Prerequisites

Set these up once; the tutorial assumes all of them from here on.

The platform

A Mac running a current macOS. One practical warning up front: if your Desktop/Documents are iCloud-synced, don’t keep build output inside a synced project folder — Finder extended attributes on a build/ directory can break codesign later. We’ll keep build products in Xcode’s DerivedData (~/Library), and the tutorial’s scripts do so explicitly.
Xcode (from the App Store or developer.apple.com), opened once so it installs its components, plus the command line tools:
Terminal window
```
xcode-select --install
```

Version control

Git — comes with the Xcode command line tools; check with git --version.
A GitHub account and the gh CLI (cli.github.com), authenticated:
Terminal window
```
brew install gh
gh auth login
```
We use GitHub for the app repo and — later — for your own skills repo. gh’s credentials also give Speccify access to private skill sources.

The agent: Claude Code

Install Claude Code and make sure claude runs in a terminal. Any agent that reads project instruction files works with this workflow; the tutorial’s transcripts use Claude Code.

The cockpit: iKanban AI

Install iKanban AI (macOS). It renders the project’s board, plans, skills, and actions — everything the agent maintains as files under .agent/. No account, no server; it reads your repository.

The skill manager: Speccify

Install Speccify. It manages skill sources, expands skills into projects, and checks tool implementations against their contracts. The desktop app ships the local MCP servers the workflow talks to (exec, discovery) as bundled binaries — nothing else to install. Verify the CLI answers:

speccify --help

Project generation: xcodegen

We don’t click Xcode projects together; the project file is generated from a declarative project.yml, which keeps it diffable and lets the agent maintain it:

brew install xcodegen

Shipping tools (needed from the shipping chapters on)

fastlane, via Bundler so the version is pinned in the repo:
Terminal window
```
brew install ruby   # or use system ruby ≥ 3
gem install bundler
```
The project’s Gemfile will pin fastlane; bundle install does the rest when we get there.
An Apple Developer Program membership (developer.apple.com/programs, 99 USD/year) — required for signing, TestFlight, and the App Store. Registration can take a day; start it early so it’s ready by the time the shipping chapters need it.

Checklist

✓ Xcode + command line tools     ✓ git + gh (authenticated)
✓ Claude Code (`claude`)         ✓ iKanban AI
✓ Speccify (`speccify --help`)   ✓ xcodegen
✓ ruby + bundler (for fastlane)  ✓ Apple Developer Program (pending is ok)

All green? Create the project.