stellar-ios-mac-sdk

The Stellar SDK for iOS and macOS, providing transaction building, Horizon and Soroban RPC access, high-level Soroban smart contract support, and implements 18 Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs).

   
Category SDKs
Website https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk
Repository https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk
First Released March 2018
Intake soft-launch
Budget Requested 18000

Project Description

The iOS Stellar SDK is a native Swift library for building Stellar applications on iOS and macOS. It provides transaction building, account management, Horizon API access, Soroban RPC support, high-level Soroban smart contract support, and implements 18 Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs). The SDK is listed on the official Stellar developer documentation and is used by wallets and applications including LOBSTR, Unstoppable Wallet, and others.

Team & Experience

My name is Christian (GitHub: christian-rogobete, Discord: soneso, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogobete/) and I am the main developer and maintainer of the iOS Stellar SDK. I have a master’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in logistics and have been working in the IT field since the mid-1990s as a developer, software architect, project manager, and in other roles.

I began contributing to the Stellar network in 2017, specializing primarily in the development and maintenance of Stellar SDKs. The first Stellar SDK I developed was the iOS Stellar SDK, which won the Stellar Build Challenge in 2018 and has since been expanded and maintained by me with the help of the SDF Infrastructure Grant and the SCF Public Goods Award. Other SDKs I have developed include the Flutter Stellar SDK, the PHP Stellar SDK, and the Kotlin Multiplatform Stellar SDK.

I currently work full-time on my Stellar SDK projects.

Previous SCF participation: Multiple SCF Build Awards (Flutter Wallet SDK, Swift Wallet SDK, KMP Stellar SDK, and others), SCF Public Goods Award since Q3 2025 (Batch 1) for iOS, Flutter, and PHP SDKs. Member of the SCF Public Goods Maintenance working group.

Retroactive Impact

In Q1 2026, the iOS SDK shipped 5 releases (3.4.2 through 3.4.6). The SDK is used by wallets and applications including LOBSTR, Unstoppable Wallet, and others. Stats (as of April 10, 2026): 129 stars, 56 forks, 140 releases, 0 open issues at end of quarter. Median time to close: 21.1h, 100% response rate.

Unit test coverage was extended and tracking was set up, currently at 88.78%, with a new CI pipeline and Codecov integration (80% project, 70% patch thresholds). Security hardening was applied across all SDK modules. Bugs found during testing and maintenance were fixed. All public types now conform to Swift 6 Sendable for thread safety. Protocol 25 support was added.

SEP-53 message signing was implemented, cross-SDK compatible with the Java, Python, Flutter, and PHP SDKs. A new XDR code generator replaces hand-written types with machine-generated code from Stellar’s canonical .x files, adding new types and round-trip tests. A daily upstream XDR change detection workflow auto-creates issues when the spec changes.

An AI coding agent skill was published for AI-assisted development tools. The SDK documentation was fully rewritten with tested code examples.

SBOM submission to PG Atlas was added and runs on every push. A new daily statistics collection has been implemented and runs via https://github.com/Soneso/soneso-sdk-stats (live dashboard: https://soneso.github.io/soneso-sdk-stats/).

Past Deliverables

1. Continuous Maintenance and Improvement

Description from last quarter: Regular SDK updates addressing horizon, rpc, protocol updates (e.g. p25), bug fixes, feature requests, code modernization, unit test coverage improvement, and documentation enhancements to ensure long-term sustainability. This includes a new documentation for AI Coding Agents, a so called “skill”, providing token efficient documentation and best practices when using the SDK. Furthermore it includes setting up a configuration for unit test coverage tracking and adding to CI/CD pipeline.

Proof of completion:

  • Release 3.4.2: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.2
  • Release 3.4.3: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.3
  • Release 3.4.4: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.4
  • Release 3.4.5: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.5
  • Release 3.4.6: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.6

Protocol support: Added Protocol 25 RPC response fields (v3.4.2). Updated XDR definitions to latest upstream (v3.4.5, v3.4.6).

Test coverage and CI/CD: Unit test coverage was extended and tracking was set up, currently at 88.78%. Added GitHub Actions CI with Codecov integration.

  • PR #183: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/183

Security hardening: Replaced force-cast crash paths with proper error handling, validated memo text by UTF-8 byte count, rejected negative/overflowing amounts in toXDRAmount, percent-encoded all user-supplied URL values, guarded XDR array decoding against memory exhaustion, enforced HTTPS on SEP-7 callbacks. Pinned all CI actions to commit SHAs with least-privilege permissions. Dependabot configured for monthly updates.

  • PR #196: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/196

Bug fixes: Bugs found during the test coverage extension and security hardening have been fixed.

Thread safety improvements: All public types now conform to Swift 6 Sendable.

  • PR #189: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/189

Documentation: Full documentation rewrite with tested code examples that are validated by the test suite.

  • PR #192: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/192

AI Coding Agent documentation: Agent Skill following the agentskills.io open standard, compatible with Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and others. Also available via the Claude Code marketplace.

  • PR #190: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/190

Compatibility matrices: Updated for Horizon, RPC, and all SEPs with automated generators (tools/matrix-generator/).

  • Horizon: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/compatibility/horizon/HORIZON_COMPATIBILITY_MATRIX.md
  • RPC: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/compatibility/rpc/RPC_COMPATIBILITY_MATRIX.md
  • SEPs: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/tree/master/compatibility/sep

SBOM submission: Added PG Atlas SBOM workflow that triggers on every push to master.

  • https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/.github/workflows/sbom.yml

Statistics and monitoring: A new repository https://github.com/Soneso/soneso-sdk-stats was created to collect daily statistics for the iOS SDK. Data collected: GitHub clones (daily counts and unique cloners), meta data (stars, forks, watchers), activity (52-week commit history and full release list), and issue/PR response times with closure stats. Metrics (as of April 10, 2026): 129 stars, 56 forks, 140 releases, 0 open issues, median time to close 21.1h, 100% response rate. Live dashboard: https://soneso.github.io/soneso-sdk-stats/

2. SEP-53 Support

Description from last quarter: SEP-53 standardizes message signing functionality across Stellar wallets, libraries, and services, preventing ecosystem fragmentation and ensuring interoperability. SEP-53 support is also implemented in the Java and Python SDKs.

Proof of completion:

  • Release 3.4.3: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.3
  • PR #187: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/187
  • SEP-53 compatibility matrix: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/compatibility/sep/SEP-0053_COMPATIBILITY_MATRIX.md
  • Documentation: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/docs/sep/sep-53.md

Adds signMessage() and verifyMessage() on KeyPair with String and [UInt8] overloads. Unit tests cover all spec test vectors (ASCII, Japanese, binary), encoding round-trips, failure cases, and edge cases. Cross-SDK compatible with the Java, Python, Flutter, and PHP SDKs.

3. XDR Classes Generator

Description from last quarter: Currently the SDK has hundreds of manually written XDR classes/structs/enums used to encode and decode XDR objects. Extensions or updates in the XDR structure need to be implemented manually at this time, which makes the SDK difficult to maintain. The new XDR class generator will improve the maintainability and also add missing XDR classes so that they can immediately be used as new features require them.

Proof of completion:

  • Release 3.4.5: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/releases/tag/3.4.5
  • PR #191: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/pull/191
  • Generator: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/tree/master/tools/xdr-generator
  • XDR definitions: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/tree/master/xdr
  • CI workflow: https://github.com/Soneso/stellar-ios-mac-sdk/blob/master/.github/workflows/xdr-generator.yml

Ruby-based code generator reads Stellar’s canonical .x XDR definition files (from https://github.com/stellar/stellar-xdr). Replaces hand-written XDR type definitions with auto-generated Swift code and adds new types not previously in the SDK. Round-trip encode/decode unit tests cover 95% of generated types. CI snapshot tests verify generated code stays in sync with XDR definitions. High-level SDK APIs unchanged. The ledger close metadata XDR mentioned in the deliverable description can now be decoded. Daily upstream XDR change detection workflow auto-creates GitHub issues when the spec changes.

Proposed Impact

Keep the SDK compatible with Horizon, Soroban RPC, and protocol updates including Protocol 26 when it ships. Maintain existing SEP implementations and update as needed. Fix bugs and respond to issues and feature requests.

Add support for OpenZeppelin Smart Accounts (C-address wallets) on Soroban, enabling passkey-based wallet authentication, multi-signer authorization, and policy-based access control. This follows the SCF RFP for C-Address Tooling and matches the implementation already shipped in the KMP Stellar SDK (v1.4.0). A TypeScript reference exists in kalepail/smart-account-kit.

Smart account support on iOS and macOS will allow native app developers to build Stellar wallets with OpenZeppelin smart accounts using passkeys and biometric authentication.

Rewrite the SEP-11 TxRep implementation to delegate to code-generated methods, replacing the monolithic hand-written serialization. This improves maintainability and reduces the risk of encoding errors when the XDR spec changes. The same rewrite was already completed in the Flutter SDK (Q1 2026) and is planned for the PHP SDK (Q2 2026).

Proposed Deliverables

1. Continuous Maintenance and Improvement

Regular SDK updates addressing Horizon, Soroban RPC, and protocol updates (including Protocol 26), bug fixes, feature requests, and documentation updates. Maintain existing SEP implementations and update as needed. Keep compatibility matrices, CI pipelines, statistics dashboard, and SBOM workflow up to date.

Proof: Release notes on GitHub, updated compatibility matrices, soneso-sdk-stats dashboard.

2. SEP-11 TxRep Rewrite

Replace the monolithic hand-written TxRep implementation with generated toTxRep()/fromTxRep() methods on XDR types, reducing TxRep.swift to a thin facade. This mirrors the approach already completed in the Flutter and PHP SDKs.

Proof: Release on GitHub, PR with implementation, updated test suite.

3. OpenZeppelin Smart Account Support

Implement support for the OpenZeppelin smart account contracts on Soroban, covering:

  • Wallet lifecycle: create, deploy, and connect smart account wallets with WebAuthn passkey registration
  • Context rules and policies: create, edit, and remove authorization rules with configurable signers and policies
  • Token operations and contract calls with automatic auth entry signing
  • Multi-signer authorization: passkey signers, delegated Stellar account signers, and Ed25519 key signers
  • Fee sponsoring via relayer proxy for gasless transactions
  • Credential discovery via indexer integration
  • Platform-native WebAuthn via ASAuthorization for iOS and macOS with secure storage adapters
  • Demo application for iOS and macOS
  • Documentation: API reference and onboarding guide

Proof: Release on GitHub, PR with implementation, demo app, documentation, test suite.

Budget justification

The budget increase from $15,000 to $18,000 reflects the addition of OpenZeppelin Smart Account support, which is a major new feature involving platform-native WebAuthn integration, a demo application, documentation, and manual testing across platforms (passkeys require physical device testing).

  • As the project representative, I agree to the Legal Acknowledgements.

Back to top

This site uses Just the Docs, a documentation theme for Jekyll.