concurrency-patterns

What this skill does

# Swift Concurrency Patterns

Comprehensive guide for Swift concurrency covering async/await, structured concurrency, actors, and the Swift 6.2 "Approachable Concurrency" features. Focuses on patterns that prevent data races and common mistakes that cause crashes.

## When This Skill Activates

- User has data race errors or actor isolation compiler errors
- User is migrating to Swift 6 strict concurrency
- User asks about async/await, actors, Sendable, TaskGroup, or MainActor
- User needs to bridge legacy completion-handler APIs to async/await
- User is working with Swift 6.2 features (@concurrent, isolated conformances)
- User has concurrency bugs (actor reentrancy, task cancellation, UI freezes)

## Decision Tree

```
What concurrency problem are you solving?
│
├─ Swift 6 compiler errors / migration
│  └─ migration-guide.md
│
├─ Swift 6.2 new features (@concurrent, isolated conformances)
│  └─ swift62-concurrency.md
│
├─ Running work in parallel (async let, TaskGroup)
│  └─ structured-concurrency.md
│
├─ Thread safety for shared mutable state
│  └─ actors-and-isolation.md
│
├─ Bridging old APIs (delegates, callbacks) to async/await
│  └─ continuations-bridging.md
│
└─ General async/await patterns
   └─ See macos/coding-best-practices/modern-concurrency.md for basics
```

## Quick Reference

| Pattern | When to Use | Reference |
|---------|-------------|-----------|
| `async let` | Fixed number of parallel operations | `structured-concurrency.md` |
| `withTaskGroup` | Dynamic number of parallel operations | `structured-concurrency.md` |
| `withDiscardingTaskGroup` | Fire-and-forget parallel operations | `structured-concurrency.md` |
| `.task { }` modifier | Load data when view appears | `structured-concurrency.md` |
| `.task(id:)` modifier | Re-load when a value changes | `structured-concurrency.md` |
| `actor` | Shared mutable state protection | `actors-and-isolation.md` |
| `@MainActor` | UI-bound state and updates | `actors-and-isolation.md` |
| `@concurrent` | Explicitly offload to background (6.2) | `swift62-concurrency.md` |
| Isolated conformances | `@MainActor` type conforming to protocol (6.2) | `swift62-concurrency.md` |
| `withCheckedContinuation` | Bridge callback API to async | `continuations-bridging.md` |
| `AsyncStream` | Bridge delegate/notification API to async sequence | `continuations-bridging.md` |
| Strict concurrency migration | Incremental Swift 6 adoption | `migration-guide.md` |

## Process

### 1. Identify the Problem

Read the user's code or error messages to determine:
- Is this a compiler error (strict concurrency) or a runtime issue (data race, crash)?
- What Swift version and concurrency checking level are they using?
- Are they migrating existing code or writing new code?

### 2. Load Relevant Reference Files

Based on the problem, read from this directory:
- `swift62-concurrency.md` — Swift 6.2 approachable concurrency features
- `structured-concurrency.md` — async let, TaskGroup, .task modifier lifecycle
- `actors-and-isolation.md` — Actor patterns, reentrancy, @MainActor, Sendable
- `continuations-bridging.md` — withCheckedContinuation, AsyncStream, legacy bridging
- `migration-guide.md` — Incremental Swift 6 strict concurrency adoption

### 3. Review Checklist

- [ ] No blocking calls on `@MainActor` (use `await` for long operations)
- [ ] Shared mutable state protected by an actor (not locks or DispatchQueue)
- [ ] `Sendable` conformance correct for types crossing isolation boundaries
- [ ] Task cancellation handled (check `Task.isCancelled` or `Task.checkCancellation()`)
- [ ] No unstructured `Task {}` where structured concurrency (`.task`, `TaskGroup`) would work
- [ ] Actor reentrancy considered at suspension points
- [ ] `withCheckedContinuation` called exactly once (not zero, not twice)
- [ ] `.task(id:)` used instead of manual `onChange` + cancel patterns

### 4. Cross-Reference

- For **async/await basics and actor fundamentals**, see `macos/coding-best-practices/modern-concurrency.md`
- For **networking concurrency patterns**, see `generators/networking-layer/networking-patterns.md`
- For **SwiftData concurrency** (@ModelActor), see `macos/swiftdata-architecture/repository-pattern.md`
- For **auth token refresh with actors**, see `generators/auth-flow/auth-patterns.md`

## References

- [Swift Concurrency](https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/documentation/the-swift-programming-language/concurrency/)
- [Migrating to Swift 6](https://www.swift.org/migration/documentation/migrationguide/)
- Apple doc: `/Users/ravishankar/Downloads/docs/Swift-Concurrency-Updates.md`