Deployment

WearAmp is deployed to Google Play via GitHub Actions. Every merge to main automatically builds a signed release AAB and uploads it to the Internal Testing track.

How it works

The workflow lives at .github/workflows/deploy.yml and runs on every push to main. It:

  1. Decodes the release keystore from a base64-encoded GitHub secret.
  2. Uses the GitHub Actions run_number as both the versionCode and the patch component of the version name — so run 42 produces version 1.0.42.
  3. Reads VERSION_MAJOR_MINOR from version.properties and combines it with the run number to form the full versionName (e.g. 1.0.42).
  4. Builds a signed release AAB with ./gradlew :app:bundleRelease (includes native debug symbols).
  5. Creates a GitHub Release and attaches the AAB.
  6. Uploads the AAB to the Wear OS Internal Testing track (wear:internal) on Google Play for package com.wearamp with draft status.

Note: Since August 2023, Wear OS apps must be published on a dedicated Wear OS release track (wear:internal, wear:production, etc.). The workflow uses status: draft because Google Play requires draft status for apps that haven’t been fully published yet. Once the app has its first production release, you can change the status to completed in the workflow to auto-publish.

One-time setup

1 — Generate a release keystore

Do this once and keep the file somewhere safe (not in the repo).

keytool -genkey -v \
  -keystore wearamp-release.jks \
  -alias wearamp \
  -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

Base64-encode it so it can be stored as a GitHub secret:

# macOS
base64 -i wearamp-release.jks | tr -d '\n'

# Linux
base64 -w 0 wearamp-release.jks

2 — Create a Google Play service account

  1. Open Google Cloud Console and select (or create) a project.
  2. Enable the Google Play Android Developer API.
  3. Go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts and create a new service account (e.g. github-deploy).
  4. Create a JSON key for that service account and download it.
  5. Open Google Play Console → Setup → API access.
  6. Link the Google Cloud project you used above.
  7. Find the service account in the list and click Grant access.
  8. Assign the Release manager permission (or at minimum Release to Internal Testing).

3 — Add GitHub Secrets

In your repository go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions and add:

Secret name Value
KEYSTORE_BASE64 Base64-encoded content of wearamp-release.jks (step 1)
KEY_STORE_PASSWORD The keystore password you set in step 1
KEY_ALIAS wearamp (or whatever alias you used)
KEY_PASSWORD The key password you set in step 1
GOOGLE_PLAY_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON Full JSON content of the service account key from step 2

4 — First upload (manual)

Google Play requires at least one manually uploaded AAB before the API can push subsequent updates. Build a release AAB locally (with your keystore environment variables set) or via Android Studio, then upload it to the Wear OS Internal Testing track in Play Console for package com.wearamp. After that, every merge to main is handled automatically.

Important: When uploading via Play Console, use the Wear OS release track — not the standard mobile internal testing track. Since August 2023, Wear OS updates must be published on a dedicated Wear OS track.

5 — Configure testers

After creating the internal testing track, you must add testers or the release won’t be available to anyone:

  1. In Google Play Console, go to Testing → Internal testing (under the Wear OS section).
  2. Under Testers, create an email list or use a Google Group.
  3. Add tester email addresses and save.
  4. Share the opt-in link with your testers so they can access the build.

Bumping the version

Edit version.properties and update VERSION_MAJOR_MINOR before merging:

VERSION_MAJOR_MINOR=1.1

The patch number is always the GitHub Actions run number (e.g. 1.1.58), and the versionCode is set to the same run number. You never need to manage either manually.

CI (pull requests)

The ci.yml workflow runs on every pull request targeting main and: