How to use Cursor (or VS Code) to Build SwiftUI/iOS Apps

That’s pretty awesome.

If you’re here, you’ve heard of Cursor, the ultra-hyped (and for good reason) AI-centric IDE that web, React Native (ugh), and Android developers have been using to cut their lead times in half, while Apple Developers are stuck with Xcode.

Let’s change that.

Prerequisites

• macOS
• Xcode
• Cursor
• Willpower

Step One: Installing Command Line Tools

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to install Xcode’s command line tools.

xcode-select --install

Step Two: Installing SweetPad

Open your app in Cursor or VS Code. Make sure you open the root folder of the project, not the .xcodeproj or .xcworkspace folder itself.

Next, install the SweetPad VS Code extension (works with Cursor).

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sweetpad.sweetpad

This’ll let us build, run, and clean projects from VS Code. Click on the SweetPad icon in your side/top bar.