Download Xcode without Apple ID

You can now download Xcode without signing in.

To download Xcode from Apple’s developer portal, you need an ADCDownloadAuth cookie. Previously to retrieve this cookie, you had to be logged into the developer portal with an Apple developer account. But not anymore!

Thanks to Matt Kiazyk for discovering an endpoint that will serve up an ADCDownloadAuth cookie without any previous auth.

A crude example of this in action using curl:

# Fetch ADCDownloadAuth cookie
ADCDownloadAuthCookie=$(curl --cookie-jar - 'https://developerservices2.apple.com/services/download?path=%2FDeveloper_Tools%2FXcode_14%2FXcode_14.xip')
# Download Xcode using fetched ADCDownloadAuth cookie
curl --cookie <(echo "$ADCDownloadAuthCookie") --remote-name https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_14/Xcode_14.xip

The enpoint https://developerservices2.apple.com/services/download requires a query parameter with key path and a value that is a path to a download such as /Developer_Tools/Xcode_14/Xcode_14.xip. The response should be an empty body, but have the ADCDowwnloadAuth cookie set. Here is a curl request showing the header response:

$ curl --dump-header - 'https://developerservices2.apple.com/services/download?path=%2FDeveloper_Tools%2FXcode_14%2FXcode_14.xip'
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apple
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2022 05:10:52 GMT
Content-Length: 0
Connection: keep-alive
Set-Cookie: ADCDownloadAuth=INCwSR0SPJlfn%2FJlJjMVjRDBNZBvP9scsoDMdCcvq2OWL7McfW%2FQ9KMeQwFzKA%2Bl%2FDYrZXomq89a%0D%0AKk6dNtu%2FlUBB6APxIaz%2FCsye3zHz%2FAB4nvsZDuZwaOuP6ztM2McTG7d78eIytDt1v%2FsdPoVbg3qi%0D%0AXRVRvpWPsgxObn8DO56TSj8H%0D%0A;Version=1;Comment=;Domain=apple.com;Path=/;Max-Age=108000;HttpOnly;Expires=Sat, 24 Sep 2022 05:10:52 GMT
Host: developerservices2.apple.com
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains
wwdr-vip-rqId: 5798b1bd1abef4014a56048237e5bdc1