xcsift

A Swift command-line tool to parse and format xcodebuild/SPM output for coding agents, optimized for token efficiency.

Overview

xcsift transforms verbose Xcode build output into concise, structured formats that coding agents and LLMs can efficiently parse and act upon. Unlike xcbeautify and xcpretty which focus on human-readable output, xcsift prioritizes information density and machine readability.

Features

• Multiple output formats — JSON (default), TOON (30-60% fewer tokens), GitHub Actions
• Structured error reporting — errors, warnings, linker errors, test failures with file/line locations
• Automatic code coverage — converts .profraw (SPM) and .xcresult (xcodebuild) to JSON
• Build info — per-target phases, timing, dependencies, and slowest targets
• Test analysis — slow test detection, flaky test detection, duration tracking
• GitHub Actions integration — auto-detected workflow annotations with inline PR comments
• Configuration files — .xcsift.toml for project or user-wide defaults
• Quiet/Werror/exit-on-failure modes — for CI pipelines
• xcbeautify/Tuist input — parse pre-formatted output with --xcbeautify

See the full documentation for details.

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install xcsift

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/ldomaradzki/xcsift.git
cd xcsift
swift build -c release
cp .build/release/xcsift /usr/local/bin/

Also available via mise and Mint.

Plugin Installation

Integrate with coding assistants via built-in installers:

Assistant	Install	Uninstall
Claude Code	xcsift install-claude-code	xcsift uninstall-claude-code
Codex	xcsift install-codex	xcsift uninstall-codex
Cursor	xcsift install-cursor	xcsift uninstall-cursor

See Plugin Installation for options and verification steps.

Quick Start

Pipe any xcodebuild or SPM command through xcsift. Always use 2>&1 to capture stderr.

# Build
xcodebuild build 2>&1 | xcsift
swift build 2>&1 | xcsift

# Test with coverage
swift test --enable-code-coverage 2>&1 | xcsift --coverage
xcodebuild test -enableCodeCoverage YES 2>&1 | xcsift -c --coverage-details

# TOON format (30-60% fewer tokens)
xcodebuild build 2>&1 | xcsift -f toon -w

# Warnings as errors + exit on failure (CI)
xcodebuild build 2>&1 | xcsift --Werror --exit-on-failure

# Configuration file
xcsift --init                    # Generate .xcsift.toml template

See Usage for the full CLI reference, Output Formats for JSON/TOON/GitHub Actions details, and Configuration for config file options.

Comparison with xcbeautify/xcpretty

Feature	xcsift	xcbeautify	xcpretty
Target audience	Coding agents / LLMs / CI	Humans / CI	Humans
Output format	JSON + TOON + GH Actions	Colorized text + GH Actions	Formatted text
Token efficiency	Very High (TOON)	Medium	Low
LLM optimization	Yes (TOON format)	No	No
Machine readable	Yes	No	Limited
GitHub Actions	Yes (auto-detected)	Yes	No
Error extraction	Structured	Visual	Visual
Linker errors	Yes (structured)	No	No
Code coverage	Auto-converts	No	No
Build time	Fast	Fast	Slower

Platform Support

• macOS 15+: Full support including code coverage
• Linux (Swift 6.0+): Build/test parsing supported; coverage features unavailable

Development

swift build                            # Build
swift test                             # Run tests
swift format --recursive --in-place .  # Format (required before committing)

Documentation source is in Sources/xcsift.docc/. Preview locally:

swift package --disable-sandbox preview-documentation --target xcsift

Hosted docs: ldomaradzki.github.io/xcsift

License

MIT License