ai2-screen-renamer

A command-line tool to rename screens in MIT App Inventor 2 projects (.aia files).

App Inventor does not provide a built-in way to rename screens. This tool automates the process by editing the .aia file directly, updating all internal references consistently.

What it does

For a given screen rename (OldName → NewName), the tool updates:

• OldName.scm → NewName.scm (Designer components file)
• OldName.bky → NewName.bky (Blocks file)
• $Name field inside the .scm file
• main= and lastopened= entries in youngandroidproject/project.properties
• Any open another screen block references in other screens' .bky files

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+.

pipx install ai2-screen-renamer

Or with pip:

pip install ai2-screen-renamer

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/fgimenez/ai2-screen-renamer.git
cd ai2-screen-renamer
pip install -e .

Usage

# Rename Screen2 to AgendaContactos, output to MyApp_AgendaContactos.aia
ai2-screen-renamer MyApp.aia Screen2 AgendaContactos

# Specify output file explicitly
ai2-screen-renamer MyApp.aia Screen2 AgendaContactos MyApp_renamed.aia

Or as a Python module:

python -m ai2_renamer MyApp.aia Screen2 AgendaContactos

Limitations

Screen1 cannot be renamed. App Inventor requires Screen1 to exist as the launch screen — renaming it would produce a project that fails to build.

Errors

The tool raises a descriptive error if:

• The input file is not a valid .aia file
• The screen to rename does not exist in the project
• A screen with the new name already exists in the project
• The screen to rename is Screen1

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -v

License

Apache 2.0