NativeAppTemplate-Free-iOS

June 10, 2026 · View on GitHub

NativeAppTemplate-Free-iOS is a modern, comprehensive, and production-ready native iOS app with user authentication and a full CRUD example.
This iOS app is a free version of NativeAppTemplate-iOS (Solo) and NativeAppTemplate-iOS (Team).

The Android version is available here: NativeAppTemplate-Free-Android.

Want this template adapted to your own domain? nativeapptemplate-agent is a Claude Code agent that turns a one-sentence spec (e.g. "a walk-in queue for a barbershop") into a coherent three-platform app — this SwiftUI iOS app, a matching Rails 8.1 API, and a Jetpack Compose Android app — renamed and adapted for you, with validation built in.

Overview

NativeAppTemplate-Free-iOS is configured to connect to api.nativeapptemplate.com.
The Rails 8.1 API backend that powers api.nativeapptemplate.com is open source (MIT):

nativeapptemplateapi · API Docs

Screenshots

Screenshot showing Sign in screen, Shops screen and Settings screen

Features

NativeAppTemplate-Free-iOS uses modern iOS development tools and practices, including:

100% Swift
100% SwiftUI
@Observable (iOS 17: streamlined Swift state management)
SwiftLint
Simple MVVM Layered Architecture
Test (Swift Testing)
Inspired by emitron-iOS

Included Features

Onboarding
Sign Up / Sign In / Sign Out
Email Confirmation
Forgot Password
CRUD Operations for Shops (Create/Read/Update/Delete)
CRUD Operations for Shops' Nested Resource, Item Tags (Create/Read/Update/Delete)
Force App Version Update
Force Privacy Policy Version Update
Force Terms of Use Version Update
And more!

NFC Tag Operations

NFC tag writing and background tag reading were part of v1 and have been removed from the current version. The full NFC implementation remains available in the v1-with-nfc branch.

Not Included in the Free Version

Gif showing Switching organization

The full versions (NativeAppTemplate-iOS (Solo) and NativeAppTemplate-iOS (Team)) include additional advanced features:

URL Path-Based Multitenancy (prepends /:account_id/ to URLs)
User Invitation to Organizations
Role-Based Permissions and Access Control
Organization Switching UI
Push Notifications via APNs

Supported Devices

iPhone — iOS 26.2+, Portrait mode, Full screen
iPad — iOS 26.2+, Portrait mode, Full screen
Mac — Designed for iPad

Getting Started

To get started, clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/nativeapptemplate/NativeAppTemplate-Free-iOS.git

Requirements

To run this app successfully, ensure you have:

An iOS device or emulator with iOS version 26.2 or higher

Running with the NativeAppTemplate-API on localhost

To connect to a local API server, set these env vars on the Xcode scheme (Edit Scheme → Run → Arguments → Environment Variables):

NATIVEAPPTEMPLATE_API_SCHEME = http
NATIVEAPPTEMPLATE_API_DOMAIN = <your-lan-ip>
NATIVEAPPTEMPLATE_API_PORT   = 3000

Note: Never use 127.0.0.1, localhost, or 0.0.0.0 for NATIVEAPPTEMPLATE_API_DOMAIN — those resolve to the iOS Simulator/device itself, not your Mac. Use your Mac's LAN IP (e.g., 192.168.1.6) so the simulator or a physical device can reach the API server.

The NativeAppTemplate scheme is shared (committed at NativeAppTemplate.xcodeproj/xcshareddata/xcschemes/NativeAppTemplate.xcscheme) so fresh clones and generated copies open with these env vars already wired — without it, Xcode's auto-created default omits the injection and Debug builds silently fall back to https://api.nativeapptemplate.com. The committed NATIVEAPPTEMPLATE_API_DOMAIN is just an example value (192.168.1.21); edit it to your own Mac's LAN IP.

Because the scheme is committed, keep your personal LAN IP out of git. After editing the value locally, tell git to ignore your changes to the file:

git update-index --skip-worktree NativeAppTemplate.xcodeproj/xcshareddata/xcschemes/NativeAppTemplate.xcscheme

To resume tracking it (e.g. before intentionally committing a scheme change), run git update-index --no-skip-worktree <same path>.

Debug builds read these at launch via ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment in Constants.swift; when unset, they fall back to the production defaults (https://api.nativeapptemplate.com). Release builds always use the production defaults.

In practice, only Xcode injects these env vars (via the scheme), so a Debug build launched any other way — tapped from the Home Screen (SpringBoard), opened on a physical device after Xcode disconnects, etc. — sees them unset and falls through to the production defaults. The hardcoded fallbacks are what keep the app working without Xcode in the loop.

SwiftLint

SwiftLint runs as part of the build process in Xcode, and errors/warnings are surfaced in Xcode as well. Please ensure that you run SwiftLint before submitting a pull request.

To install SwiftLint using homebrew:

$ brew install swiftlint

Xcode will automatically run SwiftLint if it is installed.

Blogs

Key Differences in MVVM Architecture: iOS vs. Android