) before they’ll run at all — don’t assume the same runner that handles iOS simulator UI tests can run macOS ones for free.

Hybrid: add a macOS job to an existing ios-ci.yml

Section titled “Hybrid: add a macOS job to an existing ios-ci.yml”

For a project that already syncs the lacquer’s ios-ci.yml for its iOS target and adds a macOS scheme alongside it (shared Core/Shared code, PRODUCT_MODULE_NAME matching so @testable import resolves to whichever target owns the test bundle). Add this job to your project’s copy of ios-ci.yml:

  macos:
    name: macOS (Build + Test)
    runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS, ARM64, dedicated]
    needs: [lint, changes]
    # Skip on push-to-main (squash-merged tree == tested tree) and on
    # docs-only PRs. No simulator for macOS, so this is one xcodebuild that
    # builds + runs the macOS test bundle against the host Mac.
    # SECURITY: same-repo guard — fork-PR code must not build/test on the
    # self-hosted runner.
    if: (github.event_name != 'pull_request' || github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name == github.repository) && github.event_name != 'push' && needs.changes.outputs.code == 'true'
    timeout-minutes: 20
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1


      - name: Create Secrets.xcconfig (build-time placeholder)
        run: |
          if [ -f "{{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}Secrets.xcconfig.example" ]; then
            cp "{{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}Secrets.xcconfig.example" "{{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}Secrets.xcconfig"
          fi


      - name: Clean stale build intermediates
        run: |
          # Gitignored DerivedData persists between runs on the dedicated
          # runner. Stale .o files from a prior failed/interrupted build cause
          # Swift incremental compilation crashes (exit 65).
          rm -rf {{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}DerivedData/Build


      - name: Install xcpretty
        run: |
          gem install xcpretty -v 0.4.1 --user-install --no-document
          echo "XCPRETTY=$(ruby -e 'puts File.join(Gem.user_dir, "bin", "xcpretty")')" >> $GITHUB_ENV


      - name: Build + Test (macOS)
        id: tests
        timeout-minutes: 12
        run: |
          set -o pipefail
          rm -rf TestResults-macos.xcresult


          EXIT_CODE=0
          xcodebuild test \
            -project "{{XCODEPROJ}}" \
            -scheme <YourMacOSScheme> \
            -destination 'platform=macOS' \
            -derivedDataPath {{COMPONENT_PREFIX}}DerivedData \
            -only-testing:<YourMacOSTestTarget> \
            -parallel-testing-enabled NO \
            -resultBundlePath TestResults-macos.xcresult \
            CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO \
            CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED=NO \
          2>&1 | tee xcodebuild-macos.log | $XCPRETTY --color --test || EXIT_CODE=$?


          # Exit code 65 is a known spurious Swift Testing failure. Confirm via
          # xcresulttool before trusting it — never assume pass on a code we
          # can't explain.
          if [ $EXIT_CODE -eq 65 ]; then
            if [ ! -d "TestResults-macos.xcresult" ]; then
              echo "::error::No test results found — tests may not have run"
              grep -iE 'error:|fatal|failed|ld:|actool|CodeSign' xcodebuild-macos.log | tail -60
              exit 1
            fi
            # Modern `get test-results summary`. The legacy `get --format json`
            # form this recipe used is refused by current Xcode ("--legacy flag
            # is required"), so XCRESULT_JSON came back empty, ALL_SUCCEEDED was
            # always "false", and every spurious exit-65 was reported as a
            # failure — fail-closed, but it defeated the entire point of the
            # workaround. ios-ci.yml had the same call in a fail-OPEN position;
            # see its "Run Tests" step.
            set +e
            SUMMARY_JSON=$(xcrun xcresulttool get test-results summary --path TestResults-macos.xcresult 2>/dev/null)
            SUMMARY_EXIT=$?
            set -e
            RESULT=$(echo "$SUMMARY_JSON" | jq -r '.result // empty' 2>/dev/null)
            FAILED_COUNT=$(echo "$SUMMARY_JSON" | jq -r '.failedTests // empty' 2>/dev/null)
            if [ $SUMMARY_EXIT -eq 0 ] && [ "$RESULT" = "Passed" ] && [ "$FAILED_COUNT" = "0" ]; then
              echo "All tests passed (0 failed). Exit code 65 was spurious."
              exit 0
            fi
            echo "::error::Test failures detected via xcresult (or inconclusive: exit=$SUMMARY_EXIT result=$RESULT failed=$FAILED_COUNT)"
            grep -iE 'error:|fatal|failed|ld:|actool|CodeSign' xcodebuild-macos.log | tail -60
            exit 65
          elif [ $EXIT_CODE -ne 0 ]; then
            echo "::error::xcodebuild failed with exit code $EXIT_CODE — raw tail:"
            grep -iE 'error:|fatal|failed|ld:|actool|CodeSign' xcodebuild-macos.log | tail -60
            exit $EXIT_CODE
          fi


      - name: Upload Test Results
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v7.0.1
        if: always()
        continue-on-error: true
        with:
          name: macos-test-results
          path: TestResults-macos.xcresult
          if-no-files-found: ignore
          retention-days: 1

Then add macos to the ci-ok job’s needs: list so it’s part of the single required check, not a separate unenforced job.

The source implementation this recipe is adapted from also validates its SPM cache for corruption (a cache saved mid-download from a cancelled run can be missing inner .framework bundles inside an .xcframework) before trusting a cache hit — worth adding if you keep actions/cache for SPM on this job (see the SPM-cache note in the macOS-only recipe above; the same open question applies here).

Living with a hand-edited managed file

Section titled “Living with a hand-edited managed file”

ios-ci.yml is a lacquer-managed asset — normally synced verbatim. Adding a job to your own copy means lacquer audit will show it as locally-modified from then on, and a plain lacquer sync will refuse to overwrite it (the clobber guard) rather than silently dropping your job. When you want to pull in a lacquer update to the rest of the file, either re-apply the macos job after sync --force, or promote this pattern into the lacquer properly once a third project needs it (see skill-authoring-standard’s placement guidance) so it stops being a per-project patch.