Greetings, traveler!

A tab bar is often the backbone of a SwiftUI application. It defines the primary navigation model, sets expectations for the app’s hierarchy, and frames how different sections relate to each other. Yet as a project grows, the tab-bar configuration tends to suffer from the same issue most large SwiftUI views do: it slowly expands into an oversized, difficult-to-read block of code.

A three-tab layout becomes five tabs. Role-based screens appear. Feature flags introduce branching logic. Before long, what was once a clean TabView turns into a dense configuration section embedded inside the app’s main container.

This article discusses how to keep tab-related code manageable using an approach based on a @TabContentBuilder — a pattern that moves tab configuration out of the primary view and into a dedicated, composable definition.

The Problem with Inline TabView Configuration

A typical SwiftUI TabView starts simple:

TabView {
    Tab(
    		DemoTab.home.title,
        systemImage: DemoTab.home.systemImage,
        value: .home
    ) {
        HomeView()
    }
    
    Tab(
    		DemoTab.search.title,
        systemImage: DemoTab.search.systemImage,
        value: .search,
        role: .search
    ) {
        SearchView()
    }
}

TabView {
    Tab(
    		DemoTab.home.title,
        systemImage: DemoTab.home.systemImage,
        value: .home
    ) {
        HomeView()
    }
    
    Tab(
    		DemoTab.search.title,
        systemImage: DemoTab.search.systemImage,
        value: .search,
        role: .search
    ) {
        SearchView()
    }
}

It is clear and easy to follow — until real-world requirements arrive:

• Each screen evolves and gains its own navigation stacks.
• Tab labels grow configurable (titles, icons, accessibility).
• Some tabs must appear only in certain states (e.g. logged-in user).
• Tag values must match the type used for programmatic selection.
• Teams add stylistic conventions, wrapper modifiers, analytics hooks.

In medium to large projects, the tab bar often ends up mixing:

• screen definitions
• display logic
• conditional checks
• tags
• modifiers
• environment data

all inside a single TabView block.

This bloats the view hierarchy and makes navigation harder to maintain or extend.

Decoupling Tab Definitions Improves Maintainability

One way to bring order to the tab-bar configuration is to treat it as a separate concern: not part of the layout body, but as its own unit of structure.

This is the idea behind using a @TabContentBuilder. Instead of embedding tabs inline, you extract them into a dedicated builder that returns a collection describing your tab items.

The goal is simple:

• keep navigation definition out of the main layout,
• allow tab listings to scale,
• support conditional or dynamic tabs,

Introducing @TabContentBuilder

A @TabContentBuilder works similarly to a toolbar builder or menu builder: it combines multiple items into a single representation consumed by TabView.

Here is how a container view might look when using this pattern:

struct DemoContentView: View {
    @State private var selection: DemoTab = .home
    
    var body: some View {
        TabView(selection: $selection) {
            tabs
        }
    }
    
    @TabContentBuilder<DemoTab>
    private var tabs: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        homeTab
        settingsTab
        searchTab
    }
    
    private var homeTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.home.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.home.systemImage,
            value: .home
        ) {
            HomeView()
        }
    }
    
    private var settingsTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.settings.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.settings.systemImage,
            value: .settings
        ) {
            SettingsView()
        }
    }
    
    private var searchTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.search.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.search.systemImage,
            value: .search,
            role: .search
        ) {
            SearchView()
        }
    }
}

struct DemoContentView: View {
    @State private var selection: DemoTab = .home
    
    var body: some View {
        TabView(selection: $selection) {
            tabs
        }
    }
    
    @TabContentBuilder<DemoTab>
    private var tabs: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        homeTab
        settingsTab
        searchTab
    }
    
    private var homeTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.home.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.home.systemImage,
            value: .home
        ) {
            HomeView()
        }
    }
    
    private var settingsTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.settings.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.settings.systemImage,
            value: .settings
        ) {
            SettingsView()
        }
    }
    
    private var searchTab: some TabContent<DemoTab> {
        Tab(
        		DemoTab.search.title,
            systemImage: DemoTab.search.systemImage,
            value: .search,
            role: .search
        ) {
            SearchView()
        }
    }
}

Key benefits:

• The body stays focused on structure, not configuration.
• Tabs live in one place.
• Conditional tabs fit naturally inside the builder.
• Strong type relationships remain intact (selection type – tab values).

The result is a more predictable and scalable navigation definition.

Conclusion

Organizing tab-bar configuration is one of those improvements that pays off the moment the project grows beyond a prototype. Moving tab definitions into a @TabContentBuilder keeps the body of your main container view concise, improves readability, and gives your navigation model a dedicated home.