App Store Release Flow

App Store release orchestration

Use this skill to carry a release from an approved plan to App Store review. Keep Game Center item preparation here; keep other blocker diagnosis and review recovery in asc-submission-health.

Ownership boundary

This skill owns:

• staging metadata and attaching a build;
• publishing an IPA or building locally;
• submitting a prepared version;
• assembling a multi-item review submission.

Use the preparation section for Game Center item preparation or attachment blockers. Use that reference's assembly and submission sections only after the app version is staged and the multi-item lane is selected. Switch to asc-submission-health for other validation blockers, a stuck submission, cancellation, or retry decisions.

Switch skills within the current task, preserving resolved targets, authorization, and verified progress. A failing gate blocks dependent mutations, not diagnosis or independent authorized work. Continue authorized repairs and resume this flow; request new authority only when repairs exceed the agreed scope.

Preconditions

• Resolve APP_ID, the version string, VERSION_ID when needed, and BUILD_ID when a build already exists.
• Configure auth with asc auth login or ASC_* environment variables.
• Confirm the intended platform. Use IOS unless the app targets another platform.
• Keep canonical metadata in ./metadata when the workflow applies metadata.
• Require a dry run before a mutating high-level command, then require --confirm for submission.

Choose the release lane

Do not mix lanes after one has already created a review submission. Inspect the existing submission first and continue through the matching lower-level commands.

Run the readiness gate

Apply this gate to a version that already has the intended build attached. For the staging lane, first complete Stage an existing build; asc release stage attaches the build and runs validation, after which this gate can be evaluated. Do not route an expected pre-staging "build not attached" result to asc-submission-health.

Validate before any submission:

asc validate --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --platform IOS --output table

Use strict mode when warnings must stop automation:

asc validate --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --platform IOS --strict --output table

Digital goods are a hard gate. If the release includes IAPs or subscriptions, stop and run the relevant product checks in asc-submission-health. Resume this flow only after those checks have no blocking issues and the intended product versions are prepared.

For Game Center items, complete only Prepare every item, then return to this flow. Do not assemble or submit the multi-item review submission during readiness.

If app validation reports a Game Center item blocker, stop and use that preparation section. If the only blocker is an unattached build in the staging lane, continue to the staging section. For every other blocker, pause dependent release actions and use asc-submission-health; resume after authorized repairs pass validation.

Stage an existing build

Use asc release stage to verify the selected build belongs to the app before changing the version, apply or copy metadata, attach the build, and run validation without creating a review submission.

Preview metadata-driven staging:

asc release stage \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --build-id "BUILD_ID" \
  --metadata-dir "./metadata" \
  --dry-run \
  --output table

Apply the reviewed plan:

asc release stage \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --build-id "BUILD_ID" \
  --metadata-dir "./metadata" \
  --confirm

--metadata-dir takes the canonical metadata root that contains app-info/ and version/<version>/, the same layout as asc metadata push --dir. Use --copy-metadata-from "1.2.2" instead of --metadata-dir when carrying localization metadata forward. Add --strict-validate when warnings should fail the stage.

If the metadata plan contains deletes, the dry run and confirmed run both require --allow-deletes. Review those deletes first; the flag also disables fallback to an existing locale when that locale is absent locally.

Use --routing-coverage-file "./coverage.geojson" when the release includes routing app coverage. This experimental step validates the GeoJSON before mutation and stages it before readiness checks.

Structured output includes a validate_build step at the start of steps[]. Match steps by name rather than array position.