Foundation Models

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Discuss the Foundation Models framework which provides access to Apple’s on-device large language model that powers Apple Intelligence to help you perform intelligent tasks specific to your app.

Foundation Models Documentation

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Restricting App Installation to Devices Supporting Apple Intelligence Without Triggering Game Mode
Hello, My app fully relies on the new Foundation Models. Since Foundation Models require Apple Intelligence, I want to ensure that only devices capable of running Apple Intelligence can install my app. When checking the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities property for a suitable value, I found that iphone-performance-gaming-tier seems the closest match. Based on my research: On iPhone, this effectively limits installation to iPhone 15 Pro or later. On iPad, it ensures M1 or newer devices. This exactly matches the hardware requirements for Apple Intelligence. However, after setting iphone-performance-gaming-tier, I noticed that on iPad, Game Mode (Game Overlay) is automatically activated, and my app is treated as a game. My questions are: Is there a more appropriate UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities value that would enforce the same Apple Intelligence hardware requirements without triggering Game Mode? If not, is there another way to restrict installation to devices meeting Apple Intelligence requirements? Is there a way to prevent Game Mode from appearing for my app while still using this capability restriction? Thanks in advance for your help.
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Aug ’25
Proposal: Develop a Token Estimation Tool for Foundation Models
Dear Apple Foundation Models Development Team, I am a developer integrating Apple Foundation Models (AFM) into my app and encountered the exceededContextWindowSize error when exceeding the 4096-token limit. Proposal: I suggest Apple develop a tool to estimate the token count of a prompt before sending it to the model. This tool could be integrated into FoundationModels Framework for ease of use. Benefits: A token estimation tool would help developers manage the context window limit and optimize performance. I hope Apple considers this proposal soon. Thank you!
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Aug ’25
Crash when testing Speech sample app with FoundationModels on macOS 26.0 beta and iOS 26.0 beta
Hello, I am testing the sample project provided here: Bringing advanced speech-to-text capabilities to your app. On both macOS 26.0 beta and iOS 26.0 beta, the app crashes immediately on launch with a dyld "Symbol not found" error related to FoundationModels.framework. It feels like this may be related to testing primarily on newer Apple Silicon devices, as I am seeing consistent crashes on an Intel MacBook and on an older iPhone device. I would appreciate any insight, confirmation, or guidance on whether this is a known limitation or if there is a workaround. Is it planned to be resolved soon? Environment macOS: Device: MacBook Pro (Intel) Processor: 2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB Memory: 16 GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X OS: macOS Tahoe Version 26.0 Beta (25A5338b) iOS: Device: iPhone 11 Model Number: MHDD3HN/A OS: iOS 26.0 Xcode: Version: 26.0 beta 3 (17A5276g) Crash (macOS) Abort signal received. Excerpt from crash dump: dyld`__abort_with_payload: 0x7ff80e3ad4a0 <+0>: movl $0x2000209, %eax 0x7ff80e3ad4a5 <+5>: movq %rcx, %r10 0x7ff80e3ad4a8 <+8>: syscall -> 0x7ff80e3ad4aa <+10>: jae 0x7ff80e3ad4b4 Console: dyld[9819]: Symbol not found: _$s16FoundationModels20LanguageModelSessionC5model10guardrails5tools12instructionsAcA06SystemcD0C_AC10GuardrailsVSayAA4Tool_pGAA12InstructionsVSgtcfC Referenced from: /Users/userx/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp-*/Build/Products/Debug/SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp.app/Contents/MacOS/SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp.debug.dylib Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/FoundationModels.framework/Versions/A/FoundationModels Crash (iOS) Abort signal received. Excerpt from crash dump: dyld`__abort_with_payload: 0x18f22b4b0 <+0>: mov x16, #0x209 0x18f22b4b4 <+4>: svc #0x80 -> 0x18f22b4b8 <+8>: b.lo 0x18f22b4d8 Console dyld[2080]: Symbol not found: _$s16FoundationModels20LanguageModelSessionC5model10guardrails5tools12instructionsAcA06SystemcD0C_AC10GuardrailsVSayAA4Tool_pGAA12InstructionsVSgtcfC Referenced from: /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/.../SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp.app/SwiftTranscriptionSampleApp.debug.dylib Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/FoundationModels.framework/FoundationModels Question Is this crash expected on Intel Macs and older iPhone models with the beta SDKs? Is there an official statement on whether macOS 26.x releases support Intel, or it exists only until macOS 26.1? Any suggested workarounds for testing this sample project on current hardware? Is this a known limitation for the 26.0 beta, and if so, should we expect a fix in 26.0 or only in subsequent releases? Attaching screenshots for reference. Thank you in advance.
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Aug ’25
Keep getting exceededContextWindowSize with Foundation Models
I'm a bit new to the LLM stuff and with Foundation Models. My understanding is that there is a token limit of around 4K. I want to process the contents of files which may be quite large. I first tried going the Tool route but that didn't work out so I then tried manually chunking the text to keep things under the limit. It mostly works except that every now and then it'll exceed the limit. This happens even when the chunks are less than 100 characters. Instructions themselves are about 500 characters but still overall, well below 1000 characters per prompt, all told, which, in my limited understanding, should not result in 4K tokens being parsed. Any ideas on what is going on here?
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Aug ’25
Foundation model adapter assets are invalid
I've tried creating a Lora adapter using the example dataset, scripts as part of the adapter_training_toolkit_v26_0_0 (last available) on MacOs 26 Beta 6. import SwiftUI import FoundationModels import Playgrounds #Playground { // The absolute path to your adapter. let localURL = URL(filePath: "/Users/syl/Downloads/adapter_training_toolkit_v26_0_0/train/test-lora.fmadapter") // Initialize the adapter by using the local URL. let adapter = try SystemLanguageModel.Adapter(fileURL: localURL) // An instance of the the system language model using your adapter. let customAdapterModel = SystemLanguageModel(adapter: adapter) // Create a session and prompt the model. let session = LanguageModelSession(model: customAdapterModel) let response = try await session.respond(to: "hello") } I get Adapter assets are invalid error. I've added the entitlements Is adapter_training_toolkit_v26_0_0 up to date?
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Aug ’25
Model w/ Guardrails Disabled Still Frequently Refuses to Summarize Text
Foundation Models are driving me up the wall. My use case: A news app - I want to summarize news articles. Sounds like a perfect use for the added-in-beta-5 "no guardrails" mode for text-to-text transformations... ... and it's true, I don't get guardrails exceptions anymore but now, the model itself frequently refuses to summarize stuff which in a way is even worse as I have to parse the output text to figure out if it failed instead of getting an exception. I mostly worked that out with my system instructions but still, the refusing to summarize makes it really tough to use. I instructed the model to tell me why it failed if that happens. Examples of various refusals for news articles from major sources: "The article mentions "Visual Lookup" but does not provide details about how it integrates with iOS 26." "The article includes unsafe content regarding a political figure's potential influence over the Federal Reserve board, which is against my guidelines." "the article contains unsafe content." "The article is biased and opinionated and focuses on the author's opinion." (this is despite the instructions specifically asking for a neutral summary - I am asking it to not use bias in the output but it still refuses) I have tons of these. Note that if I don't use the "no guardrails" mode and use a Generable instead, some of these work fine so right now I have to do two passes on much of the content since I never know which one will work. Having a "summary mode" that often refuses to summarize current news articles (the world is not a great place, some of these stories are a bummer) is near worthless.
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Sep ’25
Foundation Model crash on macOS 15 (iPad app compatibility)
I have integrated Apple’s Foundation Model into my iOS application. As known, Foundation Model is only supported starting from iOS 26 on compatible devices. To maintain compatibility with older iOS versions, I wrapped the API calls with the condition if #available(iOS 26, *). The application works normally on an iPad running iOS 18 and on a Mac running macOS 26. However, when running the same build on a MacBook Air M1 (macOS 15) through iPad app compatibility, the app crashes immediately upon launch. The main issue is that I cannot debug directly on macOS 15, since the app can only be built on macOS 26 with Xcode beta. I then have to distribute it via TestFlight and download it on the MacBook Air M1 for testing. This makes identifying the detailed cause of the crash very difficult and time-consuming. Nevertheless, I have confirmed that the crash is caused by the Foundation Model APIs.
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Aug ’25
When applied to a nested struct, @Generable macro results in infinite nested response from Foundation Model
When the @Generable is applied toward a Swift struct declared within another struct, and when said nested struct is defined as the type of one of the properties of another @Generable type, which is in turn defined as the output format of Foundation Model session, Foundation Model can stuck in a loop trying to create a infinitely nested response, until the context window limit exceeded error is triggered. I have filed feedback FB19987191 with a demo project. Is this expected behavior?
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Sep ’25
I Need some clarifications about FoundationModels
Hello I’m experimenting with Apple’s on‑device language model via the FoundationModels framework in Xcode (using LanguageModelSession in my code). I’d like to confirm a few points: • Is the language model provided by FoundationModels designed and trained by Apple? Or is it based on an open‑source model? • Is this on‑device model available on iOS (and iPadOS), or is it limited to macOS? • When I write code in Xcode, is code completion powered by this same local model? If so, why isn’t the same model available in the left‑hand chat sidebar in Xcode (so that I can use it there instead of relying on ChatGPT)? • Can I grant this local model access to my personal data (photos, contacts, SMS, emails) so it can answer questions based on that information? If yes, what APIs, permission prompts, and privacy constraints apply? Thanks
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Oct ’25
How can I give my documents access to Model Foundation
I would like to write a macOS application that uses on-device AI (FoundationModels). I don’t understand how to, practically, give it access to my documents, photos, or contacts and be able to ask it a question like: “Find the document that talks about this topic.” Do I need to manually retrieve the data and provide it in the form of a prompt? Or is FoundationModels capable of accessing it on its own? Thanks
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Oct ’25
Foundation Models inside of DeviceActivityReport?
Pretty much as per the title and I suspect I know the answer. Given that Foundation Models run on device, is it possible to use Foundation Models framework inside of a DeviceActivityReport? I've been tinkering with it, and all I get is errors and "Sandbox restrictions". Am I missing something? Seems like a missed trick to utilise on device AI/ML with other frameworks.
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Oct ’25
LanguageModelSession with multiple tools and structured outpout
Hi, I'm using LanguageModelSession and giving it two different tools to query data from a local database. I'm wondering how I can have the session generate structured content as the response that includes data one or both tools (or no tool at all). Here is an example of what I'm trying to do: Let's say the app has access to a database that contains information about exercise and sleep data (this is just an analogy). There are two tools, GetExerciseData() and GetSleepData(). The user may then prompt something like, "how well did I sleep in November". I have this working so that it calls through to the right tool, which would return a SleepSummary. However, I can't figure out how to have the session return the right structured data. I can do this and get back good text data: let response = session.respond(to: userInput), but I believe I want to do something like: let response = session.respond(to: trimmed, generating: <SomeStructure?>) Sometimes the model I run one tool or the other, or both tools, or no tool at all. Any help of what the right way to go about this would be much appreciated. Most of the example I found have to do with 1 tool.
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Jan ’26
Xcode Playground and FoundationModels
I am trying to test FoundationModels in a Swift Playground in Xcode 26.2, macOS 26.3, and am running into an issue. The following simple code generates an error: import FoundationModels @Generable struct Specifications { @Guide(description: "Search for color") var color: String } I see the following error message in the console: error: AIPlayground.playground:4:8: external macro implementation type 'FoundationModelsMacros.GenerableMacro' could not be found for macro 'Generable(description:)'; plugin for module 'FoundationModelsMacros' not found The Xcode editor does not appear to recognize the @Generable or @Guide macros, despite importing FoundationModels. What step/setting am I missing?
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Handling exceedingContextWindowSizeError
Reading all the docs(1) I was under the impression that handling this error is well managed... Until I hit it and found out that the recommended handling options hide a crucial fact: in the catch block you can not do anything?! It's too late - everything is lost, no way to recover... All the docs mislead me that I can apply the Transcript trick in the catch block until I realised, that there is nothing there !!! This article here(2) enlightened me on the handling of this problem, but I must say (and the author as well) - this is a hack! So my questions: is there really no way to handle this exception properly? if not, can we have the most important information - the count of the context exposed through the official API (at least the known ones)? https://developer.apple.com/documentation/Technotes/tn3193-managing-the-on-device-foundation-model-s-context-window#Handle-the-exceeding-context-window-size-error-elegantly https://zats.io/blog/making-the-most-of-apple-foundation-models-context-window/
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