# Apple native UI

> Use when building or reviewing native Apple interfaces, including macOS window behaviour.

Build or review native Apple interfaces, including platform controls, accessibility, state, navigation, and macOS window behavior.

## Facts

- Type: Agent skill
- Discipline: Design
- Author: Karl Koch (https://github.com/kemiljk)
- Upstream: https://github.com/kemiljk/skills/blob/main/skills/apple-native-ui/SKILL.md
- Source file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kemiljk/skills/main/skills/apple-native-ui/SKILL.md (5166 bytes, sha256:52d15ffd4b97f9fedfacd9745c838e745cf312c5650fdd6bc4edeff7c6d58000)
- Licence: MIT
- Upstream copy last changed: 2026-09-17
- Status: listed, not yet ruled on by the curator

## Use it

I want to use the Apple native UI skill by Karl Koch.
This is what it does, in the author's own words: Build or review native Apple interfaces, including platform controls, accessibility, state, navigation, and macOS window behavior.
Download the whole folder at https://github.com/kemiljk/skills/tree/main/skills/apple-native-ui, SKILL.md and every file beside it, into your skills directory: ~/.claude/skills/apple-native-ui/ for Claude Code, ~/.agents/skills/apple-native-ui/ for Codex, ~/.cursor/skills/apple-native-ui/ for Cursor. Get it from the author's repo, not from startupskills.dev.
Then tell me the path you installed it to and how to invoke it.

Nothing here is vendored: install from the author's repo, not from this site. A verbatim copy of the author's file follows for reading, under the licence reproduced after it; the current file is in the author's repo.

## Links

- Page: https://startupskills.dev/kemiljk/apple-native-ui
- Author: https://startupskills.dev/kemiljk
- Index: https://startupskills.dev/llms.txt

## The file itself

---
name: apple-native-ui
description: "Build or review native Apple interfaces, including platform controls, accessibility, state, navigation, and macOS window behavior."
license: MIT
---

# Apple Native UI

Build and review interfaces that feel native because they use the platform's interaction, accessibility, and adaptation contracts—not because they imitate a screenshot.

## Start with the target

Identify the platforms, minimum OS versions, SwiftUI versus UIKit/AppKit boundary, supported input (touch, pointer, keyboard, VoiceOver, Digital Crown, remote, eye/hand), and primary form factors. Do not apply an iPhone convention to macOS, iPad multitasking, watchOS, tvOS, or visionOS without evidence that it transfers.

Prefer system controls, semantic colors, text styles, safe-area APIs, navigation containers, and presentation APIs before custom reconstructions. Custom UI must retain the equivalent accessibility, focus, state, and cancellation behaviour.

## Fresh platform guidance

Before prescribing or implementing APIs, behaviour, design conventions, or verification that may vary by SDK or OS release, search current primary Apple sources: Apple Developer Documentation, Human Interface Guidelines, and relevant WWDC sessions. Check the project's deployment target before recommending a newer API, and distinguish current Apple guidance from repository-local compatibility constraints. The examples here express durable contracts; they are not a substitute for release-specific documentation.

## macOS workflow

When macOS is an intended target, read [references/macos-native-workflows.md](references/macos-native-workflows.md) before planning, building, porting, or reviewing a non-trivial interface. It adds a Mac-specific workflow for commands, windows and documents, selection and focus, pasteboard and drag/drop, undo, state restoration, configuration, Finder interoperability, and behaviour-led verification.

Treat a Mac version as a distinct workflow even when it shares models or views with iPadOS. A resizable iPad layout is not by itself a complete Mac app.

## State and identity

Own state at the narrowest stable boundary. A child that only displays data receives a value; a child that edits parent state receives a binding. Keep side effects out of `body` and give lists stable identities.

```swift
@Observable final class ProfileModel {
    var name = ""
    var isSaving = false
}

struct ProfileScreen: View {
    @State private var model = ProfileModel()

    var body: some View {
        Form {
            TextField("Name", text: $model.name)
            Button("Save") { save() }
                .disabled(model.name.isEmpty || model.isSaving)
        }
    }
}
```

Do not turn an injected value into `@State`, use positional indices as mutable list identity, or use `onTapGesture` where `Button`, `NavigationLink`, `Toggle`, or another native control expresses the task.

## Platform contracts

- Use `NavigationStack`/`NavigationSplitView`, sheets, alerts, confirmation dialogs, and toolbars according to the target platform. Verify back, dismiss, cancel, and focus-restoration paths.
- Use semantic colors and Dynamic Type-aware typography. Test extra-large text before adding truncation, clipping, or fixed frames.
- Treat safe areas, split view, window resizing, rotation, external keyboard, pointer, and layout direction as input to the layout—not exceptional breakpoints.
- Prefer `@Observable`, `@State`, `@Binding`, and `@Bindable` where deployment targets permit; gate version-specific APIs and provide a real fallback.
- Make animations value-driven and task-preserving under Reduce Motion. Wait for the observable end state before testing or reporting it.

## Accessibility

Accessibility is expressed through the native accessibility tree, not ARIA. Check VoiceOver labels, values, hints, traits, grouping, reading order, adjustable actions, focus movement, and disabled controls. Hide decorative imagery; label meaningful images and ambiguous icons.

```swift
Button(action: play) {
    Image(systemName: "play.fill")
}
.accessibilityLabel("Play preview")

Image(systemName: "sparkles")
    .accessibilityHidden(true)
```

Read [references/apple-verification.md](references/apple-verification.md) for simulator, device, XCUITest, accessibility, and form-factor evidence. Read it before making native verification claims.

## Review output

Anchor findings to a source path or an observed target/device. State whether evidence is source-only or rendered. Name the affected platform and input method; an iOS finding is not automatically a macOS finding.

## Prefer / reject

| Prefer | Reject |
| --- | --- |
| System control with intentional styling | Clickable stacks or images standing in for controls |
| Semantic fonts, colors, and adaptive layout | Fixed dimensions that break at larger text or smaller windows |
| Stable IDs and explicit state ownership | Index identity and effects hidden in `body` |
| Platform-specific verification | Treating a simulator screenshot as proof for every target |
| Version gates with useful fallbacks | Unconditional new APIs that silently drop supported users |

## Licence of the file above

The file above is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kemiljk/skills/main/skills/apple-native-ui/SKILL.md, by Karl Koch, reproduced without changes.
- Source: https://github.com/kemiljk/skills/blob/main/skills/apple-native-ui/SKILL.md
- Copyright: Copyright (c) 2026 Karl Koch
- Licence: MIT, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kemiljk/skills/main/LICENSE

The repo's licence file, verbatim from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kemiljk/skills/main/LICENSE:

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Karl Koch

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.