The best command-line tool to install and switch between multiple versions of Xcode.
If you're looking for an app version of xcodes, try Xcodes.app.
Xcodes is now part of the XcodesOrg - read more here
brew install xcodesorg/made/xcodes
These are Developer ID-signed and notarized release builds and don't require Xcode to already be installed in order to use.
Other methods:
Download a release
Download the latest release from the Releases page. These are Developer ID-signed release builds and don't require Xcode to already be installed in order to use.
Using Mint
mint install XcodesOrg/xcodes
Build from source
Building from source requires a Swift 6.0 or newer toolchain (Xcode 16 or later). The package declares macOS 13 as its minimum macOS deployment target; the selected Xcode version may require a newer macOS version to run. Install and select a full Xcode installation before building, so this is not an option for setting up a computer from scratch. Swift Package Manager downloads dependencies automatically.
git clone https://github.com/XcodesOrg/xcodes cd xcodes make install # Or install into a user-owned directory make install prefix="$HOME/.local"
The default installation location is /usr/local/bin/xcodes, which must be
writable. The Makefile variable is lowercase prefix, not PREFIX; executables
are installed into <prefix>/bin. Add that directory to your PATH if needed.
You can also override bindir directly.
make builds without installing. Both make and make install produce a
universal arm64 and x86_64 executable using release configuration, with Swift
optimization disabled (-Onone) as a historical compiler workaround and the
build sandbox disabled. Local builds and installation do not invoke the
Makefile's Developer ID signing or notarization steps.
The Makefile expects .build/apple/Products/Release/xcodes. Some toolchains
instead produce .build/out/Products/Release/xcodes, also accessible through
the .build/release symlink. If the build succeeds but installation reports
No such file or directory for the expected executable, check the build output
and override RELEASEBUILDDIR with the actual executable path:
make install prefix="$HOME/.local" \ RELEASEBUILDDIR="$PWD/.build/out/Products/Release/xcodes" "$HOME/.local/bin/xcodes" version "$HOME/.local/bin/xcodes" --help
This override was verified with an installation into a temporary prefix:
the installed executable contained both arm64 and x86_64 architectures, reported
version 2.1.0, and successfully displayed help. The default build succeeded,
but installation required the path override on that toolchain. A warning about
x86_64 being deprecated for the active macOS 27.0 deployment target did not
prevent the universal build from completing. These were build and CLI smoke
checks, not a test-suite run.
Run make clean to remove .build, including downloaded dependency checkouts.
To remove an installed executable, run make uninstall with the same prefix
or bindir used for installation, for example make uninstall prefix="$HOME/.local".
Cleaning build artifacts does not uninstall the executable.
While installing, you may get the following output:
swift build error: terminated(72): xcrun --sdk macosx --find xctest output:
If that occurs, select a full Xcode installation with xcode-select or by choosing a Command Line Tools option in Xcode's Settings > Locations tab. Use swift --version and xcode-select --print-path to check the active toolchain.
Install a specific version of Xcode using a command like one of these:
xcodes install 10.2.1 xcodes install 11 Beta 7 xcodes install 11.2 GM seed xcodes install 9.0 --path ~/Archive/Xcode_9.xip xcodes install 27.3 Beta --path ~/Archive/Xcode_27.3_beta.aea xcodes install --latest-prerelease xcodes install --latest --directory "/Volumes/Bag Of Holding/" xcodes install --latest --experimental-unxip
Installing an .aea archive requires macOS with archiveutil extractXcodeAEA. If Xcode Releases has an outdated link, try installing with --data-source apple.
You'll then be prompted to enter your Apple ID username and password. You can also provide these with the XCODES_USERNAME and XCODES_PASSWORD environment variables.
After successfully authenticating, xcodes will save your Apple ID password into the keychain and will remember your Apple ID for future use. If you need to use a different Apple ID than the one that's remembered, set the XCODES_USERNAME environment variable.
xcodes will download and install the version you asked for so that it's ready to use.
(1/6) Downloading Xcode 11.2.0: 100%
(2/6) Unarchiving Xcode (This can take a while)
(3/6) Moving Xcode to /Applications/Xcode-11.2.0.app
(4/6) Moving Xcode archive Xcode-11.2.0.xip to the Trash
(5/6) Checking security assessment and code signing
(6/6) Finishing installation
xcodes requires superuser privileges in order to finish installation.
macOS User Password:
Xcode 11.2.0 has been installed to /Applications/Xcode-11.2.0.appIf you have aria2 installed (it's available in Homebrew, brew install aria2), then xcodes will default to use it for downloads. It uses up to 16 connections to download Xcode 3-5x faster than URLSession.
Xcode will be installed to /Applications by default, but you can provide the path to a different directory with the --directory option or the XCODES_DIRECTORY environment variable. All of the xcodes commands support this option, like select and uninstall, so you can manage Xcode versions that aren't in /Applications. xcodes supports having all of your Xcode versions installed in one directory, wherever that may be.
The list and runtimes commands show architecture availability when Apple provides it. Universal downloads are labeled [Universal], Apple Silicon-only downloads are labeled [Apple Silicon], and Intel-only downloads are labeled [Intel].
You can filter either list by architecture or variant with --architecture arm64, --architecture x86_64, --architecture appleSilicon, or --architecture universal. These filters are exact: arm64 and appleSilicon show Apple Silicon-only downloads, x86_64 shows Intel-only downloads, and universal shows downloads that support both architectures. The option can be used multiple times.
xcodes list --architecture arm64 xcodes list --architecture universal xcodes runtimes --architecture arm64 --architecture universal --include-betas
Run this command line to display the available runtimes
xcodes runtimes --include-betas
Install the wanted Runtime (ex. iOS 17.0-beta1)
xcodes runtimes install "iOS 17.0-beta1"We recommend the creation of a .xcode-version file to explicitly declare and store the Xcode version to be used by your CI environment as well as your team.
13.4.1
Read the proposal of .xcode-version.
download <version>: Download a specific version of Xcodeinstall <version>: Download and install a specific version of Xcodeinstalled: List the versions of Xcode that are installedlist: List all versions of Xcode that are available to installselect: Change the selected Xcodeuninstall: Uninstall a specific version of Xcodeupdate: Update the list of available versions of Xcodeversion: Print the version number of xcodes itselfsignout: Clears the stored username and password
Thanks to the amazing work by saagarjhi - Xcodes now includes the ability to unxip up to 70% faster on some systems.
xcodes install --latest --experimental-unxip
xcodes can generate completion scripts which allow you to press the tab key on your keyboard to autocomplete commands and arguments when typing an xcodes command. The steps to install a completion script depend on the shell that you use. More information about installation instructions for different shells and the underlying implementation is available in the swift-argument-parser repo.
Zsh, with oh-my-zsh:
Run the following commands:
mkdir ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions xcodes --generate-completion-script > ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions/_xcodes
You'll need Swift 6.0 or newer (Xcode 16 or later) to build and run xcodes.
See Build from source for installation prerequisites and
Makefile troubleshooting. The .swift-version file still contains the historical
value 5.3; use the tools version declared in Package.swift as the requirement.
Using Xcode
Even though xcodes is a command-line app, all of the normal functionality works in Xcode, like building, running, and running tests. You can even type text into Xcode's console when it prompts you for input like your Apple ID or 2FA code.When running xcodes from Xcode, if you want to run a particular command or pass some arguments, you can hold the option key to present a sheet with more options. This means you'd use Option + Command + R or hold Option while clicking the Run button. Here you can add, remove, and toggle arguments that will be passed to xcodes when it's launched.
Using Swift command line tools
You can also use the Swift command line tools once you have Xcode installed:- Build:
swift build - Run:
swift run, or commands likeswift run xcodes list - Run tests:
swift test
There's a Makefile to help build xcodes for distribution. We already do this for you in order to provide Developer ID-signed and notarized release builds via Homebrew (see Installation).
The sign, zip, bottle, and notarize targets use a hardcoded maintainer
signing identity and require the corresponding certificate and private key.
They are not necessary for local development or installation.
Releasing a new version of xcodes
# Bump the version number in Version.swift, commit the change, and tag it vim Sources/XcodesKit/Version.swift git add Sources/XcodesKit/Version.swift git commit -m "Bump version to $VERSION" git tag -asm "$VERSION" "$VERSION" # Run the release automation ./release.sh --version "$VERSION" --team-id "ABC123" # Or run the release steps manually: # Clean first make clean # Make a release build of xcodes, sign it, and zip it make zip # Create a Homebrew bottle make bottle VERSION="$VERSION" # Duplicate the Homebrew bottle for all expected platform filenames cp "xcodes-$VERSION.mojave.bottle.tar.gz" "xcodes-$VERSION.arm64_mojave.bottle.tar.gz" cp "xcodes-$VERSION.mojave.bottle.tar.gz" "xcodes-$VERSION.macos.i386.bottle.tar.gz" cp "xcodes-$VERSION.mojave.bottle.tar.gz" "xcodes-$VERSION.macos.arm64.bottle.tar.gz" # Notarize the release build # This can take a while make notarize \ TEAMID="ABC123" # Push the new version bump commit and tag when ready git push --follow-tags # Edit the draft release created by Release Drafter to point at the new tag # Set the release title to the new version # Add the xcodes.zip and xcodes-$VERSION.*.bottle.tar.gz files to the release # Publish the release # Update the Homebrew Bottle: https://github.com/XcodesOrg/homebrew-made/blob/master/Formula/xcodes.rb
Notable design decisions are recorded in DECISIONS.md. The Apple authentication flow is described in Apple.paw, which will allow you to play with the API endpoints that are involved using the Paw app.
xcode-install and fastlane/spaceship both deserve credit for figuring out the hard parts of what makes this possible.