Architecture

This overview explains how LiveContainer hosts guest apps. It is a rewrite of the public architecture notes for contributors.

Major targets

• LiveContainer - bootstrap, container data, and launching LiveProcess; SwiftUI UI while idle
• LiveContainerSwiftUI - UI surfaces and Localizable.xcstrings (Crowdin)
• LiveProcess - guest loader with matching entitlements but a different bundle ID (multitask + PID JIT); patches the binary, dyld hooks, tweaks, then jumps to the entry point
• MultitaskSupport - floating and native iPad windows, kept in sync with the primary app
• SideStore helpers - refresh/JIT APIs, certificate refresh, sources, URL schemes
• TweakLoader - substrate-style loader injected via a load command (symlink can be overridden)
• ZSign - signing stack derived from Feather/zhlynn work with LiveContainer-specific entitlement and multi-container changes
• Submodules - fishhook, litehook, OpenSSL

Launch pipeline

• Prepare the guest Mach-O: rewrite __PAGEZERO (vmaddr=0xFFFFC000, vmsize=0x4000), convert MH_EXECUTE to MH_DYLIB, inject a TweakLoader load command.
• Patch @executable_path through litehook/fishhook on _NSGetExecutablePath (older SIGSEGV tricks are retired).
• Override NSBundle.mainBundle so the guest sees its own bundle.
• Signing: JIT can bypass checks; JIT-less mode signs with ZSign using the imported certificate.
• LiveProcess dlopens the guest, TweakLoader runs, then control reaches UIApplicationMain.
• Multi-account isolation uses up to 128 keychain access groups; containers choose which groups to isolate.

Known limits

• Guest entitlements are not copied; guests inherit the host's base entitlements.
• Permission prompts are global across guests.
• Guests share a sandbox - a malicious guest can read other guests' data.
• App extensions are not registered for guests.
• Some multitask input paths (hardware keyboard / iPhone Mirroring) are blocked.
• Push notifications and custom URL scheme queries often fail because SpringBoard never registered the guest.