[NathanWalker]

Draft, for discussion. Building, installing, launching, logs and device listing work locally. Relaunching after a file sync is still blocked; see Known issue below. A few design questions are open too.

PR Checklist

• The PR title follows our guidelines: https://github.com/NativeScript/NativeScript/blob/master/tools/notes/CONTRIBUTING.md#commit-messages.
• There is an issue for the bug/feature this PR is for.
• You have signed the CLA.
• All existing tests are passing.
• Tests for the changes are included.

What is the current behavior?

Since NativeScript/ios#551, an iOS app can run on an Apple silicon Mac as "Designed for iPad": it loads UIKit and the other iOS-only frameworks from /System/iOSSupport. The CLI has no way to target the Mac, so today you build with xcodebuild, build the wrapper bundle and launch it by hand.

What is the new behavior?

ns devices ios                  # lists "My Mac (Designed for iPad)"
ns run ios --device mac         # build, install, launch, sync, logs
ns debug ios --device mac

The Mac is an iOS device, not a new platform, so run, debug, deploy and devices work with no new commands. It is listed by ns devices, but ns run ios only uses it when --device is mac or the Mac's provisioning UDID. People with a phone plugged in won't get a Mac launch as well.

This is a different product from #6125 (ns run catalyst). Catalyst rebuilds the app against the macOS SDK. This runs the unmodified iOS (iphoneos) build, the same binary that ships to devices. The two don't overlap and can land independently.

How it works

• Discovery (IOSMacDeviceDiscovery):

  • Only on a Darwin host that is arm64, checked with sysctl hw.optional.arm64 because Rosetta hides it from process.arch.
  • Only for the iOS platform, and not with --emulator.
  • The device identifier is the Mac's provisioning UDID, read from system_profiler SPHardwareDataType.

• Build:

  • A signed iphoneos build with -destination 'platform=macOS,arch=arm64,variant=Designed for iPad,id=<UDID>' and -allowProvisioningDeviceRegistration, so the profile includes this Mac.
  • Output goes to platforms/ios/build/mac, so it doesn't replace device or simulator builds.
  • New buildForMac flag on IBuildData / IBuildForDevice, set next to each buildForDevice.

• Install and launch (IOSMacApplicationManager):

  • macOS only launches an iOS app from the layout it gives installed iPad apps: <Name>.app/Wrapper/<Name>.app plus a WrappedBundle symlink.
  • Launches with open -n <wrapper>.
  • Stops by finding the process with pgrep. macOS runs a copy of the wrapper from /private/var/folders, not from the install path.

• Sync: local file copies, like a simulator. IOSMacDevice.isEmulator is true so it uses those code paths.

• Logs: log stream --predicate 'process == "<exe>" AND <IOS_LOG_PREDICATE>'.

• Debugger:

  1. Post the attach request with notifyutil -p <appId>:NativeScript.Debug.AttachRequest.
  2. Read the port from the runtime's "inspector socket on port N" log line.
  3. Connect to 127.0.0.1.

• Runtime check: warns when @nativescript/ios predates fix(runtime): load iOS system frameworks from /System/iOSSupport on a Mac ios#551:

  • releases older than 9.1.1
  • next builds before 9.1.0-next.2026-11-11-43080423883

  Older runtimes stop at launch on a Mac.

Tested locally

M3 Max, macOS 26.6.2, Xcode 27, with an Angular + Vite app on @nativescript/ios@next:

ns devices ios lists the Mac	✅
--device mac selects it; plain ns run ios doesn't	✅
Build into build/mac, provisioning includes the Mac (about 20 s)	✅
Wrapper install + open -n launch	✅
JS console output via log stream	✅
New unit tests + devices-service + ios-project-service (160)	✅
Relaunch after syncing files	❌ see below
Vite HMR, --no-hmr sync + restart, ns debug	not yet verified

Known issue: syncing breaks the code signature

The CLI syncs app files (and .nsbuildinfo) into the signed bundle. That invalidates its seal: codesign --verify --strict reports "a sealed resource is missing or invalid". macOS then refuses to launch the app and shows the "damaged, move to Trash" dialog.

Re-signing the inner bundle with the identity it was built with fixes it. It takes about 0.1 s and keeps the entitlements:

codesign --force --sign <leaf-cert-sha1> \
  --preserve-metadata=identifier,entitlements,flags,runtime <bundle>

Proposed fix:

1. At install, record the identity from the untouched bundle.
2. Before each open, run codesign --verify --strict, which takes about 0.04 s.
3. If the verify fails, re-sign.

Vite HMR modules come from the dev server and are never written into the bundle, so HMR edits shouldn't trigger this.

Open questions

1. How to expose the Mac: --device mac under ios, as here, or a --mac flag, or a separate platform? A device seemed the least new surface.
2. isEmulator = true for a Mac: the simulator's local-file code paths are exactly right, but the name is misleading. Add an isLocal / runsOnHost capability instead? That means auditing every isEmulator check.
3. Old runtime: warn, as here, or fail the build? Local file: runtimes can't be version-checked, so this warns.
4. Intel Macs: they are skipped silently. Should --device mac on one give an explicit error?

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