How to build DocC documentation from CLI

Question

So I have been browsing the web for a while now and can't seem to find an answer on how to build the native DocC Xcode documentation using a CLI command.

Both the xcodebuild commands and Fastlane do not provide a command to build the documentation - as far as I know.

The docs are supposed to be built inside a CI/CD Github Actions workflow. If there are other methods to accomplish this, any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Apple has added a new command to xcodebuild tools:

xcodebuild docbuild

You can also take a look at the WWDC presentation "Host and automate your DocC documentation". Start watching from 7:06 min onwards for DocC automation: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10236/

Answer 2

To complement the initial answer, I'd like to mention this complete summary of all the WWDC21 videos regarding DocC that contains precious information about automation. ?

Indeed, there's a new feature in Xcode 13 for building documentation through the command line that includes the docbuild action with many possible options as described below. ? Even if a solution has already been provided by @Colin ?, I deemed it important to append some information that may be crucial for some. ?

Answer 3

Host and Automate your DocC documentation ??

Tl;dr

I tweaked the xcodebuild docbuild for modular projects as below:

xcodebuild -project ModularSlothCreator.xcodeproj -derivedDataPath docsData -scheme ModularSlothCreator -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=iPhone 13 Pro Max' -parallelizeTargets docbuild

I also tweaked the docc site generation using the transform-for-static-hosting flag:

$(xcrun --find docc) process-archive transform-for-static-hosting "$ARCHIVE" --hosting-base-path ModularSlothCreator/$ARCHIVE_NAME --output-path docs/$ARCHIVE_NAME

BONUS: Automate DocC with GitHub Pages and CI ?

I've updated the original demo showcased at WWDC with support for static hosting of modular App targets (rather than only supporting a single Swift Package announced at WWDC) using GitHub Pages without needing to define a server configuration for convenience in my blog post.