OTA Deploys Over Tailscale for iOS

Published March 2026 · 7 min

When my iPhone is not connected to Xcode, I use OTA delivery over Tailscale HTTPS. This is the fastest private install loop I found for side projects on my own Mac mini.

Flow

Archive app → export IPA + manifest → host files locally → publish via tailscale serve → open install URL in Safari.

cd "/Users/chetanankola/src/Codex iphone App/CodexRemote"
./scripts/publish-ios-adhoc-ota.sh \
  --project CodexRemote.xcodeproj \
  --scheme CodexRemote \
  --title "Codex iPhone to Mac Relay"

What this is good for

Private remote installs on your own device
Fast validation loops when away from desk
No public hosting needed

Constraints

Provisioning still has to be valid for target iPhone
HTTPS is mandatory for OTA install
This does not replace debugger-attached Xcode runs

Reality: direct Xcode install is best when available; OTA is the best fallback when it isn’t.