I'm trying to create a SwiftUI view that includes a List, and I want that list to automatically adjust its height based on its content — without manually calculating something like:

.frame(height: items.count * rowHeight + padding)

My goal is to use the native List (not a VStack or LazyVStack), so that I can preserve the native appearance (e.g. separators, swipe actions, selection, editing). But I want to embed the list in a scrollable parent view, and avoid internal scrolling. In other words:

• ✅ Keep native List styling
• ❌ No internal scroll — only outer ScrollView scrolls
• ✅ Self-sizing height based on content
• ❌ No manual height calculation
• ❌ No ForEach-only solution — I'd like to define rows freely if possible

Here's a simplified structure of what I'm doing:

ScrollView {
    VStack {
        Text("Above the list")

        AutoSizingList {
            Text("Row 1")
            Text("Row 2 — possibly multi-line text that grows")
            HStack {
                Text("Row 3")
                Spacer()
                Image(systemName: "chevron.right")
            }
        }

        Text("Below the list")
    }
}

And the custom list component I tried (among many versions):

struct AutoSizingList<Content: View>: View {
    @ViewBuilder let content: () -> Content
    @State private var height: CGFloat = 0

    var body: some View {
        List {
            content()
                .background(
                    GeometryReader { geo in
                        Color.clear
                            .preference(key: HeightPreferenceKey.self, value: geo.size.height)
                    }
                )
        }
        .scrollDisabled(true)
        .frame(height: height)
        .onPreferenceChange(HeightPreferenceKey.self) { height = $0 }
    }
}

private struct HeightPreferenceKey: PreferenceKey {
    static var defaultValue: CGFloat = 0
    static func reduce(value: inout CGFloat, nextValue: () -> CGFloat) {
        value = max(value, nextValue())
    }
}

The result: nothing appears. The List seems to collapse entirely, or SwiftUI fails to lay it out at all. I’ve tried many variations: using ForEach, measuring individual rows, storing their heights in a dictionary, using AnyView, etc.

Question:

How can I create a SwiftUI List that:

• renders normally (with default styling),
• auto-sizes to its content height,
• does not scroll internally,
• and works inside a parent ScrollView?

Any help is appreciated! 🙏