i. What You Need

To follow along with the tutorials in this book, you’ll need the following:

• A Mac running macOS 26.0 Tahoe or later with the latest point release and security patches installed. This is so you can install the latest version of the required development tool: Xcode.

• Xcode 26.0 or later. Xcode is the main development tool for writing code in Swift. You need Xcode 26.0 at a minimum, since that version supports Apple Intelligence and Apple Foundation Models. You can download the latest version of Xcode for free from the Mac App Store, here: apple.co/1FLn51R

If you haven’t installed the latest version of Xcode, be sure to do that before continuing with the book. The code covers some features introduced in 26.4. You may get lost if you try to work with an older version or work outside the playground environment that this book assumes.

Note: When running apps that use Foundation Models in the simulator, the simulator uses the underlying device’s Apple Intelligence. That means you should run on macOS at least the same version as Xcode and the simulator you are using. This includes beta versions. You cannot run a simulator with iOS 2.64 beta on macOS 26.3 and simulate Foundation Models. If the versions don’t line up, using Foundation Models will return an error.