store-pilot

Stop wasting hours in App Store Connect, Google Play Console, and Figma every time you release.

One command to generate keywords, create screenshots, build, and ship your Expo/React Native app to both stores — without EAS.

No more manually filling metadata fields. No more designing screenshots in Figma. No more switching between consoles. Just run store-pilot ship and go grab a coffee.

Why store-pilot?

| Without store-pilot | With store-pilot | |---|---| | Open Figma → design 12+ screenshots manually | store-pilot screenshots | | Open App Store Connect → fill every field | store-pilot ship handles it | | Open Google Play Console → fill the same info again | Automatic via fastlane metadata | | Research keywords manually | store-pilot keywords with AI-powered ASO | | Repeat everything for each language | One command for all languages | | ~3-4 hours per release | ~5 minutes |

Installation

npm install -g @agustin-perticaro/store-pilot

Requires Node.js ≥ 18, Ruby + Bundler, and fastlane installed.

gem install fastlane

Setup (once per project)

cd your-expo-project
store-pilot init

init auto-detects your app.json, asks questions, and generates:

• fastlane/Appfile — identifies your app
• fastlane/Fastfile — all automated lanes
• fastlane/Matchfile — iOS certificate management
• fastlane/metadata/ — complete structure per language
• .env.store-pilot — your credentials (DO NOT commit)
• .env.store-pilot.example — safe template for the repo
• store-pilot-scripts/ — standalone scripts

Configure iOS certificates (once)

store-pilot match-setup

Uses fastlane match: creates and stores your certificates in a private git repo. Any team Mac can sync them with bundle exec fastlane match appstore --readonly.

Required Credentials

Fill in .env.store-pilot with:

| Variable | Where to get it | |---|---| | ASC_KEY_ID | App Store Connect → Users → API Keys | | ASC_ISSUER_ID | Same page | | ASC_KEY_PATH | The downloaded .p8 file | | MATCH_PASSWORD | Password you chose in match-setup | | GOOGLE_PLAY_JSON_KEY_PATH | Play Console → Settings → API Access → Service Account | | ANDROID_KEYSTORE_* | Your release keystore | | APPSCREENS_API_KEY | appscreens.io → Account → API | | APPSCREENS_PROJECT_ID | Your AppScreens project ID |

Usage

Full pipeline (recommended)

store-pilot ship

Runs in order: expo prebuild → keywords → screenshots → build iOS + Android → upload.

# iOS only, submit for review automatically
store-pilot ship --platform ios --submit

# Android only, upload to beta
store-pilot ship --platform android --track beta

# Skip keywords and screenshots (if unchanged)
store-pilot ship --skip-keywords --skip-screenshots

Individual commands

# Update keywords from Astro MCP
store-pilot keywords

# New app not published yet → use a competitor as reference
store-pilot keywords --competitor "https://apps.apple.com/app/notion/id1232780281"

# Generate and download screenshots from AppScreens
store-pilot screenshots

# Generate AND upload directly to stores
store-pilot screenshots --upload

Workflow for new apps (pre-publication)

Astro works before publishing by using competitors as proxy:

1. Find 2-3 competitor apps in the App Store
2. Copy their URLs
3. Run for each one:

   store-pilot keywords --competitor "https://apps.apple.com/app/.../id123"

4. store-pilot combines and ranks keywords by popularity/difficulty

Metadata

Fill in the files at fastlane/metadata/ — plain text files versioned in git:

fastlane/metadata/
├── ios/
│   ├── en-US/
│   │   ├── name.txt               ← app name
│   │   ├── subtitle.txt           ← subtitle (30 chars)
│   │   ├── description.txt        ← long description
│   │   ├── keywords.txt           ← generated by store-pilot keywords
│   │   ├── promotional_text.txt   ← updatable without new build
│   │   └── release_notes.txt      ← what's new in this version
│   └── review_information/
│       ├── first_name.txt
│       └── ...
└── android/
    └── en-US/
        ├── title.txt
        ├── short_description.txt
        ├── full_description.txt
        └── changelogs/
            └── default.txt

CI/CD (GitHub Actions)

# .github/workflows/ship.yml
name: Ship to stores

on:
  push:
    tags: ['v*']

jobs:
  ship:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
      - run: npm install -g @agustin-perticaro/store-pilot
      - run: gem install fastlane
      - run: store-pilot ship --skip-keywords
        env:
          ASC_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.ASC_KEY_ID }}
          ASC_ISSUER_ID: ${{ secrets.ASC_ISSUER_ID }}
          ASC_KEY_PATH: ${{ secrets.ASC_KEY_PATH }}
          MATCH_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.MATCH_PASSWORD }}
          GOOGLE_PLAY_JSON_KEY_PATH: ${{ secrets.GOOGLE_PLAY_JSON_KEY }}
          ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PATH: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEYSTORE }}
          ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASS: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASS }}
          ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS }}
          ANDROID_KEY_PASS: ${{ secrets.ANDROID_KEY_PASS }}
          APPSCREENS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.APPSCREENS_API_KEY }}
          APPSCREENS_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.APPSCREENS_PROJECT_ID }}

Note: store-pilot keywords uses Astro MCP which runs locally on your Mac, so that step is done on your machine before pushing. In CI it's skipped with --skip-keywords.

How does it compare to EAS?

| Feature | EAS | store-pilot | |---|---|---| | Cloud builds | Yes | No (local via fastlane) | | Upload to stores | Yes | Yes | | Metadata management | Basic (beta) | Full fastlane metadata | | ASO keyword research | No | Yes (via Astro MCP) | | Screenshot generation | No | Yes (via AppScreens) | | Screenshot upload | No | Yes | | Full ASO pipeline | No | Yes | | Cost | Free tier, then $99+/mo | Free (open source) |

EAS builds your app. store-pilot optimizes and ships it.

Project structure

store-pilot/
├── bin/store-pilot.js      CLI entrypoint
├── commands/
│   ├── init.js             scaffolding
│   ├── keywords.js         Astro MCP → keywords.txt
│   ├── screenshots.js      AppScreens API → assets
│   ├── ship.js             full pipeline
│   └── match-setup.js      certificate setup
├── lib/
│   └── config.js           config + env loader
└── templates/
    ├── scripts/             copied to project as store-pilot-scripts/
    └── fastlane/metadata/   base metadata structure

License

MIT