CompilePilot Companion

What you need

• A Mac with Apple silicon.
• macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
• Xcode installed, with its command line tools ready.
• CompilePilot on your iPhone or iPad, with both devices on the same local network.

How to install it

1. Download the DMG on your Mac and open it.
2. Drag CompilePilot Companion to Applications and open it from there.
3. Look for its menu bar icon: a computer with a hammer.
4. On your iPhone or iPad, open CompilePilot, tap Add a Mac, and search for nearby Macs.
5. Click the menu bar icon and enter the six-digit code it shows into the app.

What it adds over SSH

• Your Mac shows up by itselfIt advertises on the local network, so there is no hostname or IP address to type.
• Builds outlive the screenLeave the build screen and come back: it keeps running, and tells you when it finishes.
• Live SimulatorWatch your Mac's simulator and touch it from your phone, with gestures, keyboard, and hardware buttons.
• Agent sessionsIt opens Claude Code, Codex or opencode -- whichever you have installed -- on the project you picked, in a terminal of its own. Several at once, and they keep working when you leave the screen. Needs CompilePilot 3.0.
• Build with XcodeBesides xcodebuild, build, run, and test with Xcode itself, with the “Build with Xcode” switch on the Run screen.
• SwiftUI previewsXcode renders them on the Mac and you see them on your phone. With Xcode 27, Xcode does not need to be open; with Xcode 26.3 or later it does, and you can turn that mode off in the Companion's window.
• The Mac stays awake mid-buildWhile it works -- a build, an agent, Simulator -- the Companion keeps the Mac from idle sleep. You choose in its window: never, while working, or always.
• No system permissionsIt reads the simulator's framebuffer through CoreSimulator: no Accessibility, no Screen Recording. Setting up Xcode's tools does ask for an administrator password on the Mac: once, for all of the Companion's project folders, from the Mac's screen on the phone.

Updates

The Companion keeps itself up to date. Every release is published signed, and the app installs an update only if that signature matches the key built into it. You can also ask for one: click the menu bar icon and choose Check for Updates….

If something does not show up

• If you cannot see the menu bar icon, check that it has not been pushed behind the notch: quit another menu bar app, or look at System Settings → Menu Bar.
• If your iPhone cannot find the Mac, confirm both are on the same Wi-Fi network and the Companion is open. The first search may ask for Local Network permission.
• If the Companion says Xcode is not ready, follow what its status window offers: install it, select it, or open it so it can finish setting up.
• If an agent shows as not installed, the Companion looks for it where your Terminal finds it. Check that the agent's command works in Terminal on the Mac.

Your code never leaves your Mac

The Companion talks to your own device, over your local network. There is no account and no relay: pairing starts on the Mac, and the token stays in the Keychain on each side. If you turn on notifications away from home, the Companion sends each one, encrypted, to a server of ours that hands it to Apple without being able to read it. An agent you open talks to its own provider, with your account, just as it does when you use it on the Mac.

What if you would rather install nothing?

CompilePilot works without the Companion: it connects over SSH with Remote Login enabled, and builds, tests, distributes, and shows git just the same. The Companion is required for interactive Simulator, agent sessions, building with Xcode, and previews.