Apple has released Xcode 26.3, the latest version of its integrated development environment (IDE) for building software for platforms like iPhone and Mac.

Support for agentic coding

The key feature of Xcode 26.3 is full support for agentic coding tools, such as OpenAI's Codex or Claude Agent. The IDE offers a side panel interface for assigning tasks to agents via prompts, tracking their progress and changes.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

This is made possible through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open protocol that allows AI agents to work with external tools and structured resources. Xcode acts as an MCP endpoint, exposing machine-invocable interfaces and providing AI tools like Codex or Claude Agent with access to IDE primitives such as the file graph, documentation search, and project settings. While AI chat and workflows were already supported in Xcode, this release offers much deeper access to Xcode's features.

Flexibility and local models

A notable aspect is that, although OpenAI and Anthropic's model integrations have a dedicated spot in Xcode's settings, it is possible to connect other tools that support MCP, allowing some of these operations to be performed with models running locally.