Xcode 26 RC unable to compile asset catalogs on CI

This started with Xcode 26 beta 7, however it has continued to occur with the release candidate. Whenever I try to compile our asset catalog + icon composer icon for our AppKit/SwiftUI-based macOS app, actool fails with the following exception:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'IBPlatformToolFailureException', reason: 'The tool closed the connection (AssetCatalogAgent-AssetRuntime)

Last command:
_ON_QUEUE_sendMessage:toChannelReturningError:during:

Backtrace of last command:
  0   -[IBAbstractPlatformToolProxy _ON_QUEUE_sendMessage:toChannelReturningError:during:] (in IDEInterfaceBuilderKit)
  1   __74-[IBAbstractPlatformToolProxy sendMessage:toChannelReturningError:during:]_block_invoke (in IDEInterfaceBuilderKit)
  2   _dispatch_client_callout (in libdispatch.dylib)
  3   _dispatch_lane_barrier_sync_invoke_and_complete (in libdispatch.dylib)
  4   DVTDispatchSync (in DVTFoundation)
  5   -[IBAbstractPlatformToolProxy sendMessage:toChannelReturningError:during:] (in IDEInterfaceBuilderKit)
  6   -[AssetCatalogRemoteAgentProxy compileItemsWithCatalogRelativeIdentifierPaths:tagSolutionSpace:andStickerPacksWithCatalogRelativeIdentifierPaths:options:] (in IDEInterfaceBuilderCocoaTouchIntegration)
  7   -[IBICLARToolCARCompiler compileCARItems:tagSolutionSpace:options:queue:completionHandler:] (in AssetCatalogCocoaTouchKit)
  8   -[IBICAbstractPlatformAdapter compileCARItems:tagSolutionSpace:options:queue:completionHandler:] (in AssetCatalogFoundation)
  9   __84-[IBICAbstractPlatformAdapter compileSelectedItems:options:queue:completionHandler:]_block_invoke (in AssetCatalogFoundation)
 10   __93-[IBICAbstractPlatformAdapter compileStandaloneCatalogItems:options:queue:completionHandler:]_block_invoke (in AssetCatalogFoundation)
 11   __DVT_CALLING_CLIENT_BLOCK__ (in DVTFoundation)
 12   __DVTDispatchAsync_block_invoke (in DVTFoundation)
 13   _dispatch_call_block_and_release (in libdispatch.dylib)
 14   _dispatch_client_callout (in libdispatch.dylib)
 15   _dispatch_main_queue_drain.cold.5 (in libdispatch.dylib)
 16   _dispatch_main_queue_drain (in libdispatch.dylib)
 17   _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF (in libdispatch.dylib)
 18   __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ (in CoreFoundation)
 19   __CFRunLoopRun (in CoreFoundation)
 20   CFRunLoopRunSpecific (in CoreFoundation)
 21   -[NSRunLoop(NSRunLoop) runMode:beforeDate:] (in Foundation)
 22   -[NSRunLoop(DVTNSRunLoopAdditions) dvt_spinRunLoopInMode:whileQueue:executesAsynchronously:] (in DVTFoundation)
 23   -[NSRunLoop(DVTNSRunLoopAdditions) dvt_spinRunLoopInMode:whileBlockExecutesConcurrently:] (in DVTFoundation)
 24   -[NSRunLoop(DVTNSRunLoopAdditions) dvt_spinRunLoopInMode:waitingForSemaphore:] (in DVTFoundation)
 25   -[IBCLIImageCatalogToolPersona compileCatalogCollection:withPlatformAdapter:arguments:outputDictionary:] (in ibtoold)
 26   -[IBCLIImageCatalogToolPersona invokeArguments:outputDictionary:] (in ibtoold)
 27   -[IBCLIImageCatalogToolPersona runSingleInvocation:outputtingToFileHandle:andVerifyingEnvironment:] (in ibtoold)
 28   IBCLIServerRunSingleInvocation (in ibtoold)
 29   __IBCLIServerRunSingleInvocationWithIODirectedAtPipesAndUnlinkOnSuccess_block_invoke_2 (in ibtoold)
 30   __IBCLIServerRunSingleInvocationWithIODirectedAtPipesAndUnlinkOnSuccess_block_invoke (in ibtoold)
 31   -[IBCLIErrorForwarder forwardErrorOutputToDescriptor:whileInvokingBlock:] (in ibtoold)
 32   IBCLIServerRunSingleInvocationWithIODirectedAtPipesAndUnlinkOnSuccess (in ibtoold)
 33   main (in ibtoold)
 34   start (in dyld)

I can't seem to get it to compile consistently — it works fine locally.

I would ❤️ a workaround, otherwise I'm not sure that we'll be able to ship an update to our app for macOS 26.

FB20183399

Accepted Answer

I ended up updating my CI nodes to run macOS 26 Tahoe, and this error doesn't occur anymore.

FWIW I am seeing this with my GitHub actions as well.

Updated to Tahoe, still seeing the same issue, only seems to happen on my CI machine, which makes me think this might be some kind of timeout or similar?

I'm running into the same issue (Xcode 26.0.1 on macOS 15.7.1). I've added a retry logic to my build script. It now just retries on error 65. Of course each failed attempt takes a minute or two. This is very frustrating.

set +e
while true; do
  xcrun xcodebuild archive (...)
  case $? in
       0) break ;;
       65) echo "Received Status 65. Probably asset compiler bug. Trying again!" ;;
       *) exit $? ;;
  esac
done

It usually works after 3-5 attempts. But that's ridiculous!

Xcode 26 RC unable to compile asset catalogs on CI
 
 
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