Lookup Documentation
Find documentation for Apple frameworks, Swift APIs, and third-party dependencies.
When to Use
- •Need to understand how an Apple API works
- •Looking for method signatures and parameters
- •Checking availability (iOS version requirements)
- •Finding documentation for dependencies
Apple Framework Documentation
Quick Web Lookup
Apple's documentation is well-indexed. Construct URLs directly:
bash
# Pattern: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/{framework}/{symbol}
# Examples:
# SwiftUI View: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view
# UIKit UIViewController: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiviewcontroller
# Foundation URL: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/url
Using swift-doc Comments
Check if the codebase has inline documentation:
bash
# Find documented symbols grep -rn "/// " Sources/ | head -20 # Find symbols with full doc comments grep -B5 -A10 "/// -" Sources/
Local Xcode Documentation
bash
# Xcode docs location ls ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DocumentationCache/ # Search local docs (if downloaded) find ~/Library/Developer -name "*.doccarchive" 2>/dev/null
Dependency Documentation
GitHub README
Most Swift packages have documentation in their README:
bash
# Get repo URL from Package.resolved cat Package.resolved | jq -r '.pins[] | "\(.identity): \(.location)"' # Then fetch the README (example with curl) # curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/owner/repo/main/README.md
Common Documentation Locations
| Package | Documentation |
|---|---|
| Alamofire | https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire |
| SwiftyJSON | https://github.com/SwiftyJSON/SwiftyJSON |
| Kingfisher | https://github.com/onevcat/Kingfisher |
| SnapKit | https://github.com/SnapKit/SnapKit |
| Vapor | https://docs.vapor.codes |
From Package.swift
bash
# Find dependencies and their sources
grep -A2 ".package(" Package.swift
Swift Standard Library
Common Types
code
# String: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/string # Array: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/array # Dictionary: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/dictionary # Optional: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/optional # Result: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/result
Protocol Reference
code
# Codable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/codable # Hashable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/hashable # Equatable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/equatable # Comparable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/comparable # Identifiable: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/identifiable
Search Strategies
Find How Something Is Used
bash
# Find usage examples in the codebase grep -rn "URLSession" Sources/ # Find imports grep -rn "^import " Sources/ | sort -u
Check Availability
bash
# Find availability annotations grep -rn "@available" Sources/ # Common pattern grep -rn "if #available" Sources/
Quick Reference: Common APIs
Async/Await
swift
// Task, async, await - Swift 5.5+ // https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/task
Combine
swift
// Publisher, Subscriber, Subject // https://developer.apple.com/documentation/combine
SwiftUI
swift
// View, @State, @Binding, @ObservedObject // https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui
Tips
- •Apple's documentation URLs are predictable:
/documentation/{framework}/{symbol} - •GitHub READMEs are usually the best starting point for dependencies
- •Check
Package.resolvedfor exact versions being used - •Search the codebase for usage examples - often more helpful than docs
MCP Fallback
For programmatic access or when web lookup isn't sufficient:
- •
lookup_apple_api- Fetches structured Apple documentation - •
get_dependency_docs- Fetches README from GitHub - •
search_symbols- Searches local and Apple symbols together