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Apple platform management

The .NET MAUI CLI provides commands for managing Apple development tools, including Xcode installations, simulator runtimes, and iOS simulators. These commands are available on macOS only.

Important

The .NET MAUI CLI is experimental and will change between releases.

Xcode management

List installed Xcode versions

Use the maui apple xcode list command to discover all Xcode installations on your machine:

maui apple xcode list

The output includes the version, build number, path, and whether each installation is the currently selected Xcode:

Version | Build    | Path                          | Selected
--------+----------+-------------------------------+---------
26.4    | 17E192   | /Applications/Xcode.app       | ✓
26.3    | 17D61a   | /Applications/Xcode-26.3.app  |

Runtime management

List simulator runtimes

Use the maui apple runtime list command to see the installed simulator runtimes:

maui apple runtime list

Filter by platform with the --platform option:

maui apple runtime list --platform iOS

The --platform option accepts iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS.

The output shows each runtime's name, platform, version, availability, and whether it's bundled with Xcode:

Name                | Platform | Version | Available | Bundled
--------------------+----------+---------+-----------+--------
iOS 26.4            | iOS      | 26.4    | ✓         | Yes
iOS 26.0            | iOS      | 26.0    | ✓         | No
watchOS 26.4        | watchOS  | 26.4    | ✓         | Yes

Simulator management

The .NET MAUI CLI provides commands to list, start, stop, and delete iOS simulators.

List simulators

maui apple simulator list

The output shows each simulator's name, UDID, OS version, state, and availability:

Name                  | UDID                                 | OS        | State    | Available
----------------------+--------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------
iPhone 17 Pro         | A1B2C3D4-E5F6-7890-ABCD-EF1234567890 | iOS 26.4  | Shutdown | ✓
iPad Air (M4)         | B2C3D4E5-F6A7-8901-BCDE-F12345678901 | iOS 26.4  | Booted   | ✓

Start a simulator

Boot a simulator by name or UDID:

maui apple simulator start "iPhone 17 Pro"

maui apple simulator start A1B2C3D4-E5F6-7890-ABCD-EF1234567890

The simulator launches in the background so you can continue using the terminal.

Stop a simulator

Shut down a running simulator by name or UDID:

maui apple simulator stop "iPhone 17 Pro"

To stop all running simulators:

maui apple simulator stop all

Delete a simulator

Permanently remove a simulator and its associated data:

maui apple simulator delete "iPhone 17 Pro"

Create a simulator

Creates a new simulator device from a device-type identifier.

macOS only.

maui apple simulator create (device-type) [--name (name)] [--runtime (runtime)] [--if-not-exists] [--json]
Argument / Option Required Description
(device-type) ✅ Device type identifier, e.g. com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-15
--name ❌ Custom display name for the simulator. Defaults to a name derived from (device-type).
--runtime ❌ Runtime identifier, e.g. com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-17-2. When specified, the derived default name includes the runtime version.
--if-not-exists ❌ If a simulator with the same name already exists, return its UDID instead of failing. Useful for idempotent scripting.
--json ❌ Emit machine-readable JSON output.

Examples:

# Create an iPhone 15 simulator with a generated name
maui apple simulator create com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-15

# Create with a custom name and a specific runtime
maui apple simulator create com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-15 \
  --name "My Test iPhone" \
  --runtime com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-17-2

# Idempotent create (returns existing UDID if name already exists)
maui apple simulator create com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-15 \
  --name "CI iPhone" --if-not-exists --json

JSON output (--json):

{
  "udid": "AABBCCDD-1234-5678-ABCD-000000000001",
  "name": "My Test iPhone",
  "device_type": "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimDeviceType.iPhone-15",
  "runtime": "com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-17-2"
}

runtime is omitted from the JSON when not specified.

Error codes:

Code Meaning
E2207 Simulator creation failed
E2204 A named simulator already exists and --if-not-exists was not specified

Erase a simulator

Erases (resets) a simulator device to factory state. The simulator must be shut down before erasing.

macOS only.

maui apple simulator erase (name-or-udid) [--json]
Argument / Option Required Description
(name-or-udid) ✅ Simulator name or UDID
--json ❌ Emit machine-readable JSON output

Examples:

# Erase by name
maui apple simulator erase "My Test iPhone"

# Erase by UDID
maui apple simulator erase AABBCCDD-1234-5678-ABCD-000000000001

# Erase and confirm in JSON
maui apple simulator erase "My Test iPhone" --json

JSON output (--json):

{
  "target": "My Test iPhone",
  "erased": true
}

Note

The simulator must be in Shutdown state before erasing. If it is booted, stop it first:

maui apple simulator stop (name-or-udid)

Error codes:

Code Meaning
E2208 Erase failed (check simulator state)
E2204 Simulator not found

Use in CI pipelines

In automated environments, combine Apple commands with the --json and --ci flags for non-interactive, machine-readable output:

maui apple simulator list --json --ci
maui apple xcode list --json --ci

Use --json when you need to parse command output programmatically:

maui apple simulator list --json | jq '.[] | select(.isBooted == true)'

See also

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