Xcode Index MCP
Gives Goose/Cursor access to your iOS/macOS project index through the Model Control Protocol (MCP) and IndexStoreDB. This provides exhaustive lists of function call sites to help your agent with refactoring and code navigation.
README Documentation
Xcode Index MCP
Gives Goose/Cursor access to your iOS/macOS project index through the Model Control Protocol (MCP) and IndexStoreDB. This provides exhaustive lists of function call sites to help your agent with refactoring and code navigation.
Example prompt
"Remove myParameter
from the initializer on line 48 of MyViewController.swift
. Use the Xcode Index MCP to ensure all references are updated."
How to use
-
Install
uv
(Python package manager) and runuv sync
brew install uv cd /path/to/this/repo uv sync
-
Build the Swift service (Xcode must be installed)
cd swift-service swift build
This step is required as it provides the interface to Xcode's index.
-
Install in Agent of your choice
Goose:
Go to settings and add a custom extension. In the modal that pops up, under the
command
field, add this line:uv run /Users/<USERNAME>/Development/xcode-index-mcp/.venv/bin/xcode-index-mcp
Note: Replace
<USERNAME>
with your actual system username.The rest should look something like this:
Cursor:
Go to
Settings > MCP > Add new global MCP server
. Update mcp.json (typically located in your Cursor configuration directory) to look something like this:{ "mcpServers": { "Xcode Index MCP": { "command": "uv", "args": ["run", "/Users/<USERNAME>/Development/xcode-index-mcp/.venv/bin/xcode-index-mcp"] } } }
Note: Replace
<USERNAME>
with your actual system username. -
Update
.gooseHints
orcursorRules
in your project to tell your agent how to use the plugin. Replace the project name with the name of your project as it appears in the derived data folder.Use tool `xcode-index-mcp` if available. Use project name <Your project name here>. The tool can locate call sites of functions, and function definitions from call sites. If you need a filepath to make a request, use `rg` to find the file and `rg -n` to find the line number. Use the absolute path when requesting symbols from a file.
For Cursor, you may want to add these instructions in their own rule file - at the time of writing I don't think cursor reads the MCP
instructions
field.
Running tests
To run tests for Swift, cd into swift-service
and run swift test
.
How it works
The tool consists of two main components:
- An MCP server in the
src
directory that handles communication with Goose/Cursor - A Swift service in the
swift-service
directory that interfaces with Xcode's index using Apple'sIndexStoreDB
package
When the MCP server calls 'load_index', the Swift service will look through Xcode's derived data directory for a project file. When found it will attempt to load the project's index. Queries are passed from the MCP server to the index through a subset of the methods provided in IndexStoreDB.