Audit Swiftui Async Data

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name: audit-swiftui-async-data description: Audit macOS SwiftUI async data for correctness, current APIs, and production conventions. Use for that domain or as part of a full audit.

Bundled resource root

Let <swiftui-plugin-root> be the absolute plugin directory two levels above this SKILL.md. Resolve that path before running commands or opening shared references. When these instructions say swiftui-ctx, invoke <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx; do not assume the command is on PATH.

Audit SwiftUI Async Data

AUDIT-ONLY · macOS-only · SwiftUI-only. Run this on a finished or in-progress macOS SwiftUI project to detect — and where certain, fix — every way async data loading inside a view goes wrong: a bare Task in .onAppear that never cancels, no loading / error / empty state, raw URLSession decoded on the main actor, search that fetches on every keystroke, AsyncImage whose failure phase is ignored, a list with no .refreshable, a stale result overwriting a fresh one, and a load with no .redacted skeleton. Findings are written to disk in the toolkit's unified schema; the few mechanical defects are fixed under the fix-safety protocol. This is never a from-scratch data-layer generator.

This domain is net-new (the relevant .task/Sendable facts live in <swiftui-plugin-root>/skills/build-macos-swiftui/references/concurrency.md); ground every ✅ in swiftui-ctx consensus + a permalinked macOS-26 example, not a hand-written snippet.

Boundary / seam note (stay in lane)

• Task-in-onAppear is a SHARED seam with concurrency-safety. This skill owns the LIFECYCLE fix — the Task is unstructured and not cancelled on disappear → move to .task / .task(id:). concurrency-safety owns the ISOLATION verdict on the captured state (is the crossing type Sendable, does it race a @MainActor). When the captured loading state is non-Sendable, emit a cross_ref: concurrency-safety and fix only the lifecycle here.
• Where the model lives (@State vs @Observable vs @StateObject, observation granularity) belongs to state-observation — cross_ref it; this skill only audits the loading that mutates it.
• @Query / SwiftData fetching belongs to swiftdata; the Swift-6 Sendable/@concurrent/ nonisolated correctness belongs to concurrency-safety; DispatchQueue.main.async as a deprecated currency tell belongs to api-currency. Defer all three.

The four async-data rules

1. Bind async work to view identity. View-lifecycle loads go in .task / .task(id:) (auto-cancelled on disappear, closure is @MainActor), never a bare Task {} in .onAppear.
2. Every load has four visible states. loading · loaded · empty · error — each rendered. A spinner that never resolves, a blank list, or a swallowed try? await is a defect.
3. Don't fetch faster than the user. Debounce a search query before it drives a request; guard rapid .task(id:) writes with a generation counter so an older load can't overwrite a newer one.
4. Remote images and pull-to-refresh are first-class. AsyncImage handles its failure phase and is cached in lists; a primary async list offers .refreshable; a load shows a .redacted skeleton.

Defect index (async-01 … async-10)

id · tell · severity · fix · open reference. Severities: hard-fail (build break / never-correct), warning (compiles but non-native), advisory (judgment / perf). auto = mechanical single-answer fix; flag = show the ✅, dev applies. Defects marked DETECT-only are absence defects — no grep/AST tell can fire on a missing state; find them by READING the load site the proxy tells locate.

id	One-line tell	Sev	Fix	Reference
async-01	bare Task {} in .onAppear (no cancellation) → .task/.task(id:)	warn	flag	lifecycle-and-cancellation.md
async-02	async load with no loading state (no isLoading/ProgressView/skeleton) — DETECT-only	warn	flag	load-states-and-skeletons.md
async-03	try? await swallows the error; no error state rendered	warn	flag	load-states-and-skeletons.md
async-04	a collection rendered with no empty-case view — DETECT-only	adv	flag	load-states-and-skeletons.md
async-05	raw URLSession in a view; decode on the main actor / un-isolated write	warn	flag	networking-and-images.md
async-06	.searchable query drives a fetch with no debounce (request per keystroke)	warn	flag	networking-and-images.md
async-07	AsyncImage(url:) url-only shape — failure phase unhandled, no cache in lists	warn	flag	networking-and-images.md
async-08	primary async list with no .refreshable — DETECT-only	adv	flag	networking-and-images.md
async-09	rapid .task(id:) writes with no generation/stale-result guard	warn	flag	lifecycle-and-cancellation.md
async-10	load with no .redacted(.placeholder) skeleton — DETECT-only	adv	flag	load-states-and-skeletons.md

Nothing here is a hallucination class — every API is real and floored low (.task macOS 12, AsyncImage/refreshable/searchable macOS 12, .redacted macOS 11). The defects are omission and lifecycle, not invented names; carry behavior claims you cannot place as advisory (source: verify against Xcode 26 SDK), never as fact.

The real API, at a glance

Real (all macOS, floored low — confirm exact floors in floors-master.md, never restate the table): task(priority:_:) and task(id:priority:_:), refreshable(action:), searchable(text:…), AsyncImage(url:) / AsyncImage(url:content:placeholder:) / AsyncImage(url:transaction:content:) (the phase form), redacted(reason:) + RedactionReasons.placeholder, unredacted(), Task/Task(id:) cancellation via Task.isCancelled / Task.checkCancellation().

Floor values are the reconciled truth in <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/floors-master.md; the canonical invented-name list is <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/hallucination-blacklist.md — read, never restate them. The ✅ shapes are not hand-written: get the consensus shape + a permalinked macOS-26 example from swiftui-ctx (VERIFY/FIX below).

✅ Correct (grounded, not a placeholder) — the async-01 lifecycle anchor

swiftui-ctx lookup task --json consensus: { } 70% · (id) 29%, introduced_macos: 12.0. The top-authority macOS-26 site (swiftui-ctx file ex_a1cff2419c --smart) — bind the load to view identity so it auto-cancels on disappear; .task(id:) restarts on change:

// sindresorhus/Gifski — Gifski/Utilities.swift L5590 (min_macos 26)
content
    .task(id: Tuple3(isActive, options, reason)) {       // restarts when the id changes; cancels on disappear
        activity = isActive ? SSApp.beginActivity(options, reason: reason) : nil
    }

• Real example (permalink): https://github.com/sindresorhus/Gifski/blob/7f873856e2acd8b52e6681dee3aec31e6cab23e4/Gifski/Utilities.swift#L5590
• Spec (Sosumi): https://sosumi.ai/documentation/swiftui/view/task(id:priority:_:) (the @MainActor, auto-cancelled lifecycle modifier). Re-confirm the floor in floors-master.md before asserting it.

The 8-step audit workflow (execute verbatim)

1. ORIENT. tree / find the SwiftUI sources. Read the deployment target (project.pbxproj MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET, or Package.swift platforms:). Record it — every API here floors at macOS 11–12, so gating rarely fires, but note any target < macOS 12.
2. LOCATE. Run the shared hybrid lint runner: bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-lint.sh --skill audit-swiftui-async-data --dir <sources> --json /tmp/async.json --sarif /tmp/async.sarif. It runs this skill's tier-1 grep tells (lint/grep-tells.tsv) + tier-2 structural ast-grep rules (lint/ast-grep/*.yml — Task-in-onAppear containment, AsyncImage url-only shape), plus a per-file parse probe, and emits unified JSON + SARIF. Read its parse_warnings — a flagged file did not fully parse, so a structural miss can't masquerade as clean; READ those by hand. The runner only LOCATES. The absence defects (async-02/04/08/10) will NOT fire any tell — find them in READ. Engine + rule-file format + degradation: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/lint-architecture.md.
3. READ. Open every located file in full — never pattern-match-and-patch blind. For each view that loads data, build an inventory: the load trigger (.task/.onAppear/button), the four states it renders (loading/loaded/empty/error), whether its writes are guarded against stale results, and whether remote images / refresh / skeleton are present. Absence is the finding here.
4. DETECT. Apply the index. Assign each candidate a confidence; report a finding only at 100% certainty. The absence defects are certain by inspection (the state is simply not there); lifecycle and isolation seams route a cross_ref.
5. VERIFY. For anything ≤ ~70% confidence (a floor you can't place, a behavior claim, "is this the native shape"), run both evidence sources. (a) Practice — bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx lookup <api> --json (and swiftui-ctx deprecated <api> for a currency claim): read its consensus (the canonical shape), deprecated+replacement, recommended permalink, introduced_macos, and co_occurs_with. For this domain, swiftui-ctx recipe cached-async-image gives the consensus AsyncImage loader. (b) Spec — confirm via Sosumi: curl -sSL https://sosumi.ai/<apple-path> using references/source-directory.md for the path and <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/sosumi-reference.md for the protocol (never WebFetch developer.apple.com). Cross-check introduced_macos against floors-master.md. The CLI contract is <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/swiftui-ctx-reference.md. Promote with the citation or discard.
6. REPORT. Write each confirmed finding (output contract below). One finding per file, zero-padded, ordered. Emit cross_ref on the lifecycle/isolation and model-location seams. Write the run's _index.md.
7. FIX. Apply corrections under the fix-safety protocol (<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/fix-safety-protocol.md): clean-tree gate, findings-first, only fix_mode: auto (async-01 the mechanical Task{}-in-onAppear → .task rewrite when the captured state is already Sendable/@MainActor-safe; everything else flag-only), one conventional commit per finding citing its rule_id, never weaken a check. The ✅ "Correct" is not a hand-written snippet — it is the swiftui-ctx consensus shape in ## Correct, backed by a real macOS-26 example fetched with bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-ctx file <recommended.id> --smart whose GitHub permalink (plus the Sosumi doc:) goes in ## Source. Leave flag-only findings open with that ✅.
8. DOUBLE-CHECK. Re-grep / re-run the runner on each fixed file to confirm the tell no longer matches; record the evidence in ## Fix applied?. Re-confirm every citation still resolves. If an async-01 fix added a .task(id:) that now needs a generation guard (async-09), loop that file back to DETECT.

Confidence gating (load-bearing)

Report a finding only at 100% certainty. Absence defects are certain by inspection; behavior/floor doubts go to VERIFY (step 5) first. Auto-fix only async-01 (and only when the captured state is already Sendable/main-actor-safe — otherwise flag-only + cross_ref: concurrency-safety); everything else is fix_mode: flag-only.

Output contract

Inherits the toolkit's unified contract (full schema + body sections + frontmatter keys: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/finding-schema.md — do not restate it). Specialized for this domain:

• Findings: swiftui-audits/async-data/<context>/NN-slug.md (one finding per file, zero-padded, ordered). Per-run index: swiftui-audits/async-data/_index.md.
• domain: async-data. Frontmatter is the canonical schema; fix_mode is auto only for the mechanical async-01 rewrite, else flag-only. availability reads from floors-master.md. source is an Apple URL
  • access date (fetched via Sosumi) or verify against Xcode 26 SDK. Emit cross_ref on seam findings (concurrency-safety lifecycle/isolation; state-observation model location).

Starter <context> folders (file here when…):

<context>	File a finding here when…
lifecycle/	a bare Task in .onAppear, or any view-lifecycle work not bound to .task/.task(id:) (async-01)
stale-results/	rapid .task(id:)/selection writes with no generation or cancelled-task guard (async-09)
loading-state/	no loading indicator / no .redacted(.placeholder) skeleton during the fetch (async-02, async-10)
error-state/	a swallowed try? await or any load with no error surface (async-03)
empty-state/	a collection rendered with no empty-case view (async-04)
networking/	raw URLSession in the view layer, on-main decode, or un-isolated write (async-05)
search-debounce/	a .searchable query that fires a request per keystroke (async-06)
remote-images/	AsyncImage failure phase ignored or no cache in a list/grid (async-07)
refresh/	a primary async list with no .refreshable (async-08)

New-folder rule: if a finding does not fit any existing context folder, create a new one under swiftui-audits/async-data/ with a lowercase-hyphen slug naming the sub-category, and note it in the run's _index.md. Prefer an existing folder when the fit is reasonable; consistency across runs is a hard requirement. Two runs over the same code produce structurally identical trees.

Reference routing

File	Open when
references/lifecycle-and-cancellation.md	the Task→.task lifecycle fix, .task(id:) restart, cancellation, the generation/stale-result guard (async-01, async-09)
references/load-states-and-skeletons.md	the four states — loading/empty/error — and .redacted(.placeholder) skeletons; the swallowed-error trap (async-02/03/04/10)
references/networking-and-images.md	raw URLSession isolation, .searchable debounce, AsyncImage phases + caching, .refreshable (async-05/06/07/08)
references/source-directory.md	step VERIFY — the Apple/WWDC/practitioner source map fetched via Sosumi
lint/grep-tells.tsv + lint/ast-grep/*.yml	step LOCATE — this skill's declarative lint rule set fed to the shared runner (tier-1 grep tells + tier-2 structural ast-grep); edit here to tune detection

Shared toolkit references (point in, never restate):

Shared file	For
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/floors-master.md	every floor/availability value (the reconciled truth)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/hallucination-blacklist.md	the canonical invented-name list
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/macos-arm-gating.md	the macOS-arm gating rule (for any availability gate on an async API)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/finding-schema.md	the unified finding schema + frontmatter keys
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/fix-safety-protocol.md	the 8-point fix-safety protocol (step 7)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/sosumi-reference.md	the Apple-doc spec fetch protocol (step 5 VERIFY)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/swiftui-ctx-reference.md	the practice-corpus CLI contract — lookup/deprecated/recipe/file --smart for the consensus shape + permalinked example (steps 5 VERIFY · 7 FIX)
<swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/cross-ref-graph.md	seam ownership + cross_ref targets (concurrency-safety, state-observation, swiftdata)

Detection accelerator

bash <swiftui-plugin-root>/scripts/swiftui-lint.sh --skill audit-swiftui-async-data --dir <files-or-dir> [--json out.json] [--sarif out.sarif] — the toolkit's one shared hybrid lint engine, fed this skill's declarative rules: tier-1 grep tells (lint/grep-tells.tsv, async-01/03/05/06/07/08/10) + tier-2 ast-grep structural rules (lint/ast-grep/*.yml — async-01 Task-in-onAppear containment, async-07 AsyncImage url-only shape) that grep cannot express. It runs a per-file parse probe (surfaces "did not fully parse" so a structural miss can't look clean), emits unified JSON + SARIF, and degrades to grep-only with a notice if ast-grep is unreachable (npx --package @ast-grep/cli ast-grep; faster: brew install ast-grep). The absence defects (async-02/04/08/10) fire NO tell — they are found in READ (step 3). It only LOCATES — always READ each hit in full before reporting. The thin scripts/async-lint.sh is a pointer to this runner. Engine + rule-file format + JSON/SARIF shape + safety rails: <swiftui-plugin-root>/references/_shared/lint-architecture.md.