🌉 Flutter Apple Bridge

Run Flutter apps on iPhone from Windows. No Mac required.

العربية · Documentation · Roadmap · Contributing

---

💡 The Problem

If you develop Flutter apps on Windows, you've hit this wall:

"To build for iOS, you need a Mac."

This wall costs developers worldwide:

• $1,000+ for a Mac they may only use for iOS builds.
• $300+/month for cloud Mac services like Codemagic.
• Hours of friction uploading to cloud services for every test.

For developers in emerging markets, students, and indie developers — this wall is often impossible to climb.

---

✨ The Solution

Flutter Apple Bridge (FAB) breaks that wall.

Build, install, and hot-reload your Flutter app on a real iPhone — directly from Windows.

┌──────────────────────┐
│  Your Code           │
│  (VS Code, Windows)  │
└──────────┬───────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│  GitHub Actions      │  ← builds IPA on a real Mac (free for public repos)
│  (macOS runner)      │
└──────────┬───────────┘
           │ download
           ▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│  Your Windows PC     │  ← signs IPA locally with zsign
│  (FAB tool)          │
└──────────┬───────────┘
           │ install via USB
           ▼
┌──────────────────────┐
│  Your iPhone         │  ← runs your app
│  (Hot Reload!)       │
└──────────────────────┘

No Mac. No subscription. No vendor lock-in.

---

🎯 Who Is This For?

• 🌍 Developers in emerging markets where Macs are expensive or unavailable.
• 💰 Indie developers who can't justify $1,000+ for hardware they barely use.
• 🎓 Students learning iOS development on their existing PC.
• 🔓 Open source enthusiasts who believe development tools should be free.
• 🌐 Arabic-speaking developers who want native language support.

---

🚀 Features

Available Now (Pre-Alpha)

• 🚧 In development — see Roadmap.

Coming in MVP

• ✅ One-click build & install on iPhone (from VS Code).
• ✅ Hot Reload over USB — develop with the speed you're used to.
• ✅ Works with your existing Flutter project — no migration required.
• ✅ Free GitHub Actions integration — no subscription needed.
• ✅ Smart caching — builds in 5-7 minutes.

Coming in v1.0

• 🌍 Bilingual UI (Arabic + English) — more languages coming.
• 🤖 AI-assisted setup — natural language explanations of errors.
• 🌐 Cloud iOS preview — see your app in a browser.
• 📦 App Store deployment — go from code to App Store directly.

---

📊 How We Compare

Feature	FAB	ios-builder	Codemagic	xtool
Free for unlimited use	✅	⚠️ Loss leader	❌ $0.095/min	✅
Hot Reload	✅ Planned	✅ (needs MobAI $5/mo)	❌	❌
Open source	✅ Apache 2.0	⚠️ Partial	❌	✅ MIT
Flutter support	✅	✅	✅	❌ Swift only
VS Code integration	✅ Planned	❌	⚠️ Plugin only	⚠️ Tasks only
Arabic support	✅ Planned	❌	❌	❌
No vendor lock-in	✅	❌ MobAI subscription	❌ SaaS	✅

---

🛠️ How It Works (Technical)

FAB stitches together battle-tested open source tools:

Stage	Tool	Purpose
Build	GitHub Actions (macos-14 runner)	Builds IPA on a real Mac in the cloud
Communicate	pymobiledevice3	Talks to iPhone over USB (iOS 17+ compatible)
Sign	zsign	Signs IPA on Windows (no Mac needed)
Hot Reload	Flutter flutter attach + t3 relay	Injects Dart code changes into running app

We're not reinventing the wheel — we're connecting the dots and wrapping it in a tool that just works.

---

📋 Status

Pre-Alpha. We're building the foundation.

• ✅ Phase 0 (Foundation): Documentation, research, decisions — complete.
• 🚧 Phase 1 (PoC): Proving the chain works — in progress.
• 📅 Phase 2 (MVP CLI): First public release — coming soon.
• 📅 Phase 3 (VS Code Extension): The flagship product — planned.

⭐ Star this repo to follow our progress.

---

🤝 Contributing

We're at the very beginning. If you want to shape this project from day one — your voice matters here.

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

How you can help right now

• ⭐ Star the repo to show interest.
• 💬 Open a Discussion with feedback or questions.
• 🐛 Report bugs as we ship pre-alpha builds.
• 🌍 Translate — we want this in every language.
• 💻 Code — once we have the foundation, we'll need everyone.

---

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built on the shoulders of giants:

• pymobiledevice3 by @doronz88 — modern iOS device communication.
• tidevice3 by @codeskyblue — friendly wrapper.
• zsign by @zhlynn — cross-platform iOS code signing.
• Flutter by Google — the framework that started it all.
• ios-builder — for showing us this was possible.
• xtool — for inspiration and the courage to build cross-platform Apple tools.
• The libimobiledevice community — pioneers since 2007.

We stand on a foundation built by many people we've never met. We hope to extend it.

---

📜 License

Apache License 2.0 — free to use, modify, distribute. With patent protection.

---

💌 A Personal Note

This project started with a question:

"Why should a developer in Riyadh, Cairo, Lagos, or Jakarta need to spend a month's salary on a Mac just to learn iOS development?"

The answer is: they shouldn't.

iOS development should be accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live or what they can afford.

We're building this for them. And for ourselves. And for the world.

---

🇸🇦 Built with ❤️ from the Arab world, for the world.

⭐ Star us on GitHub · 💬 Join Discussions · 📖 Read the Docs