CiderFlight™ v2.0.0 Technical Documentation

CiderFlight™ is a zero-dependency Linux iOS/SwiftUI/ARKit static type-checker, <200ms expression timeout guard, and native headless runtime simulator built atop the official open-source Swift 6.0.3 Linux compiler (swiftc).

How the 3-Pass Verification Pipeline Works

When you run ciderflight check App.swift --max-expr-ms 200 --run-tests, CiderFlight executes three deterministic passes in ~2.0 seconds:

Pass 1 (Preprocessor): Unlocks #if canImport(UIKit | ARKit | SceneKit | PDFKit) so device-only paths are never skipped on Linux.
Pass 2 (Swift 6 Typecheck): Compiles against SwiftPlaygroundsSDKShim.swift (3,341 LOC) with -warn-long-expression-type-checking=200.
Pass 3 (Headless Execution): Links a native linux-x86_64 / arm64 binary and runs your @Test / smoke-test assertions in <100ms.

2. CLI Installation & License Key Activation

Install the CiderFlight CLI on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian, Windows WSL2, or any Docker container:

curl -fsSL https://ciderflight.dev/install.sh | sh

# Set your Pro, CI Team, or OEM key purchased via Stripe:
export CIDERFLIGHT_LICENSE_KEY="cf_live_your_stripe_key_here"

# Verify a single file or directory and emit structured JSON:
ciderflight check Sources/ --max-expr-ms 200 --run-tests --json

3. Cursor, Claude Code & Windsurf MCP Server Setup

CiderFlight exposes two Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools to your AI coding agent: verify_ios_swift and run_ios_headless_test. Whenever the AI writes or edits a .swift file, it automatically invokes CiderFlight, parses exact line/column type errors and >200ms slow expressions, and fixes them before returning control to you.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ciderflight": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ciderflight/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CIDERFLIGHT_LICENSE_KEY": "cf_live_your_stripe_key_here",
        "CIDERFLIGHT_MAX_EXPR_MS": "200"
      }
    }
  }
}

4. GitHub Actions CI Team Setup (`ciderflight/check@v1`)

Add CIDERFLIGHT_LICENSE_KEY to your repository's Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions, then add this job in front of your macos-15 build job:

jobs:
  ciderflight-preflight:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: ciderflight/check@v1
        with:
          target: "Sources/**/*.swift"
          max-expression-ms: 200
          run-headless-tests: true
          license-key: ${{ secrets.CIDERFLIGHT_LICENSE_KEY }}

5. Full 15-Framework Clean-Room Shim Matrix

Framework	Key Shimmed Types, Modifiers & Headless Runtime Behaviors	Edition
`SwiftUI`	`View`, `@State`, `@Binding`, `@ObservedObject`, `@AppStorage`, `NavigationStack`, `NavigationSplitView`, `Form`, `LazyVGrid`, `Canvas`, `Sheet`, `Alert`	Student & Pro
`Observation` & `Combine`	`@Observable`, `ObservableObject`, `@Published`, `PassthroughSubject`, `AnyCancellable`	Student & Pro
`UIKit`	`UIColor`, `UIImage`, `UIFont`, `UIView`, `UIViewRepresentable`, `UIHostingController`, `UIScreen`, `UIImpactFeedbackGenerator`	Pro / Team / OEM
`ARKit` & `SceneKit`	`ARSCNView`, `ARSession`, `ARWorldTrackingConfiguration`, `ARPlaneAnchor`, `ARMeshAnchor`, `ARWorldMap`, `SCNNode`, `SCNGeometry`, `SCNMaterial`	Pro / Team / OEM
`Charts`	`Chart`, `BarMark`, `LineMark`, `AreaMark`, `PointMark`, `RuleMark`, `SectorMark`, `PlottableValue`	Pro / Team / OEM
`MapKit` & `CoreLocation`	`Map`, `Marker`, `Annotation`, `MapCameraPosition`, `MKCoordinateRegion`, `CLLocation` (with real spherical distance math), `CLLocationManager`	Pro / Team / OEM
`StoreKit 2` & `AuthServices`	`Product`, `Transaction`, `VerificationResult`, `SignInWithAppleButton`, `ASAuthorization`	Pro / Team / OEM
`PDFKit`, `ReplayKit`, `CoreMotion`, `simd`	`UIGraphicsPDFRenderer` (emits valid `%PDF-1.4` bytes), `PDFDocument`, `RPScreenRecorder`, `CMMotionManager`, `simd_float4x4`, `simd_inverse` (exact 4x4 cofactor inverse)	Pro / Team / OEM

6. Honest Technical Boundaries (What Still Uses macOS / Xcode)

CiderFlight is built by senior iOS engineers for senior iOS engineers. Here is the exact demarcation between what CiderFlight verifies in 2 seconds on Linux versus what remains in your final macOS release step:

What CiderFlight Handles on Linux (95% of daily coding & PR loops): 100% of Swift 6 syntax, generics, concurrency, protocol conformance, <200ms SwiftUI ViewBuilder type-check budgets, unlocked #if canImport device blocks, and headless ViewModel / math / PDF / state-tree binary tests.
What Still Requires Final macOS Xcode Archiving: Final App Store Connect .ipa code-signing (xcodebuild archive), binary asset catalog compilation (actool), Metal GPU shader compilation (.metal → .metallib), and pixel-rasterized CoreAnimation screenshot testing.

7. AI Platform / Enterprise OEM Multi-Tenant Docker Container

For browser-based AI app builders and cloud IDEs licensed under the AI Platform OEM Tier ($999–$2,500/mo), pull the pre-warmed gRPC/HTTP verification microservice container:

docker login registry.ciderflight.dev -u oem -p $CIDERFLIGHT_OEM_KEY
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 \
  -e CIDERFLIGHT_OEM_KEY=$CIDERFLIGHT_OEM_KEY \
  registry.ciderflight.dev/ciderflight-engine:v1.0-swift603