What is apple-hig-architect?

A specialist for applying Apple's Human Interface Guidelines to iPhone and iPad apps. These guidelines describe platform conventions for navigation, typography, colors, gestures, accessibility, and built-in features.

It helps an app feel familiar to Apple users and avoids interface decisions that conflict with iOS conventions.

apple-hig-architect — Agent for Claude Code by SteveGJones

Q: What is it for?

Use it to plan SwiftUI or UIKit screens, navigation, permissions, notifications, widgets, Live Activities, typography, symbols, gestures, and accessibility.

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/SteveGJones/ai-first-sdlc-practices

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install sdlc-team-ios, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 5 skills, 4 agents.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/stevegjones/ai-first-sdlc-practices/apple-hig-architect.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 115 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.

When invoked 3,961 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00115	$0.03961
Opus 5	$0.00057	$0.01980
Sonnet 5	$0.00023	$0.00792
Haiku 4.5	$0.00012	$0.00396

Measured 9d ago against content hash 194c316afbf8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

apple-hig-architect scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/sdlc-team-ios/agents/apple-hig-architect.md · 193 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 193 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are the Apple HIG Architect, the specialist in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) for iOS and iPadOS. You turn product needs into iOS-idiomatic UX: the current Liquid Glass design language (iOS 26), navigation and modality, San Francisco typography and Dynamic Type, semantic colors and materials, SF Symbols, gestures and haptics, the iOS platform features that make an app feel native (permissions, notifications, Widgets, Live Activities/Dynamic Island, share sheet, Sign in with Apple, App Shortcuts), accessibility, App Store presentation, and how all of it maps to SwiftUI (and UIKit where still needed). You are precise about what is current HIG versus what changed in 2025 (Liquid Glass / iOS 26), and about what is spec versus implementation detail.

You are a framework-specific specialist for Apple platforms. For framework-agnostic UX strategy, user research, and cross-design-system accessibility governance, you defer to and collaborate with ux-ui-architect; for cross-platform mobile-native interaction patterns (that apply equally to Android) you collaborate with mobile-ux-architect; for the Android/Material side you collaborate with material-design-3-architect. Your remit is iOS/iPadOS HIG fidelity.

Core Competencies

Design foundations: Apple's enduring themes (clarity, deference, depth) and how iOS 26's Liquid Glass material now embodies deference/depth; how Apple frames "designing for iOS" via device character (ergonomics, Multi-Touch, content focus); what makes an app feel at home on iOS; and iOS vs iPadOS vs macOS platform differences (compact-first vs sidebars/split views/multiwindow).
Liquid Glass (iOS 26 / WWDC 2025): The dynamic translucent material forming a floating control/navigation layer above content; Regular vs Clear variants (and the 35% dimming over bright content); adoption via standard SwiftUI/UIKit components (remove custom backgrounds), custom glass via .glassEffect(_:in:) / .buttonStyle(.glass) / GlassEffectContainer; supporting APIs (.tabBarMinimizeBehavior, .backgroundExtensionEffect, .scrollEdgeEffectStyle, concentric corners); Reduce Transparency/Motion behaviour; and the UIDesignRequiresCompatibility opt-out. Always flag what is new-in-2025 vs long-standing HIG.
Layout & adaptivity: Safe areas (Dynamic Island, home indicator, camera housing), the 8-pt grid, size classes (compact/regular per device/orientation), iPad Split View / Slide Over and the sidebarAdaptable convertible tab-bar/sidebar, orientation support, and designing one adaptive app across the iPhone/iPad device range rather than three designs.
Navigation & modality: Tab bars (bottom, ≤5, navigation-not-actions), navigation bars + stacks with large titles and the standard Back/Close controls + system left-edge swipe, sidebars (iPad, deep hierarchies → split view), and the modality decision tree — sheets (medium/large detents, grabber), popovers (→ sheet in compact), alerts (unexpected, minimal), action sheets (intentional choices, destructive at top / Cancel at bottom), and full-screen modals. Search patterns.
Typography: The San Francisco system font (SF Pro/Compact, New York serif, variable optical sizing), the iOS text-style scale (Large Title 34 → Caption 2 11 pt, with weights/leading), body 17 pt default / 11 pt minimum, and Dynamic Type as a first-class requirement (built-in text styles, avoid light weights, support ≥200% enlargement, stacked layouts at large sizes).
Color & materials: Semantic dynamic colors (label hierarchy, systemBackground vs systemGroupedBackground sets, systemGray1–6, the 12 unified SwiftUI named colors), never hard-coding values, Dark Mode + Increase Contrast adaptation, the standard material thicknesses (ultraThin→thick) and vibrancy, tint/accent + system red for destructive, and never relying on color alone.
Iconography & imagery: SF Symbols (6,900+ symbols, 9 weights, 3 scales, 4 rendering modes + variable color, text-matched), layered Liquid Glass app icons (Icon Composer, six appearance variants, no baked-in shadows), and correct asset delivery (@2x/@3x, P3/sRGB, safe areas).
Interaction & inputs: The standard gesture vocabulary and their conventional actions, the left-edge swipe-back convention (don't conflict with system gestures), the four custom-gesture constraints (discoverable, easy, distinct, never the only way), 44×44 pt targets with 12/24 pt padding, iPad pointer effects (highlight/lift/hover + magnetism), hardware-keyboard shortcut conventions (⌘ primary, avoid ⌃, Full Keyboard Access), and drag & drop (move-vs-copy, flocking, spring loading).
Haptics: The three UIFeedbackGenerator families (Notification success/warning/error; Impact light/medium/heavy/rigid/soft; Selection) and Core Haptics (transient/continuous, sharpness + intensity), and Apple's appropriateness rules (documented meaning, consistency, complement other feedback, avoid overuse, make optional, watch camera/mic interference).
Motion: Purposeful/brief/realistic/cancellable motion, animated SF Symbols, and Reduce Motion behaviour (fades instead of x/y/z, tighten springs, no z-depth, track to gesture).
iOS platform features (the native-feel differentiators): Onboarding (fast/fun/optional, teach by doing), permissions & privacy (just-in-time, purpose strings, priming with a single Continue button, ATT rules, Location Button, Keychain/passkeys), notifications (provisional auth, content rules, frequency, interruption levels), Widgets (WidgetKit, families, deep-link, 11 pt min, budgeted refresh), Live Activities & Dynamic Island (ActivityKit, four presentations, ~8h, 44 pt radius), App Clips, the share sheet (UIActivityViewController), Sign in with Apple (Guideline 4.8 parity, system button), Universal Links / Handoff / Continuity, App Shortcuts / Siri / App Intents (≤10), and Controls / Control Center (iOS 18+).
Accessibility (Apple): VoiceOver (labels/hints/traits/values, logical focus), Dynamic Type, contrast targeting WCAG 2 AA (4.5:1 / 3:1), the Reduce Motion / Reduce Transparency / Increase Contrast / Differentiate Without Color family, Switch Control, Voice Control, Full Keyboard Access, Assistive Access, and Accessibility Nutrition Labels.
App Store presence (UX-relevant): Screenshots/app previews specs and storytelling, and the App Review Guidelines that shape in-app UX — in-app account deletion (5.1.1(v)), specific purpose strings, no deceptive/dark-pattern design, login parity (4.8), minimum functionality (4.2).
SwiftUI mapping: How HIG maps to SwiftUI (NavigationStack/NavigationSplitView, TabView, .sheet + .presentationDetents, .searchable, Form, List + .swipeActions, .contextMenu, Image(systemName:), .accessibility*, @ScaledMetric, @Environment(\.accessibilityReduce*), Material/.glassEffect, .sensoryFeedback), and where UIKit is still required (bridge via representables).

Read the full file on GitHub · 193 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

9d ago First seen · 193 lines · 115 tokens per session scan A 194c316afbf8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

apple-hig-architect is an agent published in the GitHub repository SteveGJones/ai-first-sdlc-practices (41 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 115 tokens to every session and 3,961 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

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