How silicondevkit.com works

silicondevkit.com lets you describe a Mac app in a chat and get a downloadable .app back. This post explains what happens between your message and the download, what you receive, and where the limits are.

The short version

1. You describe the app you want.
2. An AI (Claude Code) writes a native SwiftUI app for it.
3. The app is compiled, packaged as a .app bundle and signed.
4. You get a download link for a zip of the finished app.

You can then keep chatting to change it. Follow-up messages edit your existing app instead of starting over.

What happens behind the scenes

When you send a message, it is saved as a build job and shows as queued. A build machine, an Apple-silicon Mac, picks up the job and moves it through these stages, which you see live in the chat:

• Writing code. Claude Code writes or edits the SwiftUI source for your project.
• Compiling. The project is built in release mode with the Swift compiler. If the build fails, the compiler errors are fed back to Claude, which fixes them. This happens up to twice before the job is marked failed.
• Packaging. The binary is assembled into a standard .app bundle and signed.
• Uploading. The zipped app is stored, and a download link appears in your chat.

Builds are done one at a time per build machine, so a job may wait in the queue if others are ahead of it.

What you get

• A native macOS app written in SwiftUI, for macOS 13 or later.
• A single-target Swift package with no third-party dependencies.
• A standard .app bundle, zipped.

Each project keeps its own source and chat history, so you can come back later and ask for changes.

Using it

You can use silicondevkit.com in two ways, with the same account and the same projects:

• In the browser at silicondevkit.com.
• With the desktop app, a native Mac client. See the silicondevkit.com desktop app.

Signing and the first launch

Apps are signed ad hoc and are not notarized. That means no Apple Developer account is needed to use the service, but macOS shows a warning the first time you open a downloaded app:

1. Unzip the app and double-click it. If macOS says it can't check the app for malicious software, click Done.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway.

If you want to sell your app or list it on the Mac App Store, you will need a paid Apple Developer account. See Submitting a Mac app to the Mac App Store from the terminal.

Limits

• Generated apps are single-target SwiftUI packages for macOS 13+, with no third-party dependencies.
• One build at a time per build machine.
• Apps are not notarized, so Gatekeeper warns on first open.
• silicondevkit.com is invite-only for now. Sign-ups are limited to approved email addresses.
• AI-written code can have bugs. Test your app before relying on it.

What we record

To run the service and plan for usage limits, we record for each build how long it took, how many AI tokens it used and what it cost, along with your prompt, the request's IP address and your browser or app type.