Skill

View Hierarchy Inspector

Inspects UIKit/SwiftUI view hierarchies in running iOS simulator apps using axe to diagnose layout issues like unexpected nesting, frame problems, hidden views, and constraint violations.

Swift

iOS

Bash

mobile

npx claudepluginhub k-kohey/axe --plugin axe-preview

Tool Access

This skill uses the workspace's default tool permissions.

Preview

Inspect the UIKit/SwiftUI view hierarchy of a running app to diagnose layout issues.

SKILL.md

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Stats

Parent Repo Stars34

Parent Repo Forks3

Last CommitFeb 28, 2026

Actions

View Source View Plugin View on GitHub View README

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View Hierarchy Inspector

Inspect the UIKit/SwiftUI view hierarchy of a running app to diagnose layout issues.

Steps

1. Identify the running app

If the user hasn't specified an app name, list running processes first:

axe ps

2. Get the view hierarchy

Pass all user arguments directly to axe view:

axe view $ARGUMENTS

Common invocation patterns:

Full tree: axe view --app MyApp
Frontmost only: axe view --app MyApp --frontmost
Limited depth: axe view --app MyApp --depth 3
Specific view detail: axe view 0x10150e5a0 --app MyApp --swiftui compact

Note: --swiftui (none/compact/full) is only valid in detail mode (when a 0x address is provided).

3. Analyze the hierarchy

Examine the view tree output (YAML format) and identify:

Unexpected nesting: Views wrapped in unnecessary containers
Frame issues: Zero-sized frames, overlapping views, off-screen elements
Constraint violations: Ambiguous layouts or conflicting constraints
Hidden views: Elements with isHidden: true or zero alpha
SwiftUI structure: Body composition and modifier chains (when using --swiftui)

4. Correlate with source code

If the user provides source file context, correlate the hierarchy nodes with the SwiftUI/UIKit source to pinpoint where issues originate.

5. Report findings

Present:

A simplified view of the relevant hierarchy section
Identified issues with their view addresses
Suggested code changes to fix layout problems

Tips

Use --depth 3 to limit output for deeply nested hierarchies
Use --frontmost to focus on the visible view controller
In detail mode output, the SwiftUI tree can be large. Focus on the relevant section.

Prerequisites

Run this if the command fails because axe is not found::

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/k-kohey/axe/main/install.sh | sh