Xcode test sharding

Requirements

A Tuist account and project
Test Insights configured (for optimal shard balancing)

Test sharding for Xcode projects uses tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing to create a shard plan and tuist xcodebuild test to execute each shard.

How it works#

Test sharding follows a two-phase workflow:

Build phase: Tuist enumerates your tests and creates a shard plan on the server. The server uses historical test timing data from the last 30 days to distribute tests across shards so each shard takes roughly the same amount of time. The build phase outputs a shard matrix that your CI system uses to spawn parallel runners.
Test phase: Each CI runner receives a shard index and executes only the tests assigned to that shard.

Build phase#

Build your tests and create a shard plan:

bash

tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
  -scheme MyScheme \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
  --shard-total 5

This command:

Builds your tests with xcodebuild build-for-testing
Creates a shard plan on the Tuist server using historical timing data
Uploads the .xctestproducts bundle for use by shard runners
Outputs a shard matrix for your CI system

Build options#

Flag	Environment variable	Description
`--shard-max <N>`	`TUIST_TEST_SHARD_MAX`	Maximum number of shards. Used with `--shard-max-duration` to cap the shard count
`--shard-min <N>`	`TUIST_TEST_SHARD_MIN`	Minimum number of shards
`--shard-total <N>`	`TUIST_TEST_SHARD_TOTAL`	Exact number of shards (mutually exclusive with `--shard-min`/`--shard-max`)
`--shard-max-duration <MS>`	`TUIST_TEST_SHARD_MAX_DURATION`	Target maximum duration per shard in milliseconds
`--shard-granularity <LEVEL>`	`TUIST_TEST_SHARD_GRANULARITY`	`module` (default) distributes entire test modules across shards; `suite` distributes individual test classes for finer-grained balancing
`--shard-reference <REF>`	`TUIST_SHARD_REFERENCE`	Unique identifier for the shard plan (auto-derived on supported CI providers)

Test phase#

Each shard runner executes its assigned tests:

bash

tuist xcodebuild test \
  -scheme MyScheme \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

Test options#

Flag	Environment variable	Description
`--shard-index <N>`	`TUIST_SHARD_INDEX`	Zero-based index of the shard to execute
`--shard-reference <REF>`	`TUIST_SHARD_REFERENCE`	Unique identifier for the shard plan (auto-derived on supported CI providers)

Tuist downloads the .xctestproducts bundle and filters it to include only the tests assigned to that shard.

Continuous integration#

Tuist automatically detects the following CI providers:

GitHub Actions
GitLab CI
CircleCI
Buildkite
Codemagic
Bitrise

For other providers, refer to the .tuist-shard-matrix.json file to set up parallel jobs.

GitHub Actions#

Use a matrix strategy to run shards in parallel:

yaml

name: Tests
on: [pull_request]

jobs:
  build:
    name: Build test shards
    runs-on: macos-latest
    outputs:
      matrix: ${{ steps.build.outputs.matrix }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: jdx/mise-action@v2
      - run: tuist auth login
      - id: build
        run: |
          tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
            -scheme MyScheme \
            -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
            --shard-total 5

  test:
    name: "Shard #${{ matrix.shard }}"
    needs: build
    runs-on: macos-latest
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        shard: ${{ fromJson(needs.build.outputs.matrix).shard }}
    env:
      TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: ${{ matrix.shard }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: jdx/mise-action@v2
      - run: tuist auth login
      - run: |
          tuist xcodebuild test \
            -scheme MyScheme \
            -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

GitLab CI#

Tuist generates a .tuist-shard-child-pipeline.yml that you trigger as a child pipeline. Define a .tuist-shard template job that the generated shard jobs extend:

yaml

# .gitlab-ci.yml
stages:
  - build
  - test

build-shards:
  stage: build
  tags: [macos]
  script:
    - tuist auth login
    - |
      tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
        -scheme MyScheme \
        -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
        --shard-total 5
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - .tuist-shard-child-pipeline.yml

test-shards:
  stage: test
  needs: [build-shards]
  trigger:
    include:
      - artifact: .tuist-shard-child-pipeline.yml
        job: build-shards
    strategy: depend

yaml

# .gitlab/shard-template.yml
.tuist-shard:
  tags: [macos]
  script:
    - tuist auth login
    - |
      tuist xcodebuild test \
        -scheme MyScheme \
        -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

CircleCI#

Tuist generates a .tuist-shard-continuation.json with parameters for the continuation orb:

yaml

# .circleci/config.yml
version: 2.1
setup: true

orbs:
  continuation: circleci/continuation@1

jobs:
  build-shards:
    macos:
      xcode: "16.0"
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Build and plan shards
          command: |
            tuist auth login
            tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
              -scheme MyScheme \
              -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
              --shard-total 5
      - continuation/continue:
          configuration_path: .circleci/continue-config.yml
          parameters: .tuist-shard-continuation.json

workflows:
  setup:
    jobs:
      - build-shards

yaml

# .circleci/continue-config.yml
version: 2.1

parameters:
  shard-indices:
    type: string
    default: ""
  shard-count:
    type: integer
    default: 0

jobs:
  test-shard:
    macos:
      xcode: "16.0"
    parameters:
      shard-index:
        type: integer
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Run shard
          command: |
            export TUIST_SHARD_INDEX=<< parameters.shard-index >>
            tuist auth login
            tuist xcodebuild test \
              -scheme MyScheme \
              -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

workflows:
  test:
    jobs:
      - test-shard:
          matrix:
            parameters:
              shard-index: [<< pipeline.parameters.shard-indices >>]

Buildkite#

Tuist generates a .tuist-shard-pipeline.yml with one step per shard. Upload it with buildkite-agent pipeline upload:

yaml

# pipeline.yml
steps:
  - label: "Build test shards"
    command: |
      tuist auth login
      tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
        -scheme MyScheme \
        -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
        --shard-total 5
      buildkite-agent pipeline upload .tuist-shard-pipeline.yml
    agents:
      queue: macos

Each generated step has TUIST_SHARD_INDEX set in its environment. Add the test command to each shard step using a shared script:

bash

# .buildkite/shard-step.sh
#!/bin/bash
tuist auth login
tuist xcodebuild test \
  -scheme MyScheme \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

Codemagic#

Codemagic does not support dynamic matrix jobs, so define a separate workflow per shard. Tuist writes TUIST_SHARD_MATRIX and TUIST_SHARD_COUNT to the CM_ENV file for use within each workflow:

yaml

# codemagic.yaml
workflows:
  build-shards:
    name: Build test shards
    instance_type: mac_mini_m2
    environment:
      xcode: latest
    scripts:
      - name: Build and plan shards
        script: |
          tuist auth login
          tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
            -scheme MyScheme \
            -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
            --shard-total 5

  test-shard-0: &shard-workflow
    name: "Shard #0"
    instance_type: mac_mini_m2
    environment:
      xcode: latest
      vars:
        TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 0
    scripts:
      - name: Run shard
        script: |
          tuist auth login
          tuist xcodebuild test \
            -scheme MyScheme \
            -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'

  test-shard-1:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    name: "Shard #1"
    environment:
      xcode: latest
      vars:
        TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 1

  test-shard-2:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    name: "Shard #2"
    environment:
      xcode: latest
      vars:
        TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 2

  test-shard-3:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    name: "Shard #3"
    environment:
      xcode: latest
      vars:
        TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 3

  test-shard-4:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    name: "Shard #4"
    environment:
      xcode: latest
      vars:
        TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 4

On Bitrise, Tuist writes .tuist-shard-matrix.json to the BITRISE_DEPLOY_DIR, making it available as a build artifact for downstream pipeline stages. Use Bitrise Pipelines with pre-defined parallel workflows:

yaml

# bitrise.yml
pipelines:
  test-pipeline:
    stages:
      - build-stage: {}
      - test-stage: {}

stages:
  build-stage:
    workflows:
      - build-shards: {}
  test-stage:
    workflows:
      - test-shard-0: {}
      - test-shard-1: {}
      - test-shard-2: {}
      - test-shard-3: {}
      - test-shard-4: {}

workflows:
  build-shards:
    steps:
      - script:
          title: Build and plan shards
          inputs:
            - content: |
                tuist auth login
                tuist xcodebuild build-for-testing \
                  -scheme MyScheme \
                  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16' \
                  --shard-total 5

  test-shard-0: &shard-workflow
    envs:
      - TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 0
    steps:
      - script:
          title: Run shard
          inputs:
            - content: |
                tuist auth login
                tuist xcodebuild test \
                  -scheme MyScheme \
                  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 16'
  test-shard-1:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    envs:
      - TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 1
  test-shard-2:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    envs:
      - TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 2
  test-shard-3:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    envs:
      - TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 3
  test-shard-4:
    <<: *shard-workflow
    envs:
      - TUIST_SHARD_INDEX: 4

Tip

Bitrise does not support dynamic parallel job creation at runtime. Define a fixed number of shard workflows in your pipeline stages — workflows within a stage run in parallel automatically.