sbu-apps

Free iOS apps and games from sbu.dev. Each app remakes a single paid utility from the top of the App Store, each game one of the most played free games without its ads: no subscription, no in-app purchases, no account, no ads, no tracking, data only on the device. sbu.dev's third branch, Software, remakes enterprise software as open source; its first project, Sbu Commerce, lives in its own repo.

On the App Store: Sbu Subscriptions, a free alternative to Orbit, and Sbu Scanner, QR codes and barcodes without ads. One new app a week; the rest are below.

Native SwiftUI, one shared design system (Packages/SbuKit), Italian and English, iOS 17+. The apps depend only on Apple frameworks: no third-party code, no analytics, no network. MIT licence.

Design/            design system snapshot: tokens.json, icons, logos, fonts
Packages/SbuKit/   SwiftUI package: SbuTheme tokens, components, app shell
Apps/Sbu<Name>/    one XcodeGen project per app, with fastlane
Tools/             discover, spec, icons, token sync, new app scaffold
Site/              sbu.dev: Astro + Tailwind, app text read from each app's fastlane metadata
.claude/skills/    Swift agent skills to load before writing Swift (see CLAUDE.md)

Design system: https://claude.ai/artifact/A9vJiSmn34wgxe9ePFHLfA

Setup, once

brew install xcodegen fastlane
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r Tools/requirements.txt
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=...   # only for Tools/spec.py

Xcode 26 with an iOS simulator runtime (xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS).

Add an app in 5 commands

python3 Tools/discover.py                           # 1. top-paid IT + US -> research/<app-id>/meta.json + screenshots
.venv/bin/python Tools/spec.py 357421934            # 2. listing + screenshots + 1-3★ reviews -> research/<app-id>/spec.json
Tools/new_app.sh Noise accent-noise noise           # 3. Apps/SbuNoise: project, dev.sbu.noise, SbuKit, icon, fastlane
cd Apps/SbuNoise && fastlane test                   # 4. build the app from spec.json, run the tests
fastlane snapshot && fastlane frames && fastlane beta    # 5. App Store screenshots, panorama (Tools/make_screenshots.py), TestFlight

Between 3 and 4 you write the app: start from MainView.swift, put strings in Localizable.xcstrings (Italian source, English translation), and fill the placeholders in fastlane/metadata/{it,en-US}. new_app.sh arguments: an English noun, an accent-* token not used by a nearby category, and the instrument the icon engraves, in English (needs GEMINI_API_KEY).

new_app.sh also creates the App Store Connect record when FASTLANE_USER (Apple ID) is set: the API key cannot create apps, so fastlane create_app logs in with the Apple ID, 2FA once, then the cached session. fastlane release uploads build, metadata and framed screenshots without submitting. beta and release read ASC_KEY_ID, ASC_ISSUER_ID, ASC_KEY_PATH and SBU_TEAM_ID.

Tools

sync_tokens.py	Regenerates SbuKit colors (asset catalog, light/dark), metrics and Site/src/styles/tokens.css from Design/tokens.json. CI fails if they drift.
make_icons.py	<name> → engraved icon Design/icons/sbu-<name>.png from engravings.json and source/; --generate draws a new engraving with Gemini, --appiconset/--artwork write light, dark and tinted variants.
make_og.py	Link previews (1200×630) for the site: each app's name closed by its full stop beside its engraving, and the home's title per locale, into Site/public/og/. Rerun after a new engraving.
discover.py	Top-paid charts (Apple marketing RSS) + iTunes Lookup: description, screenshots, price, release notes, genre.
spec.py	Claude (claude-opus-5-5, vision, structured output) → features[], screens[], flows[], data_model, monetization, user_pains[].
new_app.sh	Scaffolds Apps/Sbu<Name> from Tools/templates/app and its site entry Site/src/content/apps/<name>.md.

Specs come only from public App Store data. Nothing here decompiles or extracts assets from other apps.

Apps

App	Accent	Remakes	Status
Sbu Subscriptions	accent-subscriptions	Orbit	App Store
Sbu Scanner	accent-scanner	QR Reader for iPhone	App Store
Sbu Find	accent-find	Find Air	In App Review
Sbu Habits	accent-habits	Streaks	In App Review
Sbu Noise	accent-noise	White Noise	In App Review
Sbu Speed	accent-speed	Speedometer 55 Pro. GPS kit.	TestFlight
Sbu Moon	accent-moon	My Moon Phase Pro	In App Review
Sbu Clean	accent-clean	Cleanup	In App Review
Sbu Chats	accent-chats	The Cringe: Chat Wrapped	TestFlight
Sbu Fuel	accent-fuel	Fuelly: MPG & Service Tracker	TestFlight

Live, in review and coming apps, with their pages: sbu.dev.

Site

cd Site && npm install && npm run dev. Pages are built from src/content/apps/*.md (accent, store id, Originale, FAQ) joined with Apps/*/fastlane/metadata/{it,en-US} (name, subtitle, description). An app with a content file but no listing yet gets no page: it shows on the home as "In arrivo" with the teaser line from its content file. Set status: live and appStoreId when an app is on the App Store; its alternatives/<it|en>/<originale>.md page is built only then and with draft: false. SBU_DRAFTS=1 npm run build builds drafts too. Strategy in docs/marketing/.