fship — Flutter Ship

Memorable, easy CLI for orchestrating Flutter release workflows to Firebase App Distribution.

fship release qa                         # Interactive version bump + full release
fship release qa --version 3.0.4+79      # Exact version
fship release qa --bump patch            # Auto-increment patch
fship release qa --resume-from distribute  # Retry after failure
fship multi-release qa,uat --bump patch  # Release multiple flavors
fship publish --bump patch               # Package publish: bump, changelog, commit & tag
fship status qa                          # Current version + last release info
fship pre-check qa                       # Pre-flight checks before release

Quick Start

1. Install: pip install fship
2. Initialize: cd /path/to/flutter/project && fship init
3. Add Firebase App IDs: Follow the interactive setup guide
4. Validate: fship validate
5. Pre-check: fship pre-check qa
6. Release: fship release qa (or your flavor name)

Why fship?

Problem: Manual Flutter releases to Firebase App Distribution are tedious and error-prone.

• Manual version bumping in pubspec.yaml
• Manual changelog creation
• Manual git tagging
• Manual APK/IPA building for each flavor
• Manual Firebase distribution
• Human error: wrong version, missing tags, incomplete changelogs

Solution: fship automates the entire workflow in one command, with safety features like auto-rollback and pre-release checks.

Features

✓ Interactive Setup Guide

• Interactive fship init walks through Firebase App ID retrieval
• Links to Firebase Console
• Multiple environment variable setup options

✓ Android & iOS Support

• Build and distribute APK (Android), IPA (iOS), and AAB (Play Store)
• Separate Firebase app IDs: APPIDANDROID, APPIDIOS
• Flavor-specific build paths for both platforms
• Optional parallel APK + IPA builds (FSHIP_PARALLEL_BUILDS=1)

✓ Version Management

• Interactive or automated version bumping
• Auto-increment: patch, minor, or major
• Exact version specification
• Prod: pure semantic versioning (X.Y.Z+0, no suffix)
• Non-prod: flavor suffix (e.g., 3.0.4-qa-2+79)
• Format validation (X.Y.Z+B or X.Y.Z-suffix+B)

✓ Changelog Generation

• Auto-generate CHANGELOG.md from git history
• Uses git-chglog for professional formatting
• Release notes auto-generated from git log since last tag

✓ Git Integration

• Auto-commit version changes
• Auto-create git tags
• Track release history in git

✓ Multi-Flavor Support

• Separate configurations per flavor (qa, uat, prod, custom)
• Flavor-specific entrypoints, build paths, Firebase app IDs
• fship multi-release qa,uat releases multiple flavors in sequence

✓ Auto-Rollback on Failure

• If distribution fails after commit/tag, automatically reverts
• Restores original version in pubspec.yaml
• Deletes the git tag and resets the commit
• Resume cleanly with --resume-from distribute

✓ Pre-Release Checks

• fship pre-check <flavor> validates everything before release
• Checks Flutter SDK, Firebase CLI, credentials, APK path

✓ Release Status

• fship status [flavor] shows current version, last release, pending commits

✓ Real-Time Progress Output

• Stream Flutter build output to console
• Stream Firebase CLI output to console
• Live progress visibility (no silent waiting)

✓ Firebase Distribution

• One-command distribution to Firebase App Distribution
• Customizable tester groups (testers, internal, external)
• Flavor-specific env files: .env.qa, .env.uat, .env.prod

✓ Input Validation

• Version format validation (X.Y.Z+B)
• Flavor existence checking
• Path traversal protection
• Firebase app ID format validation
• Required environment variable validation

✓ Package Publish Mode

• fship publish bumps version, generates changelog, commits, and tags — no build or Firebase steps
• Use before dart pub publish to prepare a package release
• Same --bump and --version options as release

✓ Dry-Run Mode

• Test version bumping, changelog, and tagging without building/distributing
• Perfect for validating setup

✓ Resume From Failed Step

• --resume-from STEP retries from failure point
• Skips already-completed steps

✓ Environment Management

• Auto-loads Firebase app IDs from .env.{flavor} or .env.dev
• Interactive setup if config missing
• No hardcoded secrets in repo
• Support for both Android and iOS app IDs

How It Works (Full Flow)

1. Bump version in pubspec.yaml (interactive or auto)
2. Generate CHANGELOG.md via git-chglog
3. Generate release_note.txt from git log since last tag
4. Git commit version changes
5. Git tag the release
6. Build APK/IPA for the flavor (with real-time progress)
7. Distribute to Firebase App Distribution (with real-time progress)

Installation

Via PyPI (Recommended)

pip install fship

From Source (Development)

git clone https://github.com/MrShakila/F-ship.git
cd F-ship
pip install -e .

Setup (One Time)

cd /path/to/your/flutter/project

# Interactive setup with Firebase App ID guide
fship init

# Validate setup
fship validate

Interactive Init Guide

fship init will walk you through:

1. Configure Flavors — Choose which flavors (qa, uat, prod, custom)
2. Get Firebase App IDs — Interactive guide with Firebase Console links
3. Set Environment Variables — Choose between .env files or exports

Configuration File Structure

After running fship init, your config is stored in .config/fship.json:

{
  "flavors": {
    "qa": {
      "firebase_app_id_env_android": "APPIDANDROID",
      "firebase_app_id_env_ios": "APPIDIOS",
      "entrypoint": "lib/main_qa.dart",
      "apk_path": "build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-qa-release.apk",
      "ipa_path": "build/ios/ipa/fship-qa-release.ipa",
      "groups": "testers"
    }
  }
}

Usage

Interactive Version Bump

fship release qa
# Current version: 1.2.3+45
# New version: 1.2.4+46
# [shows full release workflow with progress]

Exact Version (Non-Interactive)

fship release qa --version 1.2.4+46

Auto-Increment

fship release qa --bump patch    # 1.2.3+45 → 1.2.4+0
fship release qa --bump minor    # 1.2.3+45 → 1.3.0+0
fship release qa --bump major    # 1.2.3+45 → 2.0.0+0

Dry Run (Skip Build & Distribution)

fship release qa --skip-build --skip-distribute
# Only bumps version, generates changelog, commits, tags

Retry Failed Release

If release fails at any step, fix the issue and resume from that point:

fship release qa --resume-from build       # Retry build and distribution
fship release qa --resume-from distribute  # Retry distribution only

Steps: version, changelog, notes, tag, build, distribute

If release fails after git commit/tag, fship auto-rolls back the version bump and deletes the tag so you can retry cleanly.

Pre-Release Checks

fship pre-check qa
# ✓ Config: flavor 'qa' found
# ✓ Flutter: Flutter 3.x.x
# ✓ Firebase CLI: 13.x.x
# ✓ APPIDANDROID: set
# ⚠ APPIDIOS not set (iOS distribution will be skipped)

Release Status

fship status qa
# Current version: 3.0.4-qa-2+79
# Last release: v3.0.4-qa-2+79
# Released: 2 days ago
# Pending commits: 3

Multi-Flavor Release

fship multi-release qa,uat --bump patch
# Releases qa first, then uat
# Shows per-flavor success/failure summary

Android App Bundle (Play Store)

Build AAB directly using Flutter's appbundle target. The build_aab function in operations/builder.py handles this — wire it into a custom step or extend the release flow.

Package Publish (pub.dev)

For Dart/Flutter packages — bumps version, generates changelog, commits, and tags. No build or Firebase distribution.

fship publish --bump patch         # 0.9.5 → 0.9.6, commit, tag v0.9.6
fship publish --version 1.0.0+0   # Exact version
fship publish --no-push            # Commit + tag locally, push manually

Then publish the package:

dart pub publish

Parallel iOS + Android Builds

Set environment variable to enable parallel builds:

FSHIP_PARALLEL_BUILDS=1 fship release qa
# Builds APK and IPA simultaneously using threads

Environment Setup

Option 1: Single .env.dev file (for development)

Create .env.dev with both Android and iOS app IDs:

# .env.dev (add to .gitignore)
APPIDANDROID=1:123456:android:abcdef...
APPIDIOS=1:987654:ios:fedcba...

Option 2: Flavor-Specific Files (Recommended for CI/CD)

Flavor determined by filename:

# .env.qa
APPIDANDROID=1:111111:android:aaaaaa...
APPIDIOS=1:222222:ios:bbbbbb...

# .env.uat
APPIDANDROID=1:333333:android:cccccc...
APPIDIOS=1:444444:ios:dddddd...

# .env.prod
APPIDANDROID=1:555555:android:eeeeee...
APPIDIOS=1:666666:ios:ffffff...

Option 3: Export as Environment Variables

export APPIDANDROID='1:123456:android:abcdef...'
export APPIDIOS='1:987654:ios:fedcba...'
fship release qa

Getting Firebase App IDs

1. Go to Firebase Console
2. Select your project
3. Click Project Settings (gear icon)
4. Select Your apps tab
5. Find your app and click it
6. Copy the Google App ID (format: 1:123456789:android:abcdef... or 1:123456789:ios:ghijkl...)

All Commands and Options

Commands

Release Options

Resume steps (in order): version → changelog → notes → tag → build → distribute

Multi-Release Options

Publish Options

Environment Variables

Release Examples

# Interactive (prompts for version)
fship release qa

# Exact version
fship release qa --version 3.0.4+79

# Auto-increment (patch)
fship release qa --bump patch     # X.Y.Z+B → X.Y.(Z+1)+0

# Auto-increment (minor)
fship release qa --bump minor     # X.Y.Z+B → X.(Y+1).0+0

# Auto-increment (major)
fship release qa --bump major     # X.Y.Z+B → (X+1).0.0+0

# Prod flavor (semantic versioning, no suffix)
fship release prod --bump patch   # X.Y.Z+B → X.Y.(Z+1)+0

# Dry run (version + changelog + tag, no build/distribute)
fship release qa --skip-build --skip-distribute

# No push (local commit/tag only)
fship release qa --no-push

# Retry from build (after fixing app ID, build paths, etc.)
fship release qa --resume-from build

# Retry from distribution (after fixing Firebase config)
fship release qa --resume-from distribute

# Custom flavor (user-defined in .config/fship.json)
fship release staging --version 2.0.0+0

Version Format

Standard flavors (qa, uat, custom):

• With suffix: X.Y.Z-suffix+B (e.g., 3.0.4-qa-2+79)
• Without suffix: X.Y.Z+B (e.g., 3.0.4+77)
• Bumping adds flavor suffix if missing: 3.0.4+77 → 3.0.4-qa-1+78

Prod flavor:

• Pure semantic: X.Y.Z+0 (e.g., 3.0.5+0)
• No suffix names (just numbers)
• Bumping uses standard semantic versioning

Resume Steps

When using --resume-from STEP, available steps are:

1. version — Update pubspec.yaml
2. changelog — Generate CHANGELOG.md
3. notes — Generate release notes
4. tag — Commit and create git tag
5. build — Build APK/IPA
6. distribute — Distribute to Firebase App Distribution

Resume From Failed Step

If release fails at any step, fix the issue and retry from that point:

# Release failed at build step
fship release qa --resume-from build       # Skip version/changelog/tag, retry build

# Release failed at distribution
fship release qa --resume-from distribute  # Skip build, retry distribution

# Available steps: version, changelog, notes, tag, build, distribute

Example workflow:

fship release qa --version 3.0.5+0
# → Firebase distribution fails (wrong app ID)

# Fix: Update .env.qa with correct APPIDANDROID

fship release qa --resume-from distribute
# → Retries distribution (skips version bump, build, tag)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• Flutter SDK
• Firebase CLI: npm install -g firebase-tools
• git-chglog: brew install git-chglog (macOS) or npm install -g git-chglog

Troubleshooting

"Firebase app ID not set"

fship init           # Run setup again
fship validate       # Check configuration

"Firebase CLI not found"

npm install -g firebase-tools
firebase login

"git-chglog not found"

brew install git-chglog
# or
npm install -g git-chglog

"Commits/tags not created, but version was bumped"

• Ensure you're in a git repo
• Check git status for uncommitted changes
• Verify git is configured with name and email

Release failed, want to retry from a specific step?

• Fix the underlying issue (e.g., update app IDs, check Firebase setup)
• Use --resume-from to skip completed steps and retry from failure point:

fship release qa --resume-from build       # Retry build (skip version/tag)
fship release qa --resume-from distribute  # Retry distribution (skip build)

Security

fship has built-in protections:

• ✓ Version format validation
• ✓ Path traversal protection
• ✓ Firebase app ID format validation
• ✓ Flavor existence checking
• ✓ No shell injection vulnerabilities
• ✓ Environment variable validation

See SECURITY_AUDIT.md for details.

Development

git clone https://github.com/MrShakila/F-ship.git
cd F-ship
pip install -e .
fship --help

Running Tests

pytest tests/ -v

License

MIT — See LICENSE

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See GitHub