Releasing from CI

Create an access key

Don’t use your login session in CI. Create a dedicated access key with an expiry:

patchkite access-key add "CI MyApp" --ttl 365d

Store it as a secret named PATCHKITE_ACCESS_KEY. The CLI picks up these environment variables, so no patchkite login is needed:

Variable	Value
PATCHKITE_ACCESS_KEY	The access key
PATCHKITE_SERVER_URL	Your server, e.g. https://patchkite.example.com

Revoke keys you no longer use with patchkite access-key rm.

GitHub Actions example

name: Patchkite Staging
on:
  push:
    branches: [develop]

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      PATCHKITE_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.PATCHKITE_ACCESS_KEY }}
      PATCHKITE_SERVER_URL: https://patchkite.example.com
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v7
        with:
          node-version: 24
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm install -g @patchkite/cli
      - run: echo "${{ secrets.PATCHKITE_PRIVATE_KEY }}" > private.pem
      - run: patchkite release-react MyApp-Android android -d Staging --description "${{ github.event.head_commit.message }}" -k private.pem

Add --noDuplicateReleaseError if the job may run without code changes; the CLI then exits successfully instead of failing when the package is identical to the latest release.

For Flutter, install Flutter with the same version as your store build (for example with subosito/flutter-action and a pinned flutter-version) and use release-flutter.

Register store binaries (React Native)

The first update a freshly installed app receives is normally the full bundle. If you register the bundle inside your store build, Patchkite sends a binary patch against it instead:

patchkite binary add MyApp-Android android/app/build/outputs/bundle/release/app-release.aab
patchkite binary add MyApp-iOS build/MyApp.ipa

Run this in the CI job that produces the store artifact. Patches are smallest when release-react uses the same React Native version and Hermes configuration as the store build. List and remove registered binaries with patchkite binary ls and patchkite binary rm.