the workflow to use cocoapods dependencies in a KMP project seems quite odd. who is doing this? did you just create a shell project in Xcode so that you could build your KMP framework?

we use our custom cocoapods integration solution - https://github.com/icerockdev/mobile-multiplatform-gradle-plugin#setup-cocoapods-interop here usage - https://github.com/icerockdev/moko-widgets/blob/master/widgets-bottomsheet/build.gradle.kts#L48 but integration require exist xcode project with Pods dependencies.

yeah that's the kicker. i have to work on my library in IDEA, but then switch out to Xcode just to build it for iOS

Yes, to not switch into xcode we build own plugin. It build cocoapod from gradle, generate def file and do cinterop

so, your plugin does or does not require using Xcode to build the project?

It require xcodeproj with pods, not require open xcode manually

interesting