iOS TestFlight Deployment

Bartendie ships to TestFlight and the App Store through the R26D release toolchain: autopen (code signing from the team vault) and pigeon (build numbers, release records, store uploads). There is no Fastlane and no Ruby in the release path — Ruby remains only as a build dependency for CocoaPods.

Prerequisites

Mac with Xcode (including the iOS platform: xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS after Xcode updates)
autopen and pigeon CLIs on your PATH
GPG key authorized for the signing vault (r26d_signing_secrets) — autopen clones and decrypts it per session
Node (asdf) and CocoaPods via bundler (bundle install — handled automatically by task ios:pods)

No Apple ID password or 2FA is needed: store uploads authenticate with the App Store Connect API key served from the vault by autopen ios release-env.

Releasing

All tasks run from shaker/:

# 1. Update release notes (becomes TestFlight "What to Test")
$EDITOR release_notes/ios.txt

# 2. Bump the version in app.json (expo.version) if this is a new version

# 3. Build a signed IPA (pulls the next build number from pigeon)
task ios:build

# 4. Optional: smoke test the Release build in the simulator
task ios:sim

# 5. Optional: validate the IPA with Apple without uploading
task ios:validate

# 6. Publish that exact IPA to TestFlight
task ios:publish

task ios:beta runs build + publish in one shot. When the TestFlight build is verified and you want to submit it for App Store review:

task ios:release

Task reference

Task	What it does
`ios:pods`	Ensures node_modules, Ruby gems, and CocoaPods are installed and in sync (runs automatically before builds)
`ios:preflight`	Verifies the Xcode environment (first-launch state, iOS platform installed)
`ios:version-sync`	Syncs `app.json` version → `MARKETING_VERSION` / `CFBundleShortVersionString`
`ios:build`	autopen signing setup → pigeon build number → xcodebuild archive + export → `build/ios/Bartendie.ipa`
`ios:sim`	Builds Release for the iOS simulator and launches it (smoke test)
`ios:validate`	Validates the IPA against App Store Connect without uploading
`ios:publish`	pigeon release create + artifact publish (R2) + channel promote beta (TestFlight upload)
`ios:beta`	`ios:build` + `ios:publish`
`ios:release`	pigeon channel promote stable — submits the processed beta build for App Store review

How the pieces fit

Signing — autopen ios prepare clones the vault, decrypts the team distribution certificate and the app’s provisioning profile with your GPG key, and installs them into a temporary keychain. autopen ios cleanup removes everything afterwards (the build task does this automatically, even on failure).
Build numbers — pigeon is the authority: pigeon build-number next bartendie --platform ios. If it ever drifts from App Store Connect (upload rejected as duplicate), re-seed with pigeon build-number set bartendie --platform ios --number <latest-in-TestFlight>.
Store credentials — autopen ios release-env exports ASC_API_KEY_ID / ASC_API_KEY_ISSUER_ID / ASC_API_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH from the vault. Pre-set ASC_* env vars win (useful for CI).
Artifacts — every published IPA is recorded as a pigeon release and stored in R2, so release history is queryable after the fact.

Troubleshooting

xcodebuild plugin/framework errors after an Xcode update → sudo xcodebuild -runFirstLaunch
“iOS x.y is not installed” → xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS (both are caught up front by ios:preflight)
“The bundle version must be higher than the previously uploaded version” → re-seed the pigeon build number (see above), then rebuild — never re-publish the rejected IPA
Vault decryption failures → your GPG key must be listed in the vault’s .sops.yaml; check autopen vault status