README.md
September 1, 2026 · View on GitHub
Description
Scout is an iOS logging and analytics framework backed by CloudKit. It collects structured logs, metrics, and crash reports from your app and syncs them to a public CloudKit database where you can inspect them through a built-in SwiftUI dashboard.
Table of Contents
Features
| 📝 | Structured Logging | Integrates with swift-log. All log levels, labels, and metadata are persisted and synced automatically. |
| 📊 | Metrics | Integrates with swift-metrics. Counters, timers, and floating-point counters are recorded alongside logs. |
| 💥 | Crash Reporting | Captures uncaught exceptions and signals (SIGABRT, SIGSEGV, etc.) with stack traces. Reports are flushed on the next launch. |
| ☁️ | CloudKit Sync | All data is stored locally with Core Data and synced to a public CloudKit database. No custom backend required. |
| 🌐 | Multiple Backends | Sync to CloudKit, to one or more self-hosted Scout servers, or to any combination of them at once. |
| 📱 | SwiftUI Dashboard | A built-in dashboard with charts, event lists, crash details, and activity tracking for debugging in development builds. |
Comparison
How Scout compares to a hosted analytics SDK and to rolling your own backend:
| Scout (CloudKit) | Firebase | Custom backend | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost |  Free within CloudKit's limits — no servers to pay for, and the quota grows with your app |
 Free tier, then metered Blaze billing as reads and traffic grow |
 Servers, database, and bandwidth billed from day one |
| Data privacy |  Data stays in your own CloudKit container on Apple's infrastructure — no third-party analytics vendor |
 Data lives on Google's servers and can be linked across its ad and analytics products |
 You control everything — and carry all the responsibility for securing it |
| Infrastructure |  Zero servers — Apple runs the backend |
 Managed by Google, with vendor lock-in |
 You deploy and maintain it yourself |
| Scaling |  Automatic, within the container quota |
Automatic, but the bill scales too |
 Manual — you provision and pay for capacity |
| Setup |  Already included with your Apple Developer account |
 New project, SDK, and API keys |
 Build the API, schema, and deployment |
Installation
To add the package and set up CloudKit, see the Installation Guide.
Dashboard
The built-in SwiftUI dashboard lets you inspect logs, metrics, and crash reports right inside your development builds — browse charts, drill into event lists and crash details, and track activity over time without leaving the app.
It ships as a separate ScoutUI product, so you decide which builds carry it. See the Dashboard Guide for linking it, presenting it, and keeping it out of the App Store build.
Roadmap
- Hosted Scout (in progress) — a managed scout-server instance
- AI tools — an MCP server over the Scout backend
- More platforms — macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS
- OpenTelemetry — OTLP support in both directions
Have an idea, or want one of these sooner? Open an issue.
License
Scout is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.