Swift.org Blog Tom Doron Jun 7, 2021

Swift Package Collections

Article Summary

Tom Doron from the Swift Core Team just made package discovery way less painful. Swift 5.5 introduces Package Collections, turning endless search results into curated, trustworthy lists.

Swift Package Manager now supports package collections in Swift 5.5, enabling developers to discover and adopt packages through curated lists instead of sifting through search results. Communities, educators, and enterprises can create and share collections tailored to specific use cases, with built-in signing for authenticity.

Key Takeaways

Critical Insight

Package collections transform Swift package discovery from web search chaos into curated, community-driven recommendations you can trust.

The article reveals how enterprises are already using this to control which packages their teams can adopt internally.

About This Article

Problem

Developers struggled to pick packages because there was no trusted way to filter through all the options available across the Swift ecosystem.

Solution

Tom Doron's team created a JSON-based package collection system. Curators can optionally sign collections using the PackageCollectionSigner tool to verify authenticity and ensure the packages haven't been tampered with.

Impact

Three collections launched right away. The Swift Server Workgroup released the SSWG collection, SwiftPackageIndex.com built dynamically generated collections, and Apple created an OSS collection that comes pre-configured in Xcode 13 so users can access it immediately.