Run XCTest suites

lim xcode test builds your scheme's test targets on a remote Xcode sandbox, runs them on an attached cloud iOS simulator (unit and UI targets alike), and streams one line per test case as it finishes. The command exits non-zero when any test fails, so it drops straight into CI.

For provisioning and syncing basics, see Build with remote Xcode; everything there (XcodeGen projects, sync tuning, ignore patterns) applies here too.

Run the suite

lim xcode test .
lim xcode test ./MyProject --scheme MyApp

Like lim xcode build --ios, the command reuses your last simulator-backed Xcode target or creates and attaches what it needs, so repeat runs skip provisioning and warm the build cache. The scheme must have a test action configured; shared schemes exported by Xcode have one whenever the project has test targets.

The output streams the build log first, then one line per case and a closing summary:

  PASS LimFixtureTests.CartModelTests/testDiscountAppliesOverThreshold (12ms)
  FAIL LimFixtureTests.LegacyPricingTests/testLegacyRounding (31ms)
       XCTAssertEqual failed: ("$4.50") is not equal to ("$5.00")
  5 passed, 1 failed

Swift test classes are reported module-qualified (Module.Class), Objective-C classes bare.

Select tests

Use xcodebuild's identifier format Target[/Class[/method]]. Repeat the flag for multiple entries; the two flags are mutually exclusive:

# Only one test method
lim xcode test . --only-testing MyAppTests/LoginTests/testValidLogin

# Everything except the UI target
lim xcode test . --skip-testing MyAppUITests

A bare target name selects or skips that whole target. Targets named by no --only-testing entry are skipped entirely, and an entry naming a target the build did not produce fails the run instead of silently running everything.

JSON output

--json streams the raw per-case events as NDJSON and ends with an exit record, for piping into your own tooling:

lim xcode test . --json > results.ndjson

{"type":"case","testClass":"MyAppTests.LoginTests","method":"testValidLogin","passed":true,"durationMs":12}
{"type":"case","testClass":"MyAppTests.LoginTests","method":"testExpiredToken","passed":false,"durationMs":31,"failureMessage":"XCTAssertEqual failed: ..."}
{"type":"summary","passed":1,"failed":1,"planFinished":true}
{"exitCode":1}

A missing summary event means the run died partway; planFinished: false means the suite started but did not complete its plan.

From the SDK

The TypeScript SDK exposes the same run through xcodebuild with action: 'build-for-testing'. Per-case events stream through onXctestEvent, and the accumulated cases and summary land on the result:

const result = await xcode.xcodebuild(
  { scheme: 'MyApp', sdk: 'iphonesimulator', action: 'build-for-testing' },
  { onXctestEvent: (event) => console.log(event) },
);

console.log(result.xctest?.summary); // { type: 'summary', passed, failed, planFinished }
console.log(result.exitCode);        // non-zero when tests fail

onlyTesting and skipTesting ride on the same settings object.

Build without running

--build-only compiles the test targets on a plain sandbox without acquiring a simulator; the products stay on the sandbox for a later run:

lim xcode test . --build-only

CI notes

• The exit code is the gate: 0 when every selected test passes, non-zero otherwise, so lim xcode test . works as a CI step with no output parsing.
• For fully reproducible runs on fresh instances, pass --inactivity-timeout 30m; the run then creates its own sandbox and simulator instead of reusing yours, and they clean themselves up.