apkdev 2.0.0

The complete Android APK toolkit — build, reverse engineer, extract metadata, manage devices

APKDev

📱 The complete Android APK toolkit — build, reverse engineer, extract metadata, and manage devices.
One pip install and you have everything you need to work with APKs.

pip install apkdev

Features

29 commands covering the full APK lifecycle:

🏗️ Build

Command	What it does
apkdev new MyApp	Scaffold a Kotlin + Gradle project
apkdev build	Compile APK via Gradle
apkdev sign app.apk	Sign with debug key
apkdev optimize app.apk	Zipalign + sign in one step

📲 Device (ADB)

Command	What it does
apkdev install app.apk	Install to device
apkdev uninstall com.example	Remove app
apkdev pull com.example	Pull APK from device
apkdev packages	List installed packages
apkdev devices	List connected devices

🔍 Reverse Engineering

Command	What it does
apkdev decode app.apk	Decompile to smali/resources (apktool)
apkdev rebuild dir/	Rebuild APK from decoded dir
apkdev decompile app.apk	Decompile to Java source (jadx)
apkdev baksmali classes.dex	Disassemble to smali
apkdev smali dir/	Assemble smali → dex
apkdev jar app.apk	Convert DEX/APK to JAR
apkdev apkeditor ...	APKEditor (merge/split/modify)

🔎 Inspection

Command	What it does
apkdev inspect app.apk	Full metadata (package, version, permissions, activities...)
apkdev manifest app.apk	AndroidManifest.xml dump
apkdev permissions app.apk	Permission list
apkdev strings app.apk	Resource string pool
apkdev resources app.apk	Resource table
apkdev cert app.apk	Signing certificate info
apkdev ls app.apk	List files inside APK
apkdev extract app.apk	Extract APK contents
apkdev analyze app.apk	Deep analysis (androguard + aapt2)

⚙️ System

Command	What it does
apkdev info	Show installed tool versions
apkdev doctor	Check environment
apkdev setup	Auto-install everything
apkdev completion	Shell tab-completion

Requirements

• Python 3.8+ is all you NEED
• Java 17+ for building & RE (apkdev can install it)

Quick Start

# Install
pip install apkdev

# Without Java — these 6 commands work immediately:
apkdev ls someapp.apk          # List files inside APK
apkdev extract someapp.apk     # Extract APK to folder
apkdev new MyApp               # Create new project
apkdev info                    # Check installed tools
apkdev doctor                  # Check what's missing

# Install Java + everything else:
apkdev setup                   # Auto-installs Java, SDK, all tools

# With Java — full power:
apkdev build                   # Build APK
apkdev decode someapp.apk      # Decompile to smali
apkdev decompile someapp.apk   # Decompile to Java
apkdev inspect someapp.apk     # Full metadata

How Java Gets Installed

apkdev setup bootstraps Java via your platform's package manager:

Platform	Method
Termux/Android	pkg install openjdk-21
Linux (Debian)	sudo apt-get install openjdk-21-jdk
Linux (Fedora)	sudo dnf install java-21-openjdk-devel
Linux (Arch)	sudo pacman -S jdk21-openjdk
macOS	Installs Homebrew → brew install openjdk@21
Windows	Installs Chocolatey → choco install openjdk21

If auto-install fails, it tells you exactly what to do.

Smart Abbreviations

All commands support unique prefixes:

apkdev n          → new
apkdev deco       → decode (ambiguous: decode/decompile → shows choices)
apkdev decom      → decompile
apkdev ins        → inspect
apkdev inf        → info
apkdev per        → permissions

Why APKDev?

• Complete — 29 commands covering build, RE, inspection, device management
• Zero compilation — pure Python, works anywhere Python runs
• Beautiful output — rich tables, panels, syntax highlighting
• Smart — auto-patches platform-specific issues (aapt2 on ARM)
• 20KB wheel — tiny footprint