Build Insights

Review build times and local Xcode cleanup opportunities.

Find Out Where Your Build Time Goes

Build Insights reads the build logs Xcode has already produced and shows how build duration changes over time. It's handy when development starts feeling sluggish and you'd like some actual evidence before changing the project or clearing caches.

It measures the recorded builds. It doesn't run a benchmark or rebuild your app for you.

Give Kickstart Access to the Logs

The first time you use it, choose the Xcode developer folder containing your build data. Kickstart suggests the usual location, and Change Folder lets you pick a different one if yours lives somewhere else.

If no build logs are found, check the folder and make sure you've built the project in Xcode. There's nothing to chart until logs are available.

Focus on a Project and Period

Choose a project and date range, or use All Projects for a broader view. The summary shows the number of builds, average duration, longest build, and total time spent building.

Those figures answer different questions. A single long build can be annoying, but lots of moderately slow builds may eat up more time across a day.

Try comparing periods with similar work. A day of repeated clean builds isn't directly comparable with a day of small incremental edits.

Read the Charts Together

Average Build Time shows the daily average. Select a point to look at it more closely and compare the date with changes you made to the project.

Builds Per Day adds context about frequency. Together, the charts help you see whether you're waiting longer per build, building more often, or both.

Check Whether a Change Helped

After investigating and improving build performance, come back over a comparable period. Keep a note of what you changed so you aren't relying on memory later.

If you also need to wrangle local Xcode storage, Overdrive has separate cleanup tools. Clearing build data and improving build performance are different jobs, and the next build after a cleanup may need to recreate that data.