NxNative Builder

A native macOS app that sets up everything seedds/nxnative needs, then turns folders of Nintendo Switch game files into unsigned iPhone IPAs, several games at a time. It is an independent helper and is not affiliated with seedds/nxnative.

You supply your own game files and prod.keys. Nothing is downloaded or included for you, and no keys or game data ever leave your Mac.

What it does

• Setup. Checks Xcode, the iOS platform, the Metal compiler, Homebrew, Python 3.12, XcodeGen, zstd, glslang and .NET, and installs what is missing. Every step asks first and shows the exact command. The setup page is skipped when everything is already there.
• Seedds nxnative. Downloads the project into the app's own folder. Updating is optional: Check for updates shows what is new, and the downloaded copy keeps working without it.
• Patches. Three optional patches to nxnative, applied one at a time with a green check when applied: blurred, still-image or stretched picture (new choices in the Picture setting, also in the in-game menu); an in-game control editor (gear menu > Controller layout > Edit controls: move, resize and show or hide each control, split A B X Y, labels of text or emoji, stick styles, button opacity); and game controller navigation of the start screen (D-pad or stick moves, left and right change a setting, A selects, + or Start plays). They are independent of each other (either alone, any order). The earlier portrait patch for the iPhone Duo is retired: Seedds' nxnative now lays out portrait and the Duo itself (copy kept in retired/).
• Build queue. Pick a games folder with one subfolder per game (or a single NSP folder, or one Switch 2 game's .nup file), name each game, and queue them. A Switch 2 game in NUP form needs no prod.keys: the queue builds it from the file and asks for the keys only when a queued game needs them. It works for the Switch 2 games nxnative has a profile for, and makes an iPhone IPA like any other game (nxnative lists iPhone as untested for them). A NUP or a dump carries no icon, so each queued game has a Cover art… button: pick a square image (1024 x 1024 or larger) and the app uses it as the home-screen icon. A game that has its own icon (an NSP) keeps it. The name is checked against what the iPhone home screen can show and warns when it would be cut with "…". Choose the output folder for the IPAs. Optionally delete each game's build folders (<title ID>_build, _survey, -work) and the IPA's .idx file after it finishes, which frees many GB.
• Uninstall. Lists what the app left on your Mac with sizes and removes it on your say-so. Homebrew packages are kept unless you tick them.

It follows the system Light/Dark setting.

Use it

Download NxNative-Builder.zip from the latest release, unzip, and move the app anywhere. The app is ad-hoc signed and not notarized, so the first time, right-click it and choose Open. It runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs (the games themselves need Apple silicon to build, as nxnative's host does).

Everything the app ships is inside the .app. What it downloads, and its settings and queue, go to ~/Library/Application Support/NxNative Builder. Xcode is the one thing it cannot install: it opens the App Store page.

Build it yourself

Needs Xcode's swiftc:

./build_app.sh

This makes NxNative Builder.app next to the script. To remake the icon from icon-source.png: swiftc make_icon.swift -o make_icon && ./make_icon icon-source.png AppIcon.icns.

The patches in patches/ apply to the Seedds main as of 2026-10-30. The three patches are independent: apply any of them alone, or all in any order. A patch can name patches it needs in a Requires: line of its header; the app keeps it locked until they are on. When Seedds changes the same code, a patch shows a red mark in the app, and needs to be regenerated.

Patch updates without a new app. The patches are also published from this repository's patches/ folder (VERSION, index.txt and the .patch files). In the app, Patches > Check for newer patches (also done quietly when the app opens) offers a set with a higher number than the one in use; downloading it replaces the built-in set, and the app offers to put the patches on again. To publish: change the patches, run ./publish_patches.sh, commit patches/ and push to main.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. The patches modify seedds/nxnative (MIT, notice).