explaingit

boltsframework/bolts-objc

5,624Objective-CAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A utility library for iOS and macOS that makes chaining background tasks cleaner (like JavaScript Promises) and adds easy deep-linking between apps.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Bolts Objc))
    What it does
      Async task chaining
      Parallel task coordination
      Deep linking App Links
      Error propagation
    BFTask
      Chain operations
      Run in parallel
      Pass results forward
      Auto memory cleanup
    App Links
      Send deep links
      Receive deep links
      Fallback handling
    Audience
      iOS developers
      macOS developers
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Chain multiple async operations like network requests and database saves in sequence without nesting callbacks.

USE CASE 2

Run several background tasks in parallel and wait for all of them to finish before updating the UI.

USE CASE 3

Add deep linking so your app can open a specific screen inside another app, with a graceful fallback when that app is not installed.

USE CASE 4

Handle errors consistently across a chain of async steps without scattering error checks throughout your code.

Tech stack

Objective-CSwiftCocoaPodsCarthage

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Added via CocoaPods or Carthage, no external accounts or services required.

Released under an open-source license, free to use in personal and commercial iOS and macOS projects.

In plain English

Bolts is a small set of utility libraries for iOS and macOS app developers, originally built by the Parse and Facebook teams for their own apps and later released publicly. It contains two main components: a task system for managing asynchronous operations, and an implementation of the App Links protocol for handling deep links between apps. The task component, called BFTask, is a way to write code that runs in the background without turning your program into a tangle of nested callbacks. In mobile app development, many operations such as network requests, database reads, and file saves happen asynchronously, meaning the app keeps running while waiting for the result. Coordinating several of these operations in sequence or in parallel can become messy. BFTask gives you a structured way to chain those operations together, passing results from one step to the next, handling errors at any point in the chain, and running multiple tasks at the same time. The README compares it to JavaScript Promises. Compared to some built-in Apple threading tools, BFTask automatically releases completed work from memory, handles error propagation cleanly, and lets you arrange code in the same order it actually runs. The App Links component implements a shared standard for deep linking, which is the practice of one app opening a specific screen inside another app rather than just launching it to the home screen. Bolts makes it straightforward to both send and receive these deep links, and to fall back gracefully when the target app is not installed. The library works with both Objective-C and Swift. It can be added to a project via CocoaPods or Carthage, which are common dependency managers for Apple platform projects. No Parse or Facebook account is required to use it. Bolts is written in Objective-C and released under an open-source license. The repository is maintained by the BoltsFramework organization and documentation is available as an API reference linked from the README. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have three sequential network requests in my iOS app and want to chain them with BFTask so each step waits for the previous one. Show me an Objective-C example.
Prompt 2
How do I use BFTask to run two database reads in parallel and then continue only after both finish?
Prompt 3
Explain how to implement App Links in my iOS app using the Bolts framework so tapping a link opens the right screen inside my app.
Prompt 4
I want to handle errors in a BFTask chain so that if any step fails the error propagates to a single catch at the end. Show me how.
Prompt 5
How do I add Bolts to my iOS project using CocoaPods?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← boltsframework on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.