peterbamuhigire/ios-bluetooth-printing

Platform Notes

• Optional helper plugins may help in some environments, but they must not be treated as required for this skill.

iOS Bluetooth Thermal Printing (ESC/POS over BLE)

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Use When

• CoreBluetooth integration for ESC/POS thermal printer communication on iOS. Covers BLE discovery, pairing, characteristic writing, ESC/POS command translation from Android, and receipt formatting. Use when connecting iOS apps to Bluetooth thermal...
• The task needs reusable judgment, domain constraints, or a proven workflow rather than ad hoc advice.

Do Not Use When

• The task is unrelated to ios-bluetooth-printing or would be better handled by a more specific companion skill.
• The request only needs a trivial answer and none of this skill's constraints or references materially help.

Required Inputs

• Gather relevant project context, constraints, and the concrete problem to solve.
• Confirm the desired deliverable: design, code, review, migration plan, audit, or documentation.

Workflow

• Read this SKILL.md first, then load only the referenced deep-dive files that are necessary for the task.
• Apply the ordered guidance, checklists, and decision rules in this skill instead of cherry-picking isolated snippets.
• Produce the deliverable with assumptions, risks, and follow-up work made explicit when they matter.

Quality Standards

• Keep outputs execution-oriented, concise, and aligned with the repository's baseline engineering standards.
• Preserve compatibility with existing project conventions unless the skill explicitly requires a stronger standard.
• Prefer deterministic, reviewable steps over vague advice or tool-specific magic.

Anti-Patterns

• Treating examples as copy-paste truth without checking fit, constraints, or failure modes.
• Loading every reference file by default instead of using progressive disclosure.

Outputs

• A concrete result that fits the task: implementation guidance, review findings, architecture decisions, templates, or generated artifacts.
• Clear assumptions, tradeoffs, or unresolved gaps when the task cannot be completed from available context alone.
• References used, companion skills, or follow-up actions when they materially improve execution.

References

• Use the links and companion skills already referenced in this file when deeper context is needed.

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CoreBluetooth-based integration for ESC/POS thermal printers on iOS. Direct translation of Android BluetoothPrinter.kt and EscPosReceipt.kt patterns into Swift/SwiftUI.

Stack: Swift 5.9+ | CoreBluetooth | SwiftUI | ESC/POS byte protocol Min iOS: 16.0 | Target iOS: 18.x Android Parity: Receipt output must be byte-identical to EscPosReceipt.kt

When to Use

• Connecting an iOS app to a Bluetooth thermal printer
• Printing receipts, invoices, or labels from an iOS POS or SaaS app
• Porting Android ESC/POS printing to iOS

When NOT to Use

• AirPrint / network printers (use UIPrintInteractionController)
• USB/serial printers (not BLE)
• PDF generation without physical printing

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Additional Guidance

Extended guidance for ios-bluetooth-printing was moved to references/skill-deep-dive.md to keep this entrypoint compact and fast to load.

Use that deep dive for:

• 1. CoreBluetooth Architecture
• 2. CBCentralManagerDelegate
• 3. CBPeripheralDelegate
• 4. ESC/POS Commands (Direct Translation from Android)
• 5. Receipt Builder (Mirrors Android EscPosReceipt)
• 6. Printing Data (Chunked BLE Writes)
• 7. Info.plist Required Keys
• 8. SwiftUI Integration
• 9. Example: Full Receipt
• 10. Common Issues
• 11. Reconnection
• 12. Implementation Checklist
• Additional deep-dive sections continue in the reference file.