# Editing {#editing}

Unlike traditional Xcode projects or Swift Packages, where changes are done
through Xcode's UI, Tuist-managed projects are defined in Swift code contained
in **manifest files**. If you're familiar with Swift Packages and the
`Package.swift` file, the approach is very similar.

You could edit these files using any text editor, but we recommend to use
Tuist-provided workflow for that, `tuist edit`. The workflow creates an Xcode
project that contains all manifest files and allows you to edit and compile
them. Thanks to using Xcode, you get all the benefits of **code completion,
syntax highlighting, and error checking**.

## Edit the project {#edit-the-project}

To edit your project, you can run the following command in a Tuist project
directory or a sub-directory:

```bash
tuist edit
```

The command creates an Xcode project in a global directory and opens it in
Xcode. The project includes a `Manifests` directory that you can build to ensure
all your manifests are valid.

> [!NOTE]
> **Glob-resolved Manifests**
>
> `tuist edit` resolves the manifests to be included by using the glob
> `**/{Manifest}.swift` from the project's root directory (the one containing the
> `Tuist.swift` file). Make sure there's a valid `Tuist.swift` at the root of the
> project.


### Ignoring manifest files {#ignoring-manifest-files}

If your project contains Swift files with the same name as manifest files (e.g.,
`Project.swift`) in subdirectories that are not actual Tuist manifests, you can
create a `.tuistignore` file at the root of your project to exclude them from
the editing project.

The `.tuistignore` file uses glob patterns to specify which files should be
ignored:

```gitignore
# Ignore all Project.swift files in the Sources directory
Sources/**/Project.swift

# Ignore specific subdirectories
Tests/Fixtures/**/Workspace.swift
```

This is particularly useful when you have test fixtures or example code that
happens to use the same naming convention as Tuist manifest files.

## Edit and generate workflow {#edit-and-generate-workflow}

As you might have noticed, the editing can't be done from the generated Xcode
project. That's by design to prevent the generated project from having a
dependency on Tuist, ensuring you can move from Tuist in the future with little
effort.

When iterating on a project, we recommend running `tuist edit` from a terminal
session to get an Xcode project to edit the project, and use another terminal
session to run `tuist generate`.