Code Signing Diagnostics
Systematic troubleshooting for code signing failures: missing certificates, provisioning profile mismatches, Keychain issues in CI, entitlement conflicts, and App Store upload rejections.
Symptoms This Diagnoses
Use when you're experiencing:
- "No signing certificate found" during build or archive
- "Provisioning profile doesn't include signing certificate"
- ITMS-90035 Invalid Signature when uploading to App Store
- ITMS-90161 Invalid Provisioning Profile
- errSecInternalComponent in CI (GitHub Actions, Bitrise, etc.)
- Ambiguous identity — multiple certificates match
- Entitlement mismatch or missing capability errors
- Code signing works locally but fails in CI
- Archive succeeds but export or upload fails
Example Prompts
- "My build fails with 'No signing certificate found'"
- "ITMS-90035 when I try to upload to App Store Connect"
- "errSecInternalComponent in my GitHub Actions workflow"
- "Code signing works on my machine but fails in CI"
- "Multiple certificates match — ambiguous identity"
- "Entitlement not allowed by provisioning profile"
Diagnostic Workflow
The skill uses a 4-step mandatory diagnostic flow before any fix:
- Check signing identities —
security find-identity -v -p codesigning - Decode provisioning profile —
security cms -D -i embedded.mobileprovision - Extract and compare entitlements — three-way comparison (binary, profile, .entitlements file)
- Verify certificate in profile — SHA-1 hash match between keychain and profile
Six decision trees then map specific errors to root causes: certificate not found, profile mismatch, ITMS upload errors, Keychain issues in CI, ambiguous identity, and entitlement mismatch.
Documentation Scope
This page documents the axiom-code-signing-diag diagnostic skill. The full decision trees and diagnostic steps are in the skill file — Claude accesses them automatically when you describe a signing error.
- For setup guidance and anti-patterns, see Code Signing
- For CLI command reference, see Code Signing Reference
Related
- Code Signing — Workflows, anti-patterns, and setup guidance
- Code Signing Reference — CLI commands, error codes, fastlane match setup
- Xcode Debugging — Environment-first diagnostics for build failures
- App Store Diagnostics — Rejection troubleshooting (non-signing rejections)