Migrating Your App to Swift Packages
Article Summary
Dmitri Fuerle from OkCupid reveals how their team cut clean build times to under a minute by modularizing their iOS codebase. The secret? Swift Package Manager in a monorepo setup.
As iOS apps grow, they become harder to maintain and slower to compile. OkCupid's engineering team tackled this by breaking their monolithic app into Swift Package modules. This tutorial walks through the practical steps of setting up your first local Swift Package within your existing project.
Key Takeaways
- Clean builds compile 20+ modules in under 60 seconds
- Incremental single module changes compile in just 10 seconds
- Uses monorepo approach keeping packages in project Git repository
- Organizes code with Public/Internal folders for better access control
- Enables independent module testing without full app compilation
Breaking iOS apps into Swift Package modules dramatically improves compile times and code maintainability without requiring separate repositories.
About This Article
As OkCupid's iOS app grew, its codebase became disorganized and hard to maintain. The lack of good architecture made it increasingly difficult to manage.
Dmitri Fuerle's team set up Swift Package Manager using a monorepo structure. They organized packages in a Modules folder within their existing Git repository and used Public and Internal folders to control access.
Developers could now test individual modules in about 10 seconds without rebuilding the whole app. This modularization also made independent compilation possible.