/apple-intelligence

name: apple-intelligence
description: Apple Intelligence skills for on-device AI features including Foundation Models, Visual Intelligence, App Intents, and intelligent assistants. Use when implementing AI-powered features.
allowed-tools: [Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep, Bash, AskUserQuestion]
last_verified: 2026-07-16
review_by: 2027-06-22
os_version: iOS 27 / macOS 27

Apple Intelligence Skills

Skills for implementing Apple Intelligence features including on-device LLMs, visual recognition, App Intents integration, and intelligent assistants.

When This Skill Activates

Use this skill when the user:

• Wants to add AI/LLM features to their app
• Needs on-device text generation or understanding
• Asks about Foundation Models or Apple Intelligence
• Wants to implement structured AI output
• Needs prompt engineering guidance
• Wants camera-based visual intelligence features
• Needs Siri, Shortcuts, or Spotlight integration via App Intents
• Wants to expose app actions or content to the system

Available Skills

foundation-models/

On-device LLM integration with prompt engineering best practices.

• Model availability checking
• Session management
• @Generable structured output (property-order + schema-injection rules)
• Tool calling patterns
• Snapshot streaming
• Prompt engineering techniques
• `safety-and-guardrails.md` — model limits, the instructions-over-prompts hierarchy, guardrail handling, the four-layer safety stack, evals
• `models-and-agents.md` — Private Cloud Compute, LanguageModel protocol (third-party backends), vision input, DynamicProfile agents, tool-calling modes, KV-cache rules

visual-intelligence/

Integrate with iOS Visual Intelligence for camera-based search.

• IntentValueQuery implementation
• SemanticContentDescriptor handling
• AppEntity for searchable content
• Display representations
• Deep linking from results

app-intents/

App Intents for Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight, and Apple Intelligence.

• AppIntent protocol, parameters, perform()
• AppEntity and entity queries
• App Shortcuts with voice phrases
• IndexedEntity and Spotlight indexing
• Intent modes (background, foreground)
• Interactive snippets with SnippetIntent
• Visual intelligence integration
• Onscreen entities for Siri/ChatGPT
• Multiple choice API
• Swift package support

Key Principles

1. Privacy First

• On-device processing by default; Private Cloud Compute extends capacity without storing prompts (no account/API keys — WWDC26 241)
• When routing to less-private backends, redact context first (see foundation-models/models-and-agents.md)

2. Graceful Degradation

• Always check model availability
• Provide fallback UI for unsupported devices
• Handle errors gracefully (incl. guardrail violations — silent for proactive features, explained for user-initiated)

3. Efficient Prompting

• Keep prompts focused and specific
• Use structured output when possible
• Respect context window limits — query `model.contextSize`, never hardcode (4,096 first-gen on-device; 8,192 iOS 27 on-device; 32,000 Private Cloud Compute)

Reference Documentation

• [Foundation Models](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundationmodels)
• [Visual Intelligence](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visualintelligence)
• [App Intents](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appintents)
• Local captured docs (optional): if `~/Downloads/docs/` contains `FoundationModels-Using-on-device-LLM-in-your-app.md`, `Implementing-Visual-Intelligence-in-iOS.md`, or `AppIntents-Updates.md`, read them for extra detail; skip silently if absent.