Broctic

Builds and submission

What a signed iOS or Android build needs, how EAS builds it, and how it reaches TestFlight and Google Play.

How builds work

A build turns the project into a signed, installable file: an .ipa for iOS and an .aab for Android. Broctic runs it through EAS Build, Expo's hosted build service, from a GitHub Actions job. Signing material — the distribution certificate, the provisioning profile, the Android keystore — is created on the first build and reused after that, so it is made once and never retyped.

What you need before an iOS build

  1. 1. An Apple Developer Program membership

    $99 a year, paid to Apple. Nothing can be signed or submitted without it. An organization membership additionally needs a D-U-N-S number, which takes days — start it before you need it.

  2. 2. An App Store Connect API key with the Admin role

    Created under Users and Access → Integrations in App Store Connect. Admin is required: a lesser role cannot create certificates. Connect it once for the whole organization at Settings → Integrations.

  3. 3. Your Team ID

    The ten-character identifier on your Apple Developer account. It goes on the certificate and the provisioning profile, so a build cannot be signed without it.

  4. 4. An app record in App Store Connect

    Apple will not accept a build for an app it has never heard of. Create the record in App Store Connect with the same bundle id you set in the Studio's Settings tab, then link it there.

What you need before an Android build

A Google Play Console account ($25, once) and — for submission, not for building — a Play app record created by hand and a service account key. Google requires the first release of a new app to be uploaded manually; automated submission works from the second one onwards.

Submitting

When a build finishes it can be downloaded, or submitted straight to TestFlight or the Google Play internal track from the Test tab. Neither is a public release: TestFlight distributes to testers, and the internal track to a list you control. The App Store tab carries the rest — the store pictures and the submission itself, once the Checklist has nothing left in it. Publishing to the store is still a decision you make in Apple's and Google's consoles.