Skip to content

Code Signing Reference

Comprehensive CLI and API reference for iOS/macOS code signing: certificate management, provisioning profile inspection, entitlement extraction, Keychain operations, codesign verification, fastlane match, and Xcode build settings.

When to Use This Reference

Use this reference when:

  • Running CLI commands to inspect certificates, profiles, or entitlements
  • Setting up Keychain management scripts for CI/CD
  • Configuring fastlane match for team certificate management
  • Looking up Xcode build settings for signing
  • Checking ITMS error codes and their causes
  • Deciding between .p8 and .p12 for APNs authentication
  • Writing ExportOptions.plist for xcodebuild exports

Example Prompts

  • "What's the command to list my signing certificates?"
  • "How do I decode a provisioning profile from the command line?"
  • "What does ITMS-90035 mean?"
  • "How do I set up a CI keychain for code signing?"
  • "What are the Xcode build settings for manual signing?"
  • "Should I use .p8 or .p12 for push notifications?"

What's Covered

  • Certificate CLI commands (security find-identity, find-certificate, import, export)
  • Provisioning profile decoding and inspection (security cms -D)
  • Entitlement extraction and comparison (codesign -d --entitlements)
  • Keychain management (create-keychain, unlock-keychain, set-key-partition-list)
  • codesign commands (signing, verification, deep signing)
  • openssl commands (certificate inspection, .p12 manipulation)
  • Xcode build settings reference (CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY, CODE_SIGN_STYLE, etc.)
  • ExportOptions.plist format and export methods
  • fastlane match setup, Matchfile, CI readonly mode
  • Complete CI keychain setup/cleanup scripts (GitHub Actions example)
  • APNs .p8 vs .p12 comparison table
  • Error codes reference (security, codesign, ITMS)

Documentation Scope

This page documents the axiom-code-signing-ref reference skill. The full CLI command reference, error codes, and CI scripts are in the skill file — Claude accesses them automatically.

Released under the MIT License