Modern iOS CI/CD with Flutter & Xcode Cloud

Mobile DevOps is notoriously difficult. Unlike web deployment, iOS requires strict code signing, managing provisioning profiles, and dealing with massive Xcode updates.

In this project, I modernized the deployment pipeline for a Flutter-based iOS application. Instead of maintaining a fragile Mac Mini build server, I migrated the workflow to Xcode Cloud.

The Challenge

Our team faced three main bottlenecks:

1. Signing Hell: Manually rotating certificates often broke the pipeline.
2. Hardware Dependency: Builds ran on a local Mac Mini, requiring constant OS updates.
3. Flutter Integration: Xcode Cloud is designed for Swift/Obj-C. Getting it to build Flutter required custom engineering.

The Solution: Cloud-Native Pipeline

1. Custom Build Scripts (ci_post_clone.sh)

Since Xcode Cloud instances are ephemeral, I wrote a Bash script that runs immediately after the repository is cloned:

• Downloads the stable Flutter SDK.
• Runs flutter pub get to install dependencies.
• Executes flutter build ios --no-codesign to generate frameworks before archiving.

2. Automated Signing & Infrastructure

By switching to Xcode Cloud, we offloaded the most painful part of iOS DevOps. The service automatically manages Distribution Certificates, ensuring builds never fail due to expired keys.

Results

• Zero Infrastructure Maintenance: Successfully deprecated the on-premise Mac Mini.
• 100% Build Success Rate: Automated signing eliminated certificate-related failures.
• Seamless Delivery: Code merged to develop is automatically available on testers’ phones via TestFlight.