AltGen

Generate AltStore apps.json source files from GitHub Releases IPA assets.

Static app metadata (name, bundle identifier, icon and screenshot URLs, descriptions…) comes from a TOML config; everything dynamic (version, build version, release date, download URL, file size, release notes) is read live from the GitHub Releases API.

GitHub Releases API ──┐
                      ├──► altgen ──► apps.json
app config TOML ──────┘

Install

pip install altgen
altgen --version

Requires Python ≥ 3.10.

Usage

One TOML config = one app = one apps.json:

altgen -c piliplus.toml          # writes apps.json next to the config
altgen -c piliplus.toml -o out/piliplus.json   # override output path

Or skip the config file entirely for a quick single-app source (any CLI flag overrides its TOML counterpart):

altgen --repo owner/App --app-name App --bundle-id com.owner.app -o apps.json

Hosting many sources is just many configs — loop over them or use a CI matrix, one altgen -c <config> per app.

Merge sources

Combine several apps.json files into one source (e.g. host many apps under a single source while keeping one config per app):

altgen merge a.json b.json -o merged.json
altgen merge -c merge.toml a.json b.json    # root values + output from TOML
altgen merge --name MySource --tint-color "#00AEEF" a.json b.json

• apps are taken from the inputs and sorted by name (case-insensitive); news entries from all inputs (root news plus each app's news) are combined and sorted newest-first.
• Root values (name, subtitle, description, icon_url, website, tint_color) come from the CLI flags or the config's [source] table — same rules as build mode, and --name (or [source] name) is required.
• Merge configs only support [source] and [output] tables; build-mode tables ([github], [app], …) are rejected.
• A duplicate bundleIdentifier or duplicate news identifier across inputs is an error (exit 2).

See examples/merge.toml for a full merge config.

GitHub token

Unauthenticated requests are limited to 60/hour; a token raises that to 5,000/hour. Precedence: --token > GITHUB_TOKEN env var > [github] token.

TOML schema

Only [github] repo, [app] name, and [app] bundle_identifier are required. Keys are snake_case in TOML and become the AltStore camelCase JSON keys (bundle_identifier → bundleIdentifier, icon_url → iconURL, min_os_version → minOSVersion, …). Unknown keys are rejected with an error.

See examples/piliplus.toml for a full example.

[github]
repo = "owner/App"               # REQUIRED: GitHub repo with releases
token = ""                       # optional (see above)

[source]                         # the source this apps.json describes
name = "App"                     # defaults to the repo name
subtitle = ""
description = ""
icon_url = ""                    # omitted from JSON when unset
website = ""
tint_color = "#00AEEF"           # must be #RRGGBB

[app]                            # the app inside the source
name = "App"                     # REQUIRED
bundle_identifier = "com.x.y"    # REQUIRED
developer_name = ""              # defaults to the repo owner (CLI mode)
subtitle = ""
description = ""                 # fallback when a release body is empty
icon_url = ""                    # falls back to [source].icon_url
screenshots = ["https://…"]
tint_color = ""                  # falls back to [source].tint_color
min_os_version = "14.0"          # omitted from versions when unset

[versions]
strip_v_prefix = true            # tag "v1.2.3" → version "1.2.3"
include_prereleases = false      # drafts are always skipped
asset_pattern = "\\.ipa$"        # regex, case-insensitive search on asset name
build_version_pattern = "\\+(\\d+)\\.ipa$"  # group 1 = buildVersion; no match → key omitted
# version_pattern = "…"         # optional: extract version with this regex instead of the tag
                                 # (for projects whose tags lack a version); no match → tag-derived version
# version_source = "release"     # where version_pattern runs: "release" (default, release name) or "filename" (IPA asset name)
max_versions = 1                 # default: newest version only; 0 = all versions

[news]
enabled = true
title_template = "{name} {version} - {date}"  # default; placeholders: {name} {version} {tag} {date} (e.g. 07 Aug 2026)
caption_template = ""                     # optional; default: "{name} {version} is available."
image_url = ""                            # optional; omitted from JSON when unset
                                          # news appID = [app] bundle_identifier
max_entries = 0                           # 0 = unlimited; caps after sorting; news already limited to releases kept by max_versions

[output]
path = "apps.json"               # resolved against THIS file's directory

Behavior notes

• Versions are sorted newest-first by (date, version); one version entry per matching release asset. A release with several IPAs produces several entries — sharing one version by default, or one version each when version_source = "filename".
• The version is the release tag by default (strip_v_prefix strips a leading v). For projects whose tags carry no version (e.g. youproextra-ipa2), set version_pattern to extract it from the release name or IPA filename instead; on no match the version falls back to the tag-derived value.
• By default only the newest version is emitted (max_versions = 1); set max_versions = 0 (or --max-versions 0) to include all versions.
• News follows the same convention: one news entry per release, kept only when that release still has a version entry after the max_versions cap. Matching is by release, not by version string, so several releases that resolve to the same version (e.g. a date-bearing tag like release-v1.2.3-2026-08-21 vs ...-2026-08-14) each get their own news entry only while their version entry survives the cap. [news] max_entries can further cap the list.
• News entries follow the AltStore spec: appID first (the app's bundle_identifier), a full ISO date timestamp, identifier derived from the app name and release tag (<app-name>-release-<tag>), and an optional imageURL; title_template / caption_template support {name}, {version}, {tag}, {date} placeholders.
• A release with no matching asset contributes nothing — not even a news entry. One news entry is emitted per release that has assets.
• Empty output (no releases, only drafts, …) is a valid source: altgen warns on stderr and exits 0.

CLI

altgen [-c PATH] [--repo OWNER/REPO] [--token TOKEN]
       [--name] [--subtitle] [--description] [--icon-url] [--website] [--tint-color]
       [--app-name] [--bundle-id] [--developer-name] [--app-subtitle]
       [--app-description] [--app-icon-url] [--app-tint-color] [--min-os-version]
       [--screenshots URL …] [--include-prereleases] [--max-versions N]
       [-o PATH] [-q] [-v] [--version]

altgen merge APPS_JSON… [-c PATH] [--name] [--subtitle] [--description]
       [--icon-url] [--website] [--tint-color] [-o PATH] [-q]

• Without -c, --repo, --app-name, and --bundle-id are required (build mode).
• --max-versions N caps the output after sorting (newest first); it defaults to 1 (latest version only) and 0 means all versions.
• CLI flags override TOML values; -o resolves against the current directory while [output] path resolves against the config file's directory (so a config next to its sources works from any CWD).
• altgen merge combines apps.json files; see Merge sources.
• -v logs skipped releases (draft / prerelease / no matching assets) to stderr; -q silences the success message.
• Exit codes: 0 success, 1 GitHub, IO, or write error, 2 usage or configuration error.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest            # fully offline — fixtures captured from the GitHub API