SwiftLens - UI Testing for SwiftUI apps

SwiftLens helps you ship SwiftUI apps faster by making behavior-driven tests easy, stable, and precise. It tracks real visible view state using SwiftUI preferences and simulates user interaction without relying on XCUITest

You can read about the internal working of this package here: Discovering PreferenceKeys for SwiftUI’s Testing

Features

📬 Run your UI tests like unit tests with XCTest/Swift Testing

🔍 Declarative view tracking using .lensTracked(id:), .lensGroup(id:), lensButton(id:)

📋 Observe when views are shown and hidden — no fixed delays or polling needed.

🖐️ Interact with your ui by identifiers e.g. sut.observer.tapButton(withId:)

🧪 Behavior-driven test support via LensWorkBench, LensObserver, LensInteractor

Check out the Usage Guide for full API coverage.

Installation

SwiftLens is distributed as a Swift Package with two libraries:

SwiftLens – for production code (tracking views, event notification)
SwiftLensTestSupport – for test targets (simulation and verification tools)

Adding via Swift Package Manager

Add the package to your project using Xcode:

Go to File > Add Packages

Use the following URL:

https://github.com/gahntpo/SwiftLens.git

Choose the version or branch you want to track.
Select the libraries you need:
- SwiftLens → for your main app target
- SwiftLensTestSupport → for your test target

Getting Started

SwiftLens makes it easy to write clean, declarative tests for SwiftUI by tracking real view state and simulating user interactions — without relying on XCUITest.

Here’s a minimal example with Swift Testing to help you get started.

1. Define Your View

Use .lensToggle(id:value:) to track toggles and .lensTracked(id:) to track conditional UI:

class ToggleViewModel: ObservableObject {
    @Published var isTrue = false
}

struct DemoToggleView: View {
    @ObservedObject var vm: ToggleViewModel

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Toggle("Toggle", isOn: $vm.isTrue)
                .lensToggle(id: "CheckList_toggle", value: $vm.isTrue)
                .toggleStyle(.button)

            if vm.isTrue {
                Text("You can toggle this on and off")
                    .lensTracked(id: "text.toggled.visible")
            }
        }
    }
}

2. Write a Behavior-Driven Test

With SwiftLensTestSupport, you simulate toggles and assert state updates using LensWorkBench, LensInteractor, and LensObserver.

✅ First: Check initial UI state

@MainActor
@Test("Initial state hides conditional text")
func toggleView_initial_state_should_not_show_text() async throws {
    // ---- GIVEN ----
    let vm = ToggleViewModel()
    let sut = LensWorkBench { sut in
        DemoToggleView(vm: vm)
    }

    // ---- THEN ----
    #expect(sut.observer.containsNotView(withID: "text.toggled.visible"), "the text should not be visible")
}

✅ Toggle updates the view model

@MainActor
@Test("Toggle updates view model state")
func toggleView_toggle() async throws {
    // ---- GIVEN ----
    let vm = ToggleViewModel()
    let initial = vm.isTrue

    let sut = LensWorkBench { sut in
        DemoToggleView(vm: vm)
    }

    // ---- WHEN ----
    sut.interactor.toggle(withID: "CheckList_toggle")

    // ---- THEN ----
    #expect(vm.isTrue != initial, "the toggle state should be connected to the view model state")
}

✅ Toggled UI becomes visible

If you want to test if the view with id text.toggled.visible" is shown, you need to wait for the ui to update:

@MainActor
@Test("Toggle shows conditional view")
func toggleView_when_on_then_text_is_visible() async throws {
    // ---- GIVEN ----
    let vm = ToggleViewModel()

    let sut = LensWorkBench { sut in
        DemoToggleView(vm: vm)
    }

    // ---- WHEN ----
    sut.interactor.toggle(withID: "CheckList_toggle", to: true)

    // ---- THEN ----
    try await sut.observer.waitForValue(forViewID: "CheckList_toggle", equals: true)
    #expect(sut.observer.isToggleOn(forViewID: "CheckList_toggle"))
    #expect(sut.observer.values.containsView(withID: "text.toggled.visible"))
}

You can use 'try await sut.observer.waitForValue()' to wait until the view is visibile. If it is not shown in a given timeout, the test will through an error.

You don´t need to relay on fixed delays, which makes these tests fast and reliable ✅🦄

Here is a few examples of what you can do either by checking directly or using a wait:

try await sut.observer.waitForViewVisible(withID: "sheet.content.group", "sheet did not open")
try await sut.observer.waitForViewHidden(withID: "sheet.content.group", "sheet was supposed to be closed")

try await sut.observer.waitForValue(forViewID: "CheckList_toggle", equals: true)
#expect(sut.observer.containsView(withID: "CheckList_toggle"))
#expect(sut.observer.isToggleOn(forViewID: "CheckList_toggle"))

try await sut.observer.waitForValue(forViewID: "demo_picker", equals: newSelection)

try await sut.observer.waitForViewCount(withViewIDPrefix: "item.", expected: 0)
#expect(sut.observer.containsView(withID: "First"))

let containerView = sut.observer.values.findView(withID: "container")
#expect(containerView?.children.count == 2)

More Examples:

You can look at the test suite for more example:

FAQs

Which views and modifiers are supported?

SwiftLens supports any SwiftUI view where you can apply .lensTracked(id:), .lensGroup(id:), .lensButton(id:), .lensToggle(id:value:), or other Lens modifiers. You can track visibility, interactivity, and internal states like toggle status, disabled, and focus.

Check out the Usage Guide for full API coverage.

Is it using private APIs?

Nope — SwiftLens uses only public SwiftUI APIs, specifically the PreferenceKey system and NotificationCenter. It’s safe for production code. The SwiftLens module adds minimal tracking logic to your views. Your main app remains clean and test-friendly.

Do I need to touch my production code to make this work?

You have to add minimal code to your production code. Here is an example where I have the following

Button("Remove Last") {
    viewModel.removeLast()
}
.accessibilityIdentifier("RemoveLastButton")

and change to this:

Button("Remove Last") {
    viewModel.removeLast()
}
.lensButton(id: "RemoveLastButton")

The modifiers like lensButton add the same id for the accessibilityIdentifier identifier. You dont need to write both these lines.

How do I add it to my Xcode project?

Ensure you're linking the libraries to the correct targets:

Add SwiftLens to your main app target
Add SwiftLensTestSupport to your unit test target

See the Installation section above for instructions using Swift Package Manager.

Is SwiftLens compatible with Swift Package Manager?

Yes — install it via SPM:

.package(url: "https://github.com/your-org/SwiftLens.git", from: "1.0.0")

Add SwiftLens to your app target, and SwiftLensTestSupport to your test target.

How do I use it in my project?

Follow the Getting Started section to set up view tracking and tests. You can also explore deeper use cases in the Guide Directory.

How fast do these tests run?

SwiftLens tests typically run in well under one second, even for complex UI hierarchies.

This is because:

✅ No polling or artificial wait calls — UI updates are observed in real time via SwiftUI's native PreferenceKey system.
✅ No reliance on XCUITest — no simulator boot-up, no view hierarchy traversal delays.
✅ State and UI assertions are in sync — since SwiftLens runs fully inside the SwiftUI render loop, your tests react to real state updates immediately.

Compared to tools like ViewInspector, SwiftLens achieves comparable or faster performance — especially in tests involving:

dynamic view hierarchy
multiple interactions
conditional visibility (e.g. modals, if-else blocks)

📉 Typical test runtime: ~0.1–0.3 sec per observation.wait() in @MainActor test suites.

No view introspection. No thread sleeps. No hidden polling. Just real SwiftUI behavior.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! If you find edge cases or want to extend support (e.g., tracking gestures, focus state, or other modifiers), feel free to open an issue or submit a PR.

SwiftLens

Install / Use

README