WWDC25 has come and gone, and unfortunately there were very few new features brought to SwiftData, which is Apple’s answer for a modern persistence framework on its platforms. Luckily SwiftData is already quite powerful, and so perhaps it doesn’t need many updates right now, and most likely Apple has big plans for SwiftData in the future.

But we feel that the future can be sooner rather than later. We are working on a major update to our popular SQLite persistence library that brings seamless CloudKit synchronization and more. To give a sneak peek to these tools, and to demonstrate our vision for modern persistence on Apple’s platforms, we are hosting a live stream on June 25th at 9am PST (5pm GTM). Be sure to tune in!

During the live stream we will be giving a sneak peek of some powerful upcoming tools that bring seamless CloudKit sharing to applications using SQLite for its data persistence. For most^* applications, setting up synchronization will be as simple as configuring a sync engine in the entry point of the app:

try! prepareDependencies {
  $0.defaultDatabase = try appDatabase()
  $0.defaultSyncEngine = try SyncEngine(
    container: CKContainer(
      identifier: "iCloud.co.pointfree.Reminders"
    ),
    database: $0.defaultDatabase,
    tables: [
      RemindersList.self,
      Reminder.self,
    ]
  )
}

Once that is done, all rows in the RemindersList and Reminder tables will be synchronized to CloudKit so that the data is available on the user’s devices.

Note

Distributed schemas bring many complications to an app, and so there will be a few reasonable restrictions placed on what kinds of schemas can be synchronized to CloudKit. In most situations one can easily migrate their schemas to make them compatible with synchronization.

Further, sharing data with other iCloud users is also supported. To share a record with another user one must first create a CKShare. Our library provides a method on SyncEngine for generating a CKShare for a record, and that value can be stored in a view to drive a sheet to display a UICloudSharingController:

struct RemindersListView: View {
  let remindersList: RemindersList 
  @State var sharedRecord: SharedRecord?

  var body: some View {
    Form {
      …
    }
    .toolbar {
      Button("Share") {
        Task {
          await withErrorReporting {
            sharedRecord = try await syncEngine.share(record: remindersList) { share in
              share[CKShare.SystemFieldKey.title] = "Join '\(remindersList.title)!'"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    .sheet(item: $sharedRecord) { sharedRecord in
      CloudSharingView(sharedRecord: sharedRecord)
    }
  }
}

This will share a reminders list with another user, as well as all reminders belonging to that list. When either user creates, edits, or deletes a reminder, all other users will automatically synchronize those changes.

Note

Just as distributed schemas introduce many complications to an app, sharing data introduces even more. There are a few more restrictions placed on the kinds of records that can be shared with other users.

We think everyone is going to be blown away with what we have to share. We also think everyone is going to have a lot of questions, and in order to best prioritize Q&A during the live stream we highly recommend submitting your questions early. Q&A is already open on our live stream page:

Be sure to tune in!