Learn how to build a SwiftUI app that uses Replicate to run a machine learning model. By the end, you’ll have an app that can run on iOS and macOS that generates images from text prompts using Stable Diffusion.

Prerequisites

• Xcode: You’ll need Xcode to build and run your app. Download the latest version of Xcode from developer.apple.com.
• An account on Replicate: You’ll use Replicate to run machine learning models. It’s free to get started, and you get a bit of credit when you sign up. After that, you pay per second for your usage. See how billing works for more details.

1. Create the app

SwiftUI is a framework for building native apps for Apple devices. It’s a great choice for getting something up and running fast, and is well-suited to prototyping ideas with Replicate.

Open Xcode and create a new project by selecting “File” > “New” > “Project…”. (⇧⌘N).

Under “Multiplatform” select the “App” template and click “Next”. Give your app a name, such as “ReplicateExample”, and click “Next”. Then save your project to a working directory.

Now’s a good time to make sure everything is working as expected. In Xcode, select “Product” > “Run” (⌘R) build and run the app on your device or simulator.

If you see a “Hello, world!” message, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

2. Add Replicate’s Swift package dependency

Use the official Swift package to run machine learning models on Replicate from your app.

In Xcode, select “File” > “Add packages…”. Copy https://github.com/replicate/replicate-swift and paste it into the search bar. Select replicate-swift from the list and click the “Add Package” button.

Once Xcode finishes downloading the package, you’ll be prompted to choose which products to add to your project. Select Replicate’s library and add it to your example app target.

3. Configure your app

Enable network access for your app so that it can connect to Replicate.

In project settings, select the “ReplicateExample” Target, then select the “Signing & Capabilities” tab. Under “App Sandbox”, check the box next to “Outgoing Connections (Client)”.

4. Set up Replicate’s client

Now it’s time to write some code.

In the Project Navigator, open the ContentView.swift file. Add the following code to the top of the file, replacing <#token#> with your API token.

import Replicate

private let client = Replicate.Client(token: <#token#>)

5. Define the model

Models on Replicate have typed inputs and outputs, so it’s convenient to define a Swift type for each model your app uses.

In ContentView.swift, add the following code:

// https://replicate.com/stability-ai/stable-diffusion
enum StableDiffusion: Predictable {
  static var modelID = "stability-ai/stable-diffusion"
  static let versionID = "db21e45d3f7023abc2a46ee38a23973f6dce16bb082a930b0c49861f96d1e5bf"

  struct Input: Codable {
      let prompt: String
  }

  typealias Output = [URL]
}

• Predictable is a protocol that defines a common interface for all models.
• modelID is the ID of the model we want to run — in this case, “stability-ai/stable-diffusion” for Stable Diffusion
• versionID is the ID of the version of the model we want to run. Here, we’re using the latest version at the time of writing.
• Input and Output define the types of the model’s input and output. In this case, the input is a struct with a prompt property, and the output is a list of URLs to the generated images. (Stable Diffusion has additional inputs, including an option for how many images to generate, but we’re keeping things simple for this example.)

Next, add a prompt and a prediction property to ContentView, and define generate() and cancel() methods:

struct ContentView: View {
  @State private var prompt = ""
  @State private var prediction: StableDiffusion.Prediction? = nil

  func generate() async throws {
    prediction = try await StableDiffusion.predict(with: client,
                                                   input: .init(prompt: prompt))
    try await prediction?.wait(with: client)
  }

  func cancel() async throws {
    try await prediction?.cancel(with: client)
  }

  // ...

The generate() method creates a prediction and waits for it to complete. Because Prediction is a value type, the UI will automatically update when the prediction completes.

6. Implement the rest of ContentView

Finally, wire up the UI to call these methods and display the generated image.

The content view’s body has a Form with a Section containing a TextField. When the user types text into this field and submits the form, that text will be used to create a prediction by the generate() method.

var body: some View {
  Form {
    Section {
      TextField(text: $prompt,
            prompt: Text("Enter a prompt to display an image"),
            axis: .vertical,
            label: {})
        .disabled(prediction?.status.terminated == false)
        .submitLabel(.go)
        .onSubmit(of: .text) {
          Task {
            try await generate()
          }
        }
    }

Under the text field is a conditional block that renders the prediction from the time it’s created until it finishes.

• starting and processing: Show an indeterminate loading indicator as well as a button to cancel the prediction.
• succeeded: Show the generated image using an AsyncImage component.
• failed: Show an error message.
• canceled: Show a status message to the user.

The ZStack acts as a placeholder to keep everything in place while waiting for the prediction to finish.

if let prediction {
  ZStack {
    Color.clear
      .aspectRatio(1.0, contentMode: .fit)

    switch prediction.status {
    case .starting, .processing:
      VStack{
        ProgressView("Generating...")
          .padding(32)

        Button("Cancel") {
          Task { try await cancel() }
        }
      }
    case .succeeded:
      if let url = prediction.output?.first {
        VStack {
          AsyncImage(url: url, scale: 2.0, content: { phase in
            phase.image?
              .resizable()
              .aspectRatio(contentMode: .fit)
              .cornerRadius(32)
          })

          ShareLink("Export", item: url)
            .padding(32)
        }
      }
    case .failed:
      Text(prediction.error?.localizedDescription ?? "Unknown error")
        .foregroundColor(.red)
    case .canceled:
      Text("The prediction was canceled")
        .foregroundColor(.secondary)
    }
  }
  .frame(maxWidth: .infinity, maxHeight: .infinity, alignment: .center)
  .padding()
  .listRowBackground(Color.clear)
  .listRowInsets(.init())
}

7: Create a prediction

Your app should be ready to use now! In Xcode, select “Product” > “Run” (⌘R) to run the app locally.

Next steps

Huzzah! You should now have a working app that’s powered by machine learning.

But this is just the start. Here are some ideas for what you can do next:

😎 Show your friends what you’ve built.

🔐 Before you go too much further, make sure to set up CloudKit to securely store your API key (You definitely don’t want to commit it to source control!)

🔎 Integrate a super resolution model into your new app to upscale the generated images to a higher resolution.

🤖 Explore other models on Replicate and integrate them into your app.

✍️ Update the README if you’re planning to open-source your project so others know how to use it and contribute.