self/app/docs/MOBILE_DEPLOYMENT.md

Mobile Deployment Guide

This guide covers the automated mobile deployment pipeline for iOS and Android apps.

🚀 Quick Start

Automatic Deployments

Deployments happen automatically when PRs are merged:

• Merge to dev → Deploy to internal testing
• Merge to main → Deploy to production

To skip deployment, add [skip-deploy] to your PR title or add the no-deploy label.

Manual Deployments

1. Go to Actions → "Mobile App Deployments"
2. Click "Run workflow"
3. Select options:
   • Platform: ios / android / both
   • Test mode: Check to build without uploading
   • Deployment track: internal / production
   • Version bump: build / patch / minor / major

📋 How It Works

Branch Strategy

main (production)
  ↑
  └── dev (internal testing)
        ↑
        └── feature/* (no auto-deploy)

Version Management

Versions are controlled by PR labels:

• version:major - Bump major version (1.0.0 → 2.0.0)
• version:minor - Bump minor version (1.0.0 → 1.1.0)
• version:patch - Bump patch version (1.0.0 → 1.0.1) [default for main]
• No label on dev - Only increment build number

Deployment Tracks

Branch	Track	iOS Target	Android Target
dev	internal	TestFlight Internal	Play Store Internal
main	production	App Store	Play Store Production

🏗️ Architecture

Workflows

1. mobile-deploy.yml - Main deployment workflow

   • Handles both manual and automated deployments
   • Builds and uploads to app stores
   • Creates git tags for production releases

2. mobile-deploy-auto.yml - PR merge trigger

   • Detects merged PRs
   • Determines deployment parameters
   • Calls main deployment workflow

Version Storage

• app/version.json - Tracks build numbers
• app/package.json - Semantic version
• Native files auto-sync during build

Caching Strategy

Build times are optimized with caching:

• Yarn dependencies
• Ruby gems
• CocoaPods (iOS)
• Gradle (Android)
• Android NDK

Average build times with cache: iOS ~15min, Android ~10min

🔧 Configuration

Required Secrets

iOS

• IOS_APP_IDENTIFIER - Bundle ID
• IOS_TEAM_ID - Apple Team ID
• IOS_CONNECT_KEY_ID - App Store Connect API Key ID
• IOS_CONNECT_ISSUER_ID - API Key Issuer ID
• IOS_CONNECT_API_KEY_BASE64 - API Key (base64)
• IOS_DIST_CERT_BASE64 - Distribution certificate
• IOS_PROV_PROFILE_BASE64 - Provisioning profile
• IOS_P12_PASSWORD - Certificate password

Android

• ANDROID_PACKAGE_NAME - Package name
• ANDROID_KEYSTORE - Keystore file (base64)
• ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD - Keystore password
• ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS - Key alias
• ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD - Key password
• ANDROID_PLAY_STORE_JSON_KEY - Service account key

Notifications

• SLACK_API_TOKEN - For deployment notifications
• SLACK_CHANNEL_ID - Channel for build uploads

Environment Variables

Set in workflow files:

NODE_VERSION: 18
RUBY_VERSION: 3.2
JAVA_VERSION: 17
ANDROID_API_LEVEL: 35
ANDROID_NDK_VERSION: 27.0.12077973

🏷️ Git Tags & Releases

Automatic Tags (Production Only)

When deploying to production, creates:

• v2.5.5 - Main version tag
• v2.5.5-ios-148 - iOS with build number
• v2.5.5-android-82 - Android with build number

GitHub Releases

Automatically created for production deployments with:

• Changelog from commits
• Build information
• Links to app stores

🚨 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Play Store upload failed: Insufficient permissions"

The service account needs permissions in Google Play Console. The build file is saved locally and can be uploaded manually.

Cache not working

• Check if lock files changed (yarn.lock, Gemfile.lock)
• Cache keys include version numbers that can be bumped
• First build on new branch may be slower

iOS build fails with provisioning profile error

• Ensure secrets are up to date
• Check certificate expiration
• Verify bundle ID matches

Version conflicts

• version.json tracks the source of truth
• Always higher than store versions
• Automatically incremented each build

Build Failures

1. Check the workflow logs in GitHub Actions
2. Look for the specific error in the failed step
3. Most issues are related to:
   • Expired certificates/profiles
   • Missing secrets
   • Network timeouts (retry usually helps)

📊 Monitoring

Slack Notifications

Successful deployments post to Slack with:

• Platform and version info
• Download links for the builds
• Deployment track (internal/production)

Deployment History

View all deployments:

1. Go to Actions
2. Filter by workflow: "Mobile App Deployments"
3. Check run history and logs

🔐 Security

• All secrets are stored in GitHub Secrets
• Certificates are base64 encoded
• Build artifacts are uploaded to Slack (private channel)
• Production deployments only from protected branches

🛠️ Maintenance

Updating Workflows

1. Test changes with test_mode: true
2. Use workflow_dispatch for manual testing
3. Monitor first automated run carefully

Cache Busting

If builds are failing due to cache issues:

1. Increment cache version in workflow:

   GH_CACHE_VERSION: v2  # Increment this
   

Certificate Renewal

Before certificates expire:

1. Generate new certificates/profiles
2. Update GitHub Secrets
3. Test with manual deployment first

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For local development and manual release processes, see app/README.md