PeerTube Swift

A native iOS client for PeerTube — the decentralized, federated video platform.

PeerTube Swift brings a clean, native iOS experience to the PeerTube ecosystem, supporting multiple instances, local subscriptions, and background notifications for new videos.

Features

• Connect to PeerTube Instances
• Local Subscriptions — Subscribe to channels without creating an account; data stays on your device
• Video Playback — Native AVKit player with quality selection and Picture-in-Picture
• Background Notifications (wip) — Get notified when subscribed channels post new videos
• Offline-First — Local caching of subscriptions and metadata
• Privacy-Focused — No mandatory login; PostHog analytics are optional (wip)

Tech Stack

• SwiftUI — Modern declarative UI framework
• The Composable Architecture (TCA) — Unidirectional data flow and testable state management
• TubeSDK — PeerTube API client library
• SQLite.swift — Local database for subscriptions and caching
• PostHog — Optional analytics integration

Project Structure

App/PeerTubeSwift/PeerTubeSwift/
├── App.swift              # App entry point and configuration
├── PeerTubeSwiftApp.swift  # Main app with PostHog & background tasks
├── Views/
│   ├── Feed.swift          # Main feed view
│   ├── VideoDetails.swift  # Video detail page
│   ├── VideoChannel.swift  # Channel page
│   ├── Subscriptions.swift # Subscription management
│   └── ...
├── Components/
│   ├── VideoPlayer.swift   # Custom video player
│   ├── VideoCard.swift     # Video list item component
│   └── ...
├── Models/
│   └── Schema.swift        # Database schema definitions
└── ...

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Xcode 15+
• iOS 17.0+
• TubeSDK dependency

Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Open in Xcode:

   open App/PeerTubeSwift/PeerTubeSwift.xcodeproj

3. Configure your PostHog credentials in the Xcode scheme environment variables (optional):
   • POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN
   • POSTHOG_HOST
4. Build and run on a simulator or device

References & Inspiration

• Swiftfin — Jellyfin iOS client
• NewPipe — Android YouTube client
• Grayjay — Plugin-based video player
• PeerTube Plugin — Grayjay PeerTube plugin

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read the existing codebase structure and follow the TCA patterns used throughout.

License

See LICENSE.md