Rome
A shared cache tool for Carthage that stores built frameworks on S3, Minio, Ceph, or local storage to speed up iOS/macOS development.
What is Rome?
Rome is a cache tool for Carthage that allows developers to store and retrieve pre‑compiled frameworks from shared storage like S3, Minio, Ceph, or local folders. It solves the problem of redundant builds in team environments by letting one developer (or CI) build a framework and share it, while others download it instantly.
iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS development teams using Carthage for dependency management, especially those with large dependency trees or slow build times.
Rome eliminates the wait for Carthage builds by providing a lightweight, configurable cache that works with multiple storage backends. It’s trusted by companies like Spotify, Mozilla, and Disney for its reliability and significant build‑time reductions.
Overview
Carthage cache for S3, Minio, Ceph, Google Storage, Artifactory and many others
Use Cases
Best For
- Teams sharing Carthage dependencies across multiple developers
- CI/CD pipelines that need to avoid rebuilding unchanged frameworks
- Projects with large or slow‑building Carthage dependency trees
- Organizations using S3‑compatible object storage for build artifacts
- Maintaining multiple Swift versions with separate cached builds
- Frameworks that publish pre‑built binaries for consumers
Not Ideal For
- Projects using Swift Package Manager or CocoaPods exclusively, as Rome only integrates with Carthage.
- Teams without access to or unwilling to maintain object storage (e.g., S3) for cache artifacts.
- Environments where dependency builds are fast and trivial, making cache overhead unjustified.
- Developers seeking a zero-configuration, all-in-one CI caching solution with no manual setup.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Supports Amazon S3, Minio, Ceph, Google Storage, local folders, and custom engines, allowing teams to adapt to existing infrastructure.
Automatically uploads/downloads frameworks, dSYMs, and version files based on Cartfile.resolved, reducing manual steps and errors.
Defines clear producer, consumer, and CI roles to maximize cache usage and minimize redundant builds across distributed teams.
Offers concurrent upload/download with up to 3x speed improvements on fast connections, as noted in the usage section.
Cons
Requires setting up AWS credentials, a YAML Romefile, and potential endpoint overrides, which can be complex and error-prone for new users.
Exclusively designed for Carthage, making it irrelevant for projects using Swift Package Manager or other dependency managers.
The README admits the list-based workflow is 'more fragile' as Carthage may refuse to build indirect dependencies, requiring careful scripting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
CarthageA simple, decentralized dependency manager for Cocoa
swift-package-managerThe Package Manager for the Swift Programming Language
AccioA dependency manager driven by SwiftPM that works for iOS/tvOS/watchOS/macOS projects.
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.