Building from source without an Apple Developer account: what works, what doesn't

[AgentiLoop]

This comes up a lot in issues, so pinning the answer here.

The two build paths

Option A — Xcode + Apple Developer account. Open Agent.xcodeproj, set your Development Team, Build & Run the Agent target, approve the helper when prompted. Everything works.

Option B — Xcode Command Line Tools only, no account.

git clone https://github.com/AgentiLoop/agent.git
cd Agent
./build.sh              # Debug
./build.sh Release      # Release
open "build/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/Agent!.app"

Takes about 5 minutes. The build is ad-hoc signed.

What works on Option B

• The full LLM task loop and all 21 providers
• Every tool: file, git, xcode build/analyze, index, memory, plan, sub-agents
• Accessibility automation (AXorcist)
• AppleScript, JXA, AgentScript / ScriptingBridge — all in-process with TCC
• Safari automation
• MCP servers
• The in-process shell fallback

What does NOT work on Option B

• The Launch Agent (user_shell) and Launch Daemon (root_shell) helpers. SMAppService requires a Team ID to register them, and an ad-hoc signature doesn't have one. Agent! detects this and routes shell commands through the in-process fallback instead, so you don't lose shell access — you lose the privileged (root) path and the out-of-process isolation.

That's the whole gap. If you don't need root and don't care about helper isolation, Option B is a complete build.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
xcode-select points at Command Line Tools	sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
Odd BUILD FAILED right after pulling	Stale DerivedData: ./build.sh clean && ./build.sh
Helpers never register	Expected on Option B — use Option A
Deployment target / SDK errors	Agent! targets macOS 26; update macOS and Xcode
./build.sh release does nothing useful	The config argument is case-sensitive: Release

Security note

Some people ask why the helpers insist on a Team ID at all. Short answer: SMAppService already enforces signing identity, and both XPC listeners require same-team code signing derived from the app's own signature — release builds reject un-teamed clients. That's deliberate; the daemon runs as root, and the thing talking to it needs to prove it's the same app. Details in docs/SECURITY.md.

Still stuck? Reply with your macOS version, Xcode version and the ./build.sh output.