Apple App Store

Version history

This feature is part of Mobile DevOps developed by GitLab Incubation Engineering. The feature is still in development, but you can:

With the Apple App Store integration, you can configure your CI/CD pipelines to connect to App Store Connect to build and release apps for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

The Apple App Store integration works out of the box with fastlane. You can also use this integration with other build tools.

Prerequisites

An Apple ID enrolled in the Apple Developer Program is required to enable this integration.

Configure GitLab

GitLab supports enabling the Apple App Store integration at the project level. Complete these steps in GitLab:

  1. In the Apple App Store Connect portal, generate a new private key for your project by following these instructions.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Search or go to and find your project.
  3. Select Settings > Integrations.
  4. Select Apple App Store Connect.
  5. Under Enable integration, select the Active checkbox.
  6. Provide the Apple App Store Connect configuration information:
    • Issuer ID: The Apple App Store Connect issuer ID.
    • Key ID: The key ID of the generated private key.
    • Private Key: The generated private key. You can download this key only once.
    • Protected branches and tags only: Enable to only set variables on protected branches and tags.
  7. Select Save changes.

After the Apple App Store integration is activated:

  • The global variables $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_ISSUER_ID, $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY_ID, $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY, and $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_IS_KEY_CONTENT_BASE64 are created for CI/CD use.
  • $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY contains the Base64 encoded Private Key.
  • $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_IS_KEY_CONTENT_BASE64 is always true.

Security considerations

CI/CD variable security

Malicious code pushed to your .gitlab-ci.yml file could compromise your variables, including $APP_STORE_CONNECT_API_KEY_KEY, and send them to a third-party server. For more details, see CI/CD variable security.

Enable the integration in fastlane

To enable the integration in fastlane and upload a TestFlight or public App Store release, you can add the following code to your app’s fastlane/Fastfile:

app_store_connect_api_key