CI/CD for Android | Docs

With Buddy, you can create a pipeline that builds, tests, and deploys Android applications on a push to Git. The configuration is super simple and takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Image loading... Example Android delivery pipeline

1. Create a new project

Go to Projects and click Create new project. Select your Git hosting provider (Buddy, GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Private Server) and enter your project name.

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Here's how the project looks in the Code tab:

Image loading... Repository preview in Buddy

2. Add a new pipeline

Navigate to Pipelines and click New pipeline. In the form, configure the following:

Name - Enter a descriptive name for your pipeline (e.g., "Deploy to production")
ID - Optional identifier for the pipeline
CPU - Select architecture: x64 or ARM64
Resources per pipeline run - Choose resource allocation (default: Workspace default)
Definition Location - Optionally check "Store configuration in a Git repository" to use YAML files

Click Add pipeline to create it.

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3. Configure workflow: contexts and triggers

After creating the pipeline, go to the Workflow tab to configure:

Image loading... Configure Workflow

Contexts - Click + to add Git branch/tag context or Environment. See Contexts.
Triggers - Click + to add Git events, Schedule, or Webhook. See Workflow Configuration.

4. Add actions

In this example, we'll add 4 actions that will perform the following tasks:

Build your Android application
Sign app with your key
Upload APK to Google Play
(Optional) Send notification to Slack

4.1 Build your Android application

Success

Build actions in Buddy are run in isolated containers run from official Docker images. When the pipeline is run, Buddy pulls the container, runs build commands, and shares the results in the pipeline filesystem with deployment actions.

Look up and click Build APK on the action list to add it to the pipeline:

Image loading... APK Build on action list

The Run tab lets you determine the commands to execute. The default commands are:

Image loading... APK Build action configuration

Once you add the action, you can run the pipeline and check the logs if everything has passed in order:

Image loading... Android build logs

4.2 Sign your application (APK)

Warning

We strongly advise against keeping the key in the repository. Instead, we recommend saving it as an asset in Buddy, which is much more secure.

To save the upload key in Buddy, switch to the Variables tab and click Add variable → Asset:

Image loading... Adding new asset

Configure the asset details:

enter the name – you will use it in the signing action as the $ASSET_ID
upload the key from your disk
make sure that the asset is allowed to be copied to action containers

Image loading... Asset configuration

With the key safely stored, you can now look up the Sign APK on the action list:

Image loading... Sign APK on action list

Add the action to the pipeline and fill the main tab with required data:

APK to sign path: the path in the pipeline filesystem with your APK build
Key store path: the $ASSET_ID of the key that you saved in Buddy
Key store password: the password that you provided when creating the key

Image loading... Sign APK action configuration

4.3 Deploy APK to Google Play

Now, we can deploy the signed package to the Google store. Before adding the publishing action, however, you need to configure a few things in Google:

Enable Google Play Android Developer API in your gcloud project:
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Create a service account in Google Cloud with a private key in the .json format:
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Invite the created user to your Google Play account and grant them Releases permissions to allow publishing to Google Play:
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With everything prepared, you can finally add the Google Play Publish APK action to the pipeline:

Image loading... Google Play Publish APK

The action requires an integration with Google Play Store. When adding the integration, upload the key generated in the associated service account:

Image loading... Adding Google Play Store integration

In the action details, select the signed package in the pipeline filesystem, define the development track (alpha, beta, production, etc.), and enter the app ID:

Image loading... Google Play Publish APK action configuration

Success

Congratulations! You have just automated the entire Build → Sign → Publish process. 😎🎉

4.4 (Optional) Send notification to Slack

You can configure Buddy to send your team a message after a new package is released. In this example we'll use Slack:

Image loading... Notification actions

Hint

If you add this action in the

On Failure

tab, Buddy will only send the message if something goes wrong with your build or deployment. Image loading... On failure notification

Success

Bear in mind that this article is only a brief example of what Buddy can do. You can create additional pipelines for staging and production environments, integrate with your favorite services (AWS, Google, Azure), trigger tests on pull requests, build Docker images, and push them to the registry—the possibilities are unlimited.

Tip

If you want us to create a delivery pipeline for your project, drop a line to support@buddy.works – we'll be happy to help!