Apple is working with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic to develop a new version of its Xcode software development environment, according to people familiar with the initiative.
The partnership reportedly aims to integrate Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet AI model directly into Xcode, Apple’s primary Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for building macOS and iOS applications. The goal is to create a tool, initially for Apple’s internal engineers, capable of assisting programmers with writing, editing, and testing code – an approach referred to as “vibe-coding.” Apple has not yet determined if this AI-assisted Xcode will eventually be released to the wider developer community.
This collaboration emerges as Apple continues its push to integrate generative AI more deeply into its products and workflows, increasingly looking to external expertise. The company already utilizes OpenAI’s ChatGPT for some Apple Intelligence features and is anticipated to offer Google’s Gemini as another option later this year. The Anthropic deal specifically targets the software development lifecycle.
Reports suggest the tool will feature a chat interface for code requests and may help automate UI testing and manage bug fixes, potentially streamlining tasks that can be laborious when performed manually.
Apple Turns to Anthropic After Internal AI Coding Challenges
The reported Anthropic partnership follows Apple’s earlier attempt to build its own AI coding assistant for Xcode, known as Swift Assist. That tool, initially anticipated for a 2024 release to developers, was never shipped externally.
Internal feedback, according to Bloomberg, indicated engineers found the homegrown system could sometimes “hallucinate — or make up information — and even slow down app development.”
Turning to Anthropic suggests an acknowledgment within Apple that integrating established third-party models might be a more effective path forward for certain AI applications, at least for now. It remains possible Apple’s internal models and Anthropic’s technology could eventually work together within Xcode.
The choice of Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet model is significant, given the AI’s reputation for proficiency in programming tasks, powering specialized assistants like Cursor and Windsurf. Anthropic itself describes its Claude Code assistant, launched earlier this year, as aiming to be “an active collaborator that can search and read code, edit files, write and run tests, commit and push code to GitHub, and use command-line tools.” For Anthropic, this Apple partnership represents a major integration into a core internal workflow at one of the world’s largest tech companies.
Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the company’s AI strategy on the May 1st earnings call, acknowledging the blend of internal development and external partnerships. “We are very excited about the road map, and we are pleased with the progress that we’re making,” he told analysts, adding, “I don’t view it as an all of one or all of the other.”
This pragmatic approach seems necessary given the rapid pace of AI development. At Meta’s LlamaCon event on April 29, 2025, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella estimated that AI was already responsible for generating between “20%, 30% of the code that is inside of our repos today,” highlighting the scale of AI adoption within major tech firms.
Navigating a Crowded Field of AI Coding Assistants
The Apple-Anthropic tool enters a fiercely competitive arena, notably within Apple’s own development environment. Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot made its debut in Xcode via a public preview back in February, bringing AI-driven code completions and chat assistance for Swift and Objective-C directly into the IDE used by Apple developers. This established a direct competitor operating inside Apple’s primary IDE months before this Apple-Anthropic project surfaced.
The broader market for AI coding assistants has seen intense advancements just in the past few months. In early April, GitHub enhanced Copilot with an “Agent Mode” in VS Code, allowing the AI to execute commands and apply fixes more actively, alongside a new premium plan offering access to models including Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
Around the same time, Google launched Firebase Studio, its cloud-based development platform integrating Gemini AI. Amazon is also reportedly developing its own AI coding service, while OpenAI was recently reported to be exploring a $3 billion acquisition of AI coding startup Windsurf. Even earlier, in November 2024, OpenAI had integrated ChatGPT with Xcode through a “Work with Apps” feature, though that focused on reading code contextually rather than generation or editing.
Internal Rollout Precedes Potential Public Release
For now, Apple is focusing the Anthropic-powered Xcode tool on its internal engineering teams. This controlled deployment allows Apple to refine the system based on feedback from its own developers before considering a wider release.
Should the tool prove effective internally, extending it to the vast community of third-party developers who build for iOS, macOS, and other Apple platforms would be a logical next step. Apple typically unveils major developer tool updates at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), scheduled this year starting June 9th.
This internal focus also comes amidst organizational shifts within Apple’s AI divisions, with software engineering head Craig Federighi taking on a larger role, including oversight of Siri, previously under AI chief John Giannandrea. How developers ultimately respond to AI assistants within Xcode, whether from partners like Anthropic or competitors like Microsoft, will shape the future of app development on Apple’s platforms.
