flutter_spm_doctor

Detect which Flutter plugin dependencies haven't migrated to Swift Package Manager (SPM) yet — a CLI doctor for the CocoaPods → SPM transition.

Why this exists

As of Flutter 3.44, Swift Package Manager is the default iOS/macOS dependency manager, replacing CocoaPods. Plugins that haven't added a Package.swift file still work today via a CocoaPods fallback, but that fallback won't last forever — the CocoaPods trunk registry goes read-only on December 2, 2026.

Right now only a fraction of popular iOS plugins have migrated, and there's no easy way to audit your own project's dependency tree to see which ones are blocking you. Today you'd have to manually open every plugin's GitHub repo, dig for an ios/Package.swift file, and read scattered migration-status threads.

flutter_spm_doctor automates that audit: it reads your pubspec.lock, finds your native iOS/macOS plugins, checks each one's SPM status, and gives you a clear report — plus tools to push migration along (CI gating, ready-to-file GitHub issues).

Features

• 🔍 Automatic plugin detection — parses pubspec.lock/pubspec.yaml and filters to packages with native iOS/macOS code.
• 🧭 Tiered SPM detection
  1. Checks the plugin's linked GitHub repo for ios/Package.swift or macos/Package.swift.
  2. Falls back to a bundled, community-updatable list of known plugins (known_spm_status.json).
  3. Falls back to "Unknown — verify manually" with a direct link to search the repo's issues.
• 🎨 Color-coded console report with a pass/fail summary line.
• 🤖 --json output for CI pipelines and other tooling.
• 🚦 CI gating via --fail-on-unsupported, with an --ignore allowlist for packages you've already accepted as blocked.
• ✍️ One-command GitHub issue drafting (--generate-issue) so you can ask a maintainer to add SPM support without writing the request yourself.
• ⚡ Local caching (.dart_tool/spm_doctor_cache.json, 24h TTL) to avoid hammering pub.dev/GitHub on repeated runs.
• 🪶 Pure Dart — no Flutter SDK required to run the tool itself.

Installation

Install globally:

dart pub global activate flutter_spm_doctor

Or add it as a dev dependency to your project:

dart pub add dev:flutter_spm_doctor

Usage

Run the doctor from your Flutter project's root directory (next to pubspec.lock):

flutter_spm_doctor
# or, if added as a dev dependency
dart run flutter_spm_doctor

Options

Flag	Description
--json	Output the report as structured JSON instead of a console table.
--fail-on-unsupported	Exit with code 1 if any plugin is not SPM-supported. Use this in CI to gate builds.
--ignore=<packages>	Comma-separated list of packages to exclude from the report/exit-code check, e.g. --ignore=package_a,package_b.
--generate-issue=<package>	Print a ready-to-paste GitHub issue body asking the maintainer to add SPM support, pre-filled with the plugin name and your local Flutter version.
--github-token=<token>	GitHub personal access token, used to raise the GitHub API rate limit. Can also be set via the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.

Example output

Checking SPM support for 5 iOS/macOS plugins...

✅ package_info_plus (v8.0.0)
✅ url_launcher (v6.3.0)
❌ outdated_plugin (v1.2.0) - SPM not supported
   Open an issue: https://github.com/maintainer/outdated_plugin/issues
⚠️ unknown_plugin (v2.0.0) - Unknown status
   Verify manually: https://github.com/author/unknown_plugin/issues?q=is%3Aissue+Swift+Package+Manager

Summary: 2 of 4 plugins are SPM-ready.

JSON output

flutter_spm_doctor --json

{
  "summary": { "ready": 2, "total": 4 },
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "package_info_plus", "version": "8.0.0", "status": "supported" },
    { "name": "url_launcher", "version": "6.3.0", "status": "supported" },
    {
      "name": "outdated_plugin",
      "version": "1.2.0",
      "status": "unsupported",
      "issueUrl": "https://github.com/maintainer/outdated_plugin/issues"
    },
    {
      "name": "unknown_plugin",
      "version": "2.0.0",
      "status": "unknown",
      "issueUrl": "https://github.com/author/unknown_plugin/issues?q=is%3Aissue+Swift+Package+Manager"
    }
  ]
}

Gating CI on SPM readiness

flutter_spm_doctor --fail-on-unsupported --ignore=outdated_plugin

This fails the build if any non-ignored plugin lacks SPM support — handy for tracking migration progress without blocking on packages you've already triaged.

Drafting a migration request

flutter_spm_doctor --generate-issue=outdated_plugin

Prints a filled-in issue body (based on Flutter's official migration guide) that you can paste straight into the plugin's GitHub issue tracker.

Contributing to known_spm_status.json

The bundled lib/src/known_spm_status.json file is a fallback list of well-known plugins and their last-checked SPM status, used when a plugin's GitHub repo can't be parsed automatically. If you know a plugin's status is stale or missing, PRs updating this file are welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.