Extensions & Widgets — Discipline

Core Philosophy

"Widgets are not mini apps. They're glanceable views into your app's data, rendered at strategic moments and displayed by the system. Extensions run in sandboxed environments with limited memory and execution time."

Mental model: Think of widgets as archived snapshots on a timeline, not live views. Your widget doesn't "run" continuously — it renders, gets archived, and the system displays the snapshot.

Extension sandboxing: Extensions have:

• Limited memory (~30MB)
• No network access in widget views (fetch in TimelineProvider only)
• Separate bundle container from main app
• Require App Groups for data sharing

When to Use This Skill

✅ Use this skill when:

• Implementing any widget (Home Screen, Lock Screen, StandBy, Control Center)
• Creating Live Activities