pp-apple-docs

name: pp-apple-docs description: "Every Apple framework, indexed locally, with deprecation analysis and an MCP server no other Apple-docs tool has. Trigger phrases: look up an Apple API, what's deprecated in iOS, find a SwiftUI symbol, port this from UIKit to SwiftUI, what changed at WWDC, use apple-docs, run apple-docs-pp-cli." author: "Joseph Alvin Castillo" license: "Apache-2.0" argument-hint: " [args] | install cli|mcp" allowed-tools: "Read Bash" metadata: openclaw: requires: bins: - apple-docs-pp-cli install: - kind: go bins: [apple-docs-pp-cli] module: github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/developer-tools/apple-docs/cmd/apple-docs-pp-cli

Apple Developer Documentation — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the apple-docs-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install apple-docs --cli-only
   

2. Verify: apple-docs-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.3 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/developer-tools/apple-docs/cmd/apple-docs-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when you need to read Apple's docs from a terminal, when an agent is grounding Swift code generation against current Apple APIs, when planning a platform migration (iPad → visionOS, AppKit → SwiftUI), or when authoring a 'what's deprecated in iOS N' guide. The local SQLite store unlocks queries — cross-framework grep, snapshot diff, deprecation cliff — that no online docs viewer offers.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to author Apple ID or App Store Connect API calls — use a separate App Store Connect CLI for those.
• Do not use this CLI as a Swift package manager — it reads docs, not source.
• Do not use this CLI to fetch full WWDC video transcripts — it indexes WWDC references from doc pages but does not host video content.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Agent-native plumbing

• doc get — Project a 50KB+ DocC JSON page down to just the fields an agent actually needs — abstract, signature, platforms, or all three — saving context tokens on every lookup.

  Use this when an agent is grounding code generation against an Apple symbol and only needs the abstract + signature + platform floor, not the full discussion + see-also tree.

  apple-docs-pp-cli doc get 'swiftui/view/onappear(perform:)' --shape min --agent
  

• bundle — Bundle a symbol's Markdown plus its depth-1 See-Also pages into a single token-budgeted blob, ready to paste into an agent prompt.

  Use when an agent needs a self-contained context blob about a symbol plus its closest relatives, without doing N round-trips and N JSON parses.

  apple-docs-pp-cli bundle 'swiftui/view/onappear(perform:)' --depth 1 --max-tokens 4000
  

Local state that compounds

• port-to — For a symbol unavailable on a target platform, walk the See-Also / Replacement-Of graph until landing on an alternative that IS available there and is not itself deprecated.

  Use when porting code between Apple platforms (iPad → visionOS, AppKit → SwiftUI, deprecated → current) and you need the migration target, not just a similar-named API.

  apple-docs-pp-cli port-to visionOS uikit/uitableview --agent
  

• snapshot diff — Diff two stored framework index snapshots and classify each delta as added, removed, deprecated, or likely-renamed (path-stem similarity).

  Use after every WWDC or dot-release to surface added/removed/deprecated symbols at the framework level.

  apple-docs-pp-cli snapshot diff swiftui --from 2025-06-09 --to 2026-05-28 --agent
  

• deprecation-cliff — List every Apple API deprecated in a given platform version, grouped by framework and symbol kind, with the replacement-hint column joined from references.

  Use when planning a migration sprint or writing a 'what's deprecated this year' guide; the only way to get the full list in one shot.

  apple-docs-pp-cli deprecation-cliff --os iOS --version 18 --framework swiftui --agent
  

• conformance — Walk a framework's relationshipsSections to enumerate concrete conformers of a protocol and the protocol's ancestors.

  Use when writing protocol-driven code (custom View, ObservableObject, Layout) and you need every concrete type that conforms.

  apple-docs-pp-cli conformance View --framework swiftui --agent
  

• grep — Regex over every synced framework's symbols with filters on kind, target platform, and deprecation status.

  Use when you remember the shape of a symbol name but not where it lives, or when auditing API patterns across the whole Apple SDK.

  apple-docs-pp-cli grep onAppear --framework swiftui --json
  

Service-specific patterns

• wwdc symbols — For a WWDC session ID, list every symbol whose doc page cites that session.

  Use after watching a WWDC session to enumerate every API it touched, or to find which session officially introduced an API you're working with.

  apple-docs-pp-cli wwdc symbols wwdc2024-10169 --agent
  

Command Reference

doc get — Fetch any documentation page (framework root, symbol, method, article) by path

• apple-docs-pp-cli doc get <path> — Fetch a documentation page by path and return it in the shape your tool actually wants (raw DocC JSON, projected via --shape abstract|signature|platforms|min, or rendered as Markdown via --markdown). The path is the lowercase-slashed identifier under /documentation/, e.g. swiftui/view, swiftui/view/onappear(perform:), foundation/url/init(string:).

index — Fetch the full structured index of a framework (every symbol, in tree form)

• apple-docs-pp-cli index <framework> — Fetch a framework's full hierarchical index. Useful for offline FTS sync. Indexes are large (500KB–2MB).

technologies — List every Apple framework and technology (Swift, SwiftUI, UIKit, etc.)

• apple-docs-pp-cli technologies — Fetch the master technologies index — every Apple framework, grouped by topic.

Freshness Contract

This printed CLI owns bounded freshness only for registered store-backed read command paths. In --data-source auto mode, those paths check sync_state and may run a bounded refresh before reading local data. --data-source local never refreshes. --data-source live reads the API and does not mutate the local store. Set APPLE_DOCS_NO_AUTO_REFRESH=1 to skip the freshness hook without changing source selection.

Covered paths:

• apple-docs-pp-cli technologies
• apple-docs-pp-cli technologies get
• apple-docs-pp-cli technologies list
• apple-docs-pp-cli technologies search

When JSON output uses the generated provenance envelope, freshness metadata appears at meta.freshness. Treat it as current-cache freshness for the covered command path, not a guarantee of complete historical backfill or API-specific enrichment.

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

apple-docs-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Find a symbol's iOS introduction version

apple-docs-pp-cli doc get 'swiftui/view/onappear(perform:)' --shape platforms --agent --select platforms[].introducedAt

Returns just the platform-availability map — under 500 bytes vs 9KB for the full page.

List every concrete SwiftUI type that conforms to View

apple-docs-pp-cli conformance View --framework swiftui --json --select symbol,kind

Walks the local relationshipsSections graph; impossible from any single Apple endpoint.

What changed in SwiftUI at this year's WWDC?

apple-docs-pp-cli snapshot diff swiftui --from 2025-06-09 --to 2026-05-28 --classify --json

Classifies every delta as added / removed / deprecated / likely-renamed in one call.

Find the visionOS replacement for a UIKit symbol

apple-docs-pp-cli port-to visionOS uikit/uitableview --agent

Walks See-Also and Replacement-Of edges until landing on a symbol available on visionOS.

Bundle a symbol's docs as agent context

apple-docs-pp-cli bundle 'swiftui/view/onappear(perform:)' --depth 1 --max-tokens 4000

Markdown render of the symbol + every depth-1 See-Also page, truncated to a token budget.

Auth Setup

No auth required. The DocC JSON endpoints under https://developer.apple.com/tutorials/data/ are public and served by Apple's CDN.

Run apple-docs-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  apple-docs-pp-cli doc get swiftui/view --agent --select abstract,declaration,platforms
  

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

apple-docs-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
apple-docs-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
apple-docs-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/apple-docs-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless APPLE_DOCS_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or APPLE_DOCS_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

apple-docs-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
apple-docs-pp-cli --profile briefing doc get swiftui/view
apple-docs-pp-cli profile list --json
apple-docs-pp-cli profile show briefing
apple-docs-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show apple-docs-pp-cli --help output
2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/developer-tools/apple-docs/cmd/apple-docs-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add apple-docs-pp-mcp -- apple-docs-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which apple-docs-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

   apple-docs-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: apple-docs-pp-cli <command> --help.