What problem or need do you have?

We have been using Tuist for a while already, and it successfully solves most of our problems. But there are some areas where we need to add some hacks to modify default tuist behavior. One of these areas is embedding static frameworks.

The problem

We rely on precompiled xcframeworks to embed our 3rdParty dependencies, it helps to improve CI built time + some of the frameworks are just not available in any other ways.

These frameworks can be static or dynamic and some of them also have resource bundles inside.

• For dynamic frameworks Tuist doing pretty well - it detects that the framework is dynamic and instead of just linking also embeds the framework into the top-level target (and enables code signing). in that case, the resource bundle can be properly accessed from the framework.
• In the case of static frameworks the current behavior is different. Since the framework is static - usually there is no need to embed it, just need to link it. And that's what Tuist is doing.

But if a static framework has a resource bundle inside, we are getting a problem. Tuist generates a project file that just links the framework and does not embed it. Without embedding - that resource bundle will not be copied into the app bundle, so the framework will not be able to access its resources.

Workarounds I tried:

• There is no way to configure xcframework to be embedded - the choice happens automatically under the hood based on framework type
• I tried to add one more copy files step, that copies the framework into the Frameworks directory. The framework will be embedded and it's even possible to access the framework bundle on debug builds.

copyFiles: [
    .frameworks(name: "TestFramework", files: [
       .folderReference(path: "3rdParty/Deps/TestFramework.xcframework")
    ])
],

Unfortunately, this option doesn't allow me to code-sign the framework. As a result, all TestFlight and Firebase builds are not able to launch. That's kind of makes sense.

Failed to verify code signature of /var/installd/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installd.staging/temp.Tjf3SY/extracted/TestApp.app/Frameworks/TestFramework.framework : 0xe800801c (No code signature found.)

So as a result none of the workarounds works for me and I'm out of ideas now.

Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve it?
I understand, that I can always migrate to a dynamic framework/push vendors to provide dynamic frameworks and get proper behavior out of the box, but having a lot of dynamic frameworks in the app seems like a bit not so good idea.

Potential solution

Suggested solution

• It's already possible to create custom copy phases into the Frameworks folder. Also, in the generated project - it's possible to configure code-signing for these files.
  What if Tuist can give a bit more control to devs and make it possible to specify code-sign/not-code sign for these copied files?

• Also, as another option - it would be nice to be able to configure it on TargetDependency.xcframework level. But interface-wise it'll be a bit harder to set up, since it somehow should be defaulted to "always embed" for dynamic frameworks.

macOS version

14.1.2

Tuist version

3.37.0

Xcode version

15.1.0