xtool-mirror/Documentation/xtool.docc/Installation-Linux.md

Installation (Linux/Windows)

Set up xtool for iOS app development on Linux or Windows.

Overview

This article outlines the steps to install xtool and begin developing iOS apps on Linux (or Windows via WSL).

Prerequisites

WSL (for Windows users)

If you're on Windows, you can use xtool via Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Once you install WSL, you'll also need to set up USB passthrough. See Microsoft's instructions on installing USBIPD. Make sure you're able to bind your iOS device to WSL via USB.

Swift

Install the Swift 6.2 toolchain for your Linux distribution from https://swift.org/install/linux.

After following the steps there, confirm that Swift is installed correctly:

swift --version
# should say something like:
# Swift version 6.2 (swift-6.2-RELEASE)

usbmuxd

xtool relies on usbmuxd to talk to your iOS device from Linux.

Your Linux distro probably offers this package, and it may be preinstalled. To check if it is, run

usbmuxd --help
# Usage: usbmuxd [OPTIONS]
# ...

If instead you get "command not found", you need to install usbmuxd yourself. On Ubuntu/Debian, for example, you can do this with

sudo apt-get install usbmuxd

Other useful tools:

usbmuxd is part of the libimobiledevice project. You may want to install other libimobiledevice tools, such as ideviceinfo, that offer many ways to interact with your iOS device from the command line. On Ubuntu/Debian, you can run

sudo apt-get install libimobiledevice-utils
# The following NEW packages will be installed:
#   libimobiledevice-utils
# 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed
ideviceinfo
# DeviceName: Kabir's iPhone
# SerialNumber: ...
# UniqueDeviceID: ...
# ...

Xcode.xip

Download Xcode 26 from https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_26.0.1/Xcode_26.0.1_Apple_silicon.xip. Note the path where Xcode_26.0.1_Apple_silicon.xip is saved.

Note:

The URL above requires authentication, so make sure to visit it in your browser rather than running curl. You'll be asked to log in with your Apple ID and accept the license agreement to download Xcode.

Installation

1. Download xtool

Once you have the prerequisites, download the latest GitHub Release of xtool.AppImage for your architecture. Rename it to xtool and add it to a location in your PATH.

curl -fL \
  "https://github.com/xtool-org/xtool/releases/latest/download/xtool-$(uname -m).AppImage" \
  -o xtool
chmod +x xtool
sudo mv xtool /usr/local/bin/

Confirm that xtool is installed correctly:

xtool --help
# OVERVIEW: Cross-platform Xcode replacement
# ...

2. Configure xtool: log in

Perform one-time setup with

xtool setup

You'll be asked to log in:

Select login mode
0: API Key (requires paid Apple Developer Program membership)
1: Password (works with any Apple ID but uses private APIs)
Choice (0-1):

Choosing a login mode:

API Key: If you have a paid Apple Developer Program membership, this is the recommended option. It relies on the public App Store Connect API. You'll want to follow the instructions to generate a Team Key with the App Manager role.

Password: If you aren't enrolled in the paid developer program, you'll want to use password-based authentication. This relies on private Apple APIs to authenticate, so you may want to create a throwaway Apple ID to be extra cautious.

Once you select a login mode, you'll be asked to provide the corresponding credentials (API key or email+password+2FA). Needless to say, your credentials are only sent to Apple and nobody else (feel free to build xtool from source and check!)

3. Configure xtool: SDK

After you're logged in, you'll be asked to provide the path to the Xcode.xip file you downloaded earlier.

Choice (0-1): 0
...
Path to Xcode.xip:

Enter the path (for example ~/Downloads/Xcode_16.3.xip) and hit enter. xtool will extract the Xcode XIP to generate and install an iOS Swift SDK for you.

Confirm that it worked:

swift sdk list
# darwin

Next steps

You're now ready to use xtool! See doc:First-app.