April 8, 2026
New plugin, old grudges
Expanding Swift's IDE Support
Swift hits more editors—cheers, “clickbait” cries, and an AppCode comeback wish
TLDR: Swift’s official extension is now on the open VSX store, making it easy to use Swift in more editors like Cursor and VSCodium. Devs are happy about simpler installs, but the comments light up with calls for SwiftUI tools, nostalgia for AppCode, and fresh shade thrown at Xcode—again.
Apple’s Swift just slid into more code editors, thanks to the official Swift extension landing on the open, vendor‑neutral Open VSX registry. Translation: you can now use Swift in popular VS Code–style editors like Cursor, VSCodium, AWS’s Kiro, and Google’s Antigravity—often with auto‑install and no weird download dance. Features include smart autocomplete, refactoring, debugging, test running, and built‑in docs.
But the comments? Spicy. One dev cheered the move as “long time coming,” asking if the beloved SwiftUI visual tools will follow. Another called out the headline as “clickbait,” arguing Swift already worked in these editors—you just had to manually install a file since Microsoft blocked forks of the VS Code marketplace last year. The real win, they say, is easy installs at last.
Then the floodgates opened: nostalgia, wishlists, and an all‑caps vibe check for Xcode. A throwback fan dreamed of an open‑source Swift IDE that can rewire itself without restarting (a nod to old‑school Oberon), joking they might “vibe‑code one” themselves. Meanwhile, the JetBrains crowd mourned the death of AppCode, declaring Xcode “can’t compare,” and begged Apple to open iOS development so a JetBrains comeback could happen. Verdict: great news for Swift everywhere—but the community’s love‑hate saga with Xcode steals the show.
Key Points
- •The official Swift VS Code extension is now available on the Eclipse Foundation’s Open VSX Registry.
- •Open VSX availability enables installation in more editors, including Cursor, VSCodium, AWS’s Kiro, and Google’s Antigravity.
- •The extension supports Swift Package Manager projects and cross-platform development on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
- •Features include code completion, refactoring, debugging, a test explorer, and DocC support.
- •Getting started: in any Open VSX-compatible editor, search for “Swift” in the Extensions panel; a dedicated setup guide exists for Cursor.