Skip to content
TopicTracker
From HackerNewsView original
TranslationTranslation

Baguette: Headless iOS Simulator control via private SimulatorKit APIs

Baguette is an open-source tool that provides headless control over iOS Simulators via private SimulatorKit APIs, enabling automation tasks without GUI interaction on macOS.

Background

Baguette is an open-source tool that lets developers control an iOS Simulator (the software that mimics an iPhone/iPad on a Mac for testing apps) using code, without any graphical interface — this is called "headless" operation. It works by directly accessing private, undocumented APIs from Apple's SimulatorKit framework, which is the low-level engine behind Xcode's standard Simulator app. This matters because headless control enables automated testing, continuous integration pipelines (like GitHub Actions or Jenkins), or programmatic screenshot generation without the overhead of a GUI. However, because it relies on private APIs, Baguette may break with any macOS/Xcode update, is not approved by Apple for App Store workflows, and requires caution (and likely a macOS entitlement workaround) to use.

Related stories