Building DroidDock from source

Prerequisites

Xcode 26 or later, on an Apple silicon Mac
Homebrew, then:

brew install libmtp xcodegen

Build and run

git clone https://github.com/abehan7/droiddock.git
cd droiddock
xcodegen generate          # project.yml -> DroidDock.xcodeproj
open DroidDock.xcodeproj   # then ⌘R

project.yml is the source of truth for the Xcode project; edit it rather than the .xcodeproj, then run xcodegen generate again.

How libmtp is linked

Debug builds load libmtp straight from /opt/homebrew/lib.
Release builds run scripts/embed-dylibs.sh, which copies libmtp and its dependency libusb into DroidDock.app/Contents/Frameworks, rewrites their install names to @rpath and signs them, so the app runs on Macs without Homebrew.

The app is not sandboxed (the sandbox blocks raw USB access and writing to arbitrary folders), and library validation is off because the Homebrew dylibs aren’t signed by the same team.

Make the DMG

scripts/make-dmg.sh

This builds Release and writes dist/DroidDock-<version>.dmg with the drag-to-Applications window. The window layout lives in scripts/dmg/settings.py and is built by dmgbuild, which the script installs into build/dmgbuild-venv on first run. The background is scripts/dmg/background.png (+ @2x), drawn from design/dmg-background.svg; keep it light, because Finder always draws the icon labels in black. The version comes from MARKETING_VERSION in project.yml.

Releases are ad-hoc signed (CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY: "-"). To ship a notarized build, set a Developer ID identity and team in project.yml, then notarize the DMG with xcrun notarytool.

Debugging

Set the environment variable LIBMTP_DEBUG=9 in the scheme to log all MTP traffic.
Run with the -demo argument to use the built-in fake phone.
In Terminal, mtp-detect (from libmtp) should print the phone’s model when MTP works.

Code layout

File	Role
`PhoneEngine.swift`	The protocol both connection types implement
`MTPEngine.swift`	Every libmtp call, on one serial queue
`ADBEngine.swift`, `ADB.swift`	The adb connection: folder listings, transfers, thumbnails
`BrowserModel.swift`	`@MainActor` app state: connection, folder, selection, transfers
`USBWatcher.swift`	IOKit plug/unplug notifications for Samsung (`0x04E8`)
`ContentView.swift`	Window, sidebar, toolbar, item menu, path and transfer bars
`BrowserViews.swift`	Icons, List, Columns and Gallery views; thumbnails and previews
`WiFiConnectView.swift`	Wireless-debugging pairing (built, hidden behind `BrowserModel.wifiEnabled`)
`DemoPhone.swift`	Fake phone for `-demo`
`DroidDockApp.swift`	Entry point and menus; releases the phone on quit