How to Set Up a Private CocoaPods Spec Repo for iOS Projects

Enable Hidden Files and Locate .cocoapods

Run the following commands in Terminal to show hidden files in Finder and then restart Finder (Option + right‑click the Finder icon → Relaunch):

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false

The hidden ~/.cocoapods (or /Users/[username]/.cocoapods) directory contains the repos folder, which holds the spec repositories. Inside repos, the master repo stores the public CocoaPods specs, while the specs folder holds all .podspec files.

Create a Private Spec Repository

On a Git server (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.) create an empty repository to host your private specs. The example uses GitHub and names the repo O2Specs:

Add the repository to CocoaPods locally:

pod repo add O2Specs https://github.com/marklin2012/O2Specs.git

This creates a folder ~/.cocoapods/repos/O2Specs but does not yet contain any specs.

Write a Podspec for Your Private Library

Create a .podspec file for the library you want to distribute. Below is a minimal example for a library called O2View:

Pod::Spec.new do |s|
  s.name         = "O2View"
  s.version      = "0.0.1"
  s.summary      = "Just testing"
  s.description  = <<-DESC
    Private Pods testing
    * Markdown format
  DESC
  s.homepage     = "http://aotu.io/"
  s.license      = "MIT"
  s.author       = { "linyi31" => "[email protected]" }
  s.source       = { :git => "https://github.com/marklin2012/O2View.git" }
  s.platform     = :ios, "9.0"
  s.requires_arc = true
  s.source_files = "O2View/*.swift"
  s.frameworks   = 'UIKit', 'QuartzCore', 'Foundation'
  s.module_name  = 'O2View'
end

Validate the podspec locally: pod lib lint If you receive a warning about missing Git tags, you can ignore it during development:

pod lib lint --allow-warnings

Push the Spec to Your Private Repo

After validation, push the spec file to the private repository: pod repo push O2Specs O2View.podspec The command updates the O2Specs repo and shows a successful push output.

Consume the Private Pod in an iOS Project

Create a new Xcode project (e.g., TestPodDemo) and initialize CocoaPods: pod init Edit the generated Podfile to include both the official and private sources, then list the private pod:

source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'   # official repo
source 'https://github.com/marklin2012/O2Specs.git' # private repo

use_frameworks!

target 'TestPodDemo' do
  pod 'O2View'
end

Install the dependencies: pod install The output confirms that O2View (0.0.1) was fetched from the private repo and integrated successfully.

Publish a Stable Version

When the library is ready for release, tag the Git repository and push the tags:

git tag '0.0.1'
git push --tags
git push origin master

Update the podspec to reference the tag:

s.source = { :git => "https://github.com/marklin2012/O2View.git", :tag => version }

After updating, repeat the pod repo push step to make the tagged version available to consumers.

Summary

By following these steps you can create, host, and consume a private CocoaPods spec repository, enabling you to share internal iOS libraries without exposing them to the public CocoaPods master repo.