Fix XCUITest “Element Not Found” Failures in SwiftUI and UIKit

Turn XCUITest’s “element not found,” wrong-element, and flaky-navigation failures into the smallest SwiftUI/UIKit accessibility or launch-route fix with a local zero-dependency scanner and an installable agent skill.

Local by default: the CLI reads Swift, Objective-C, plist, and explicitly supplied failure artifacts from disk. It has no runtime dependencies, makes no network requests, does not upload source code, and fails closed on missing or malformed inputs.

See the Problem in 60 Seconds

This view puts an identifier on a container while the test needs the nested TextField:

VStack {
    Text("Add Recipe")
    TextField("Video URL", text: $url)
        .textFieldStyle(.roundedBorder)
}
.accessibilityIdentifier("sample.recipeForm")

Run the scanner against the checked-in example:

ios-ui-testability ids examples/broken-swiftui-contract

It reports the concrete risk:

Identifiers: 1
Likely parent-container assignments: 1

Likely parent-container assignments
  RecipeFormView.swift:12  sample.recipeForm

The smallest safe contract change is to identify the interactive control itself:

VStack {
    Text("Add Recipe")
    TextField("Video URL", text: $url)
        .textFieldStyle(.roundedBorder)
        .accessibilityIdentifier("sample.recipeForm.videoURL")
}

That static finding is evidence to inspect the runtime accessibility tree, not a claim that the test is already fixed. The skill then checks the resolved XCUIElement type and reruns the exact failing path. See the captured demo and its limits.

Copy-Paste Quick Start

Run the CLI from PyPI without a persistent install and scan an iOS repository:

uvx --from ios-ui-testability-contract ios-ui-testability ids /path/to/your-ios-repo

For a persistent command, run pipx install ios-ui-testability-contract.

Install the agent skill for Codex at user scope from the immutable release:

gh skill install Kofiloski/ios-ui-testability-contract-skill \
  ios-ui-testability-contract@v0.4.2 \
  --agent codex \
  --scope user

Then give the agent the actual failure evidence:

Use $ios-ui-testability-contract to diagnose why XCUITest cannot find
app.recipeForm.videoURL. Inspect the failure log and UI tree, patch the
smallest app-side contract issue, and rerun the focused test.

The skill follows the open Agent Skills layout under skills/ios-ui-testability-contract/. GitHub CLI can also install it for other supported coding agents; keep the requested agent and scope explicit. A root SKILL.md compatibility entry point remains for older direct-clone installations, while new installs should use the nested package.

Problems It Is Built to Fix

• a control is visible but XCUITest reports that it does not exist
• an identifier resolves to Other or StaticText instead of the expected Button or TextField
• an identifier on a VStack, row, card, or other container collides with or hides child controls
• identifiers are duplicated, generated from unstable data, or stale in a checked-in scenario
• onboarding, seeded state, modal order, or navigation makes a screen unreachable deterministically
• a UI assertion is really waiting on an uncontrolled backend or network result

It is not a general VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, or accessibility-conformance audit. It repairs the app-side automation surface used by XCUITest, AXe, ios-ai-ui-check, and other clients built on the iOS accessibility tree.

Agent Workflow

The installed skill tells an agent to:

1. inspect the decisive test log, screenshot or recording, UI tree, scenario, and source view
2. classify the failure as app contract, scenario contract, launch determinism, backend dependency, or mixed cause
3. patch the smallest app-side accessibility or routing surface
4. update checked-in scenarios or planner context when their contract changed
5. prove the target resolves as the intended element type and replay the exact failing path

When Xcode 27 or later exposes native Simulator tools, the skill can use them to reach the screen, send supported touch input, and capture screenshots. It discovers the actual tool schemas and reuses the app's launch/data setup. Visual success does not establish identifier uniqueness or XCTest element type; the original automation inspection and focused replay remain required.

Example prompts:

• Use $ios-ui-testability-contract to diagnose why XCUITest cannot find app.recipeForm.videoURL and patch the app-side contract.
• Use $ios-ui-testability-contract to inspect this failing ios-ai-ui-check artifact bundle and fix the app-side automation surface.
• Use $ios-ui-testability-contract to make this SwiftUI sheet reachable through deterministic launch state.
• Use $ios-ui-testability-contract to inspect this artifact bundle and give me a patch plan before editing code.

The canonical instructions are in SKILL.md. References are loaded only for the failure pattern being handled.

CLI Commands

The Python package exposes one ios-ui-testability command with four focused subcommands:

Triage the included artifact bundle:

ios-ui-testability triage \
  --summary tests/fixtures/sample_failure_bundle/summary.md \
  --ui-tree tests/fixtures/sample_failure_bundle/ui-tree.json \
  --scenario tests/fixtures/sample_failure_bundle/scenario.json \
  --planner-validation-error tests/fixtures/sample_failure_bundle/planner-validation-error.txt \
  --report-mode full

Example excerpt:

Bucket: scenario contract
Confidence: high

Patch plan:
- Remove or update stale scenario identifiers that are missing from the UI tree.
- Prefer stable app-side identifiers such as sample.recipeForm.submit for replayable controls.

Repository inventories use root-relative paths, do not follow symbolic links, and report skipped links. Launch inventories also report unreadable or malformed plist files. Commented code and code-like examples inside Swift raw or multiline strings are excluded from identifier findings.

Install and Versioning

The CLI package and the agent skill are related but independent:

• install the CLI when you want deterministic local inventory and triage commands
• install the skill when you want an agent to interpret evidence, edit the app, and verify the repair
• install both for the shortest end-to-end workflow

For a source checkout:

python3 -m pip install .
ios-ui-testability --help

Published tags match the Python package version exactly: package version X.Y.Z is tagged vX.Y.Z. Prefer an exact tag when reproducibility matters. See REMOTE_INSTALL.md for install details and PUBLISHING.md for the maintainer release flow.

Companion iOS Quality Projects

• ios-ai-ui-check runs planned iOS Simulator UI scenarios and produces the artifacts this skill can diagnose.
• app-store-review-risk scans iOS projects for App Store review risks before submission.

Together they cover runtime UI validation, app-side testability repair, and release-policy risk without coupling application code to one automation provider.

Development

Run the complete local check:

./scripts/check-skill.sh

CI installs the wheel-backed package on Python 3.10, 3.12, and 3.13, then checks package, runtime, and CLI version agreement. The repository also validates the distributable Agent Skills layout with GitHub CLI before release work.

Machine-readable project navigation is available in llms.txt. Citation metadata is in CITATION.cff. The project is available under the MIT License.