The Xcode Plugin generate files that are used by the Xcode IDE to open Gradle projects into Xcode (File - Open…​). The generated Xcode project delegates build actions to Gradle.

What exactly the xcode plugin generates depends on which other plugins are used:

Table 1. Xcode Plugin behavior
Plugin Description

None

Generates minimal solution file.

C++ Application

Adds a target representing the C++ application to the project file.

C++ Library

Adds a target for each specified linkage representing the shared and/or static library to the project file.

Swift Application

Adds a target representing the Swift application to the project file.

Swift Library

Adds a target for each specified linkage representing the shared and/or static library to the project file.

XCTest

Adds a target representing the XCTest bundle to the project file.

Usage

Example 1. Applying the Xcode Plugin
build.gradle.kts
plugins {
    xcode
}
build.gradle
plugins {
    id 'xcode'
}

Tasks

The Xcode Plugin adds a number of tasks to your project. The main tasks that you will use are the xcode, cleanXcode and openXcode tasks.

The following diagram shows the relationships between tasks added by this plugin.

xcode task graph
Figure 1. Xcode Plugin default task graph

Lifecycle Tasks

xcode — Task

Depends on: projectNameXcodeWorkspace and all xcodeProject tasks

Generates all Xcode configuration files.

cleanXcode — Delete

Depends on: all Xcode project and workspace file clean tasks

Removes all Xcode configuration files.

openXcode - Task

Depends on: xcode

Open the Xcode workspace inside the IDE.

IDE Workspace Tasks

xcodeWorkspaceWorkspaceSettings - GenerateWorkspaceSettingsFileTask

Generates the projectName.xcworkspace file. This task is only available on the root project.

xcodeWorkspace - GenerateXcodeProjectFileTask

Depends on: xcodeWorkspaceWorkspaceSettings

Generates the projectName.xcworkspace file. This task is only available on the root project.

IDE Project Tasks

Both the C++ Application Plugin and C++ Library Plugin introduce the same tasks for generating Xcode projects to be included in an Xcode workspace.

xcodeProjectWorkspaceSettings — GenerateWorkspaceSettingsFileTask

Generates the projectName.xcodeproj/project.xcworkspace/xcshareddata/WorkspaceSettings.xcsettings file.

xcodeScheme — GenerateSchemeFileTask

Generates the projectName.xcodeproj/xcshareddata/xcschemes/ProjectName.xcscheme file.

xcodeProject — GenerateXcodeProjectFileTask

Depends on: xcodeProjectWorkspaceSettings and xcodeScheme (if buildable binary present)

Generates the projectName.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj file.

Configuration

The Xcode Plugin doesn’t allows any customization of the generated files.