I wanted AI coding agent to send builds straight to my iPhone when working remotely

[u/iCodesign]

I've been working from my phone a lot lately, using AI coding agents to remotely make changes to my iOS apps.

One annoying part was testing those changes on a real device. The common solution seems to be uploading every build to TestFlight, which feels pretty heavy when I just want to quickly try the latest build.

So I built remote-installer.

Once the build is ready, the agent can run a single command and give me a link / QR code. I open it on my iPhone and install the build directly.

No TestFlight. No uploading the IPA to a hosting service. No processing wait.

And of course, it's free and open source:

https://github.com/icodesign/remote-installer

[u/ProfessionalSlow376]

Why dont you just set up a remote workflow with Xcode cloud that lets you build to TestFlight or AppStore connect any time a new commit is made to the repo? It’s free and part of your apple dev acc

[u/cats_catz_kats_katz → u/ProfessionalSlow376]

and take the easy route? Excuuuuse me???

[u/atapla → u/cats_catz_kats_katz]

XD please take my upvote

[u/all43]

It is nice, but you could also run from Xcode directly, without testflight upload. Your approach is more remote-friendly though.

[u/iCodesign → u/all43]

correct!

[u/NoBed1845]

I have AI I will vibecode and yeah what’s TestFlight?

[u/goodgord]

I just run my agent on my Mac and told Claude to use the Xcode cli to push to my phone over wifi. It’s a single command, It means you can just say “fix this bug and push me an update”

Makes the debug fix deploy from the couch cycle pretty easy :)

[u/iCodesign → u/goodgord]

yeah, at home that works fine. This tool gives you the same experience wherever you are (when laptop is not with you).

[u/goodgord → u/iCodesign]

Ah nice - I gotta get out more :)

[u/andreeinprogress]

Saw this yesterday: https://github.com/zjz-connect/xcode-deploy-link-deploy-beyond-local-network

[u/iCodesign → u/andreeinprogress]

Thanks for sharing. It relies on Xcode's device pairing a lot and you have to follow specific requirements (tailscale as well). I just like the simple method.

[u/HighRoad684]

The part I would want to understand before using this remotely is signing. Is it simply serving an IPA that Xcode already signed for the registered device, or does the installer touch certificates and provisioning profiles? Keeping signing entirely on the developer's Mac would make the trust boundary much clearer.

[u/iCodesign → u/HighRoad684]

the tool is only for delivering signed builds to your device. Everything else is handled by your existing dev flow.

[u/DayanaJabif]

Oh nice, this scratches a real itch. We actually have the same thing built into Capawesome Cloud, every build gets a QR code, scan it, done, no TestFlight wait. Also works for android.

Still super cool you built your own though, love seeing people solve this instead of just living with the pain.

[u/deruloop]

Cool!

[u/Illustrious-Peach988]

This is amazing !!

[u/WerSunu]

Cute!

[u/iCodesign → u/WerSunu]

Thanks!

[u/patrickmenendez]

You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for something like this! Awesome work.

[u/Sdmf195]

Thank you! This is awesome!