Agent Skills
Prime your agent with XcodeBuildMCP's conventions so it stops guessing flag names.
XcodeBuildMCP ships with two optional agent skills:
- MCP Skill: how to call MCP tools. Optional when you're already using the MCP server, because Claude Code already receives equivalent guidance via server instructions.
- CLI Skill: how to navigate the CLI. Recommended when your agent drives the terminal.
Install
xcodebuildmcp initThis auto-detects installed AI clients (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) and installs the CLI skill into the right directory for each.
Options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--skill cli | Install the CLI skill (default). |
--skill mcp | Install the MCP skill. |
--client claude | Install to Claude only. Other targets: cursor, codex. |
--dest /path/to/dir | Install to a custom directory. |
--force | Overwrite an existing skill. |
--remove-conflict | Auto-remove a conflicting variant (MCP vs CLI). |
--uninstall | Remove an installed skill. |
--print | Print skill content to stdout instead of installing. |
When installing --skill mcp in auto-detect mode, Claude Code targets are skipped: Claude already receives MCP guidance through server instructions. Pass --client claude explicitly to force install.
Unsupported clients
For clients without a skills directory, print the skill and pipe it where you need it:
xcodebuildmcp init --print --skill mcp > my-mcp-skill.mdThen paste it into your client's instructions area, or feed it as system prompt context.
Why skills
The skills prime the agent with:
- Tool names and their CLI equivalents
- Session-defaults workflow (
session_set_defaultsfirst, then minimal calls) - Build-and-run as the preferred one-shot instead of separate build/install/launch
- Structured next-step hints after each tool call
Agents without the skill still work; they just spend more tokens rediscovering conventions.
Related
- agentskills.io
- The upstream skill sources live in skills/.