Xcode Treasures

Distributing the Extension

An extension isn’t very interesting if you’re the only one using it.

With Xcode extensions, there are two distribution options. The first is to put it on the Mac App Store, bundled inside an app. We touched on that already in ​Automatic Code Signing for Distribution​. However, in some ways, the MAS isn’t ideal for an Xcode extension, because you have to create a sufficiently interesting parent app to pass App Review; maybe your extension is specific to a company or some other group and it isn’t appropriate for world-wide distribution.

In that case, you can distribute the extension yourself by signing the app and sharing it via the web or some other file-sharing technique. This works as long as your users have “Allow ...