ARTIFACTORY: How to configure a CocoaPods smart repository

Introduction 

This guide explains how to configure a multi-level CocoaPods repository proxy using Artifactory, building a smart repository chain that enables hierarchical dependency management across multiple Artifactory instances.

Resolution 

1. Configure Remote CocoaPods Repository on Node A

Configuration Details:

URL: https://github.com/
Git Provider: GitHub
Specs Repository URL: https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs
CDN URL: https://cdn.cocoapods.org|

 
2. Configure Remote CocoaPods Repository on Node B

Configuration Details:

URL: https://<Node A>/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r
Git Provider: Artifactory
Specs Repository URL: https://<Node A>/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r
CDN URL: https://<Node A>/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r
External Dependencies Enabled is turned on

 
 

3. Podfile Configuration

Configure the Podfile to point to Node B's Artifactory remote repository:

platform :ios, '13.0'

source "http://127.0.0.1:8081/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-proxy"

target 'cocotest' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'Sentry', '= 8.9.0'
end

4. Clear Client Cache

Clear the CocoaPods client cache before installation:

rm -rf Pods Podfile.lock
pod cache clean --all

5. Configure Pod Client Authentication to Node B

Set up authentication for Artifactory access:

# Edit .netrc file
vim ~/.netrc

Add the following content:

machine 127.0.0.1
login admin
password <TOKEN>

Configure CocoaPods repository:

pod repo add-cdn zhl-coco-proxy "http://127.0.0.1:8081/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-proxy"

6. Execute Pod Install

Run pod install with verbose mode to monitor the process:

pod install --verbose

 
 

Logs in Node B’s artifactory-request-out.log show artifacts are actually downloaded from Node A

2025-12-25T06:55:17.296Z|0c3b3ce769eb3c8e|zhl-coco-proxy|hailangz|GET|https://NodeA/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r/refs/getsentry/sentry-cocoa|200|0|0|1691
2025-12-25T06:55:18.138Z|0c3b3ce769eb3c8e|zhl-coco-proxy|hailangz|GET|https://NodeA/artifactory/zhl-coco-r/getsentry/sentry-cocoa/gitrefs:properties|302|0|0|374
2025-12-25T06:55:18.872Z|0c3b3ce769eb3c8e|zhl-coco-proxy|hailangz|GET|NodeA/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r/refs/getsentry/sentry-cocoa|200|0|0|294
2025-12-25T06:55:21.241Z|0c3b3ce769eb3c8e|zhl-coco-proxy|hailangz|HEAD|https://NodeA/artifactory/api/pods/zhl-coco-r/downloadTag/getsentry/sentry-cocoa/8.9.0?ext=tar.gz|200|0|5144204|1882
2025-12-25T06:55:21.480Z|0c3b3ce769eb3c8e|zhl-coco-proxy|hailangz|GET|https://NodeA/artifactory/zhl-coco-r/getsentry/sentry-cocoa/tags/8.9.0/sentry-cocoa-8.9.0.tar.gz:properties|302|0|0|226

7. View Results

 

For more information, refer to the Smart Remote Repositories documentation: 
https://jfrog.com/help/r/jfrog-artifactory-documentation/smart-remote-repositories
https://jfrog.com/help/r/jfrog-artifactory-documentation/cocoapods-repositories