Scipio proposes a new workflow to integrate dependencies into your applications.

This product is highly inspired by Carthage and swift-create-xcframework.

SwiftPM is the best way to integrate dependencies into your app. However, build artifacts built by Xcode are difficult to cache.

On the other hand, XCFramework is a good way to keep binaries portable.

Scipio provides a new hybrid way to manage dependencies.

First, use SwiftPM to resolve dependencies and checkout repositories. After that, this tool converts each dependency into XCFramework.

See Scipio Official Documentation for detail.

The concept of Scipio, all dependencies wanted to be used in your application should be defined in one Package manifest.

prepare command is to build all dependencies as XCFrameworks in the manifest.

This mode is called prepare mode. See Prepare All Dependencies for Your Application for detail.

// swift-tools-version: 5.6
// The swift-tools-version declares the minimum version of Swift required to build this package.

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "MyAppDependencies",
    platforms: [
        // Specify platforms to build
        .iOS(.v14),
    ],
    products: [],
    dependencies: [
        // Add dependencies
        .package(url: "https://github.com/onevcat/APNGKit.git", exact: "2.2.1"),
    ],
    targets: [
        .target(
            name: "MyAppDependency",
            dependencies: [
                // List all dependencies to build
                .product(name: "APNGKit", package: "APNGKit"),
            ]),
    ]
)

$ scipio prepare path/to/MyAppDependencies
> 🔁 Resolving Dependencies...
> 🗑️ Cleaning MyAppDependencies...
> 📦 Building APNGKit for iOS
> 🚀 Combining into XCFramework...
> 📦 Building Delegate for iOS
> 🚀 Combining into XCFramework...
> ❇️ Succeeded.

All XCFrameworks are generated into MyAppDependencies/XCFramework by default.

Scipio disables to support Library Evolution feature by default.

It means built frameworks can be used only from products built with the same Swift version.

The primary reason why is Library Evolution limitation. In fact, some packages can't build with enabling Library Evolution. (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/123253, apple/swift-collections#94, apple/swift-nio#1257)

If you want to distribute generated XCFrameworks, it's recommended to enable Library Evolution. Pass --enable-library-evolution flag if you need. However, it means some packages can't be built.

By default, Scipio checks whether re-building is required or not for existing XCFrameworks.

$ swift run scipio prepare --cache-policy project path/to/MyAppDependencies
> 🔁 Resolving Dependencies...
> 🗑️ Cleaning MyAppDependency...
> ✅ Valid APNGKit.xcframework is exists. Skip building.
> ✅ Valid Delegate.xcframework is exists. Skip building.
> ❇️ Succeeded.

Scipio supports Project/Local Disk/Remote Disk cache backends.

Using a remote cache, share built XCFrameworks among developers.

See Learn the Cache System for details.

Scipio also can generate XCFrameworks from a specific Swift Package. This feature is similar to swift-create-xcframework.

$ scipio create path/to/MyPackage
> 🔁 Resolving Dependencies...
> 🗑️ Cleaning MyPackage...
> 📦 Building MyPackage for iOS
> 🚀 Combining into XCFramework...
> ❇️ Succeeded.

See Convert Single Swift Package to XCFramework for detail.

Scipio only builts with standard dependencies and Apple official tools to keep reliability.

Just run swift package resolve.

Scipio depends on swift-package-manager as a library.

Parsing package manifests and generating Xcode project is provided from the package. So it will be maintained in the future.

Scipio only uses xcodebuild to build Frameworks and XCFrameworks.

Scipio names after a historical story about Carthage.