/asc-release-flow

name: asc-release-flow
description: Orchestrate App Store releases with asc, including staging a version, uploading or building an artifact, publishing, and submitting for review. Use when the user wants to prepare or execute a release. Keep Game Center item preparation in this skill; route other readiness failures, stuck submissions, cancellation, and retry decisions to asc-submission-health.

App Store release orchestration

Use this skill to carry a release from an approved plan to App Store review. Keep Game Center item preparation here; keep other blocker diagnosis and review recovery in `asc-submission-health`.

Ownership boundary

This skill owns:

• staging metadata and attaching a build;
• publishing an IPA or building locally;
• submitting a prepared version;
• assembling a multi-item review submission.

Use [the preparation section](references/multi-item-submissions.md#prepare-every-item) for Game Center item preparation or attachment blockers. Use that reference's assembly and submission sections only after the app version is staged and the multi-item lane is selected. Stop and use `asc-submission-health` for other validation blockers, a stuck submission, cancellation, or retry decisions.

Preconditions

• Resolve `APP_ID`, the version string, `VERSION_ID` when needed, and `BUILD_ID` when a build already exists.
• Configure auth with `asc auth login` or `ASC_*` environment variables.
• Confirm the intended platform. Use `IOS` unless the app targets another platform.
• Keep canonical metadata in `./metadata` when the workflow applies metadata.
• Require a dry run before a mutating high-level command, then require `--confirm` for submission.

Choose the release lane

| Intent | Command | | --- | --- | | Prepare metadata and attach an existing build without submitting | `asc release stage` | | Submit an already prepared version | `asc review submit` | | Upload an IPA or build locally, then optionally submit | `asc publish appstore` | | Submit the app version with IAP, subscription, or Game Center version items | lower-level `asc review` submission commands |

Do not mix lanes after one has already created a review submission. Inspect the existing submission first and continue through the matching lower-level commands.

Run the readiness gate

Apply this gate to a version that already has the intended build attached. For the staging lane, first complete [Stage an existing build](#stage-an-existing-build); `asc release stage` attaches the build and runs validation, after which this gate can be evaluated. Do not route an expected pre-staging "build not attached" result to `asc-submission-health`.

Validate before any submission:

asc validate --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --platform IOS --output table

Use strict mode when warnings must stop automation:

asc validate --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --platform IOS --strict --output table

Digital goods are a hard gate. If the release includes IAPs or subscriptions, stop and run the relevant product checks in `asc-submission-health`. Resume this flow only after those checks have no blocking issues and the intended product versions are prepared.

For Game Center items, complete only [Prepare every item](references/multi-item-submissions.md#prepare-every-item), then return to this flow. Do not assemble or submit the multi-item review submission during readiness.

If app validation reports a Game Center item blocker, stop and use that preparation section. If the only blocker is an unattached build in the staging lane, continue to the staging section. For every other blocker, stop the release flow and use `asc-submission-health`. Do not bury unrelated remediation inside the release run.

Stage an existing build

Use `asc release stage` to ensure the version, apply or copy metadata, attach the selected build, and run validation without creating a review submission.

Preview metadata-driven staging:

asc release stage \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --build "BUILD_ID" \
  --metadata-dir "./metadata/version/1.2.3" \
  --dry-run \
  --output table

Apply the reviewed plan:

asc release stage \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --build "BUILD_ID" \
  --metadata-dir "./metadata/version/1.2.3" \
  --confirm

Use `--copy-metadata-from "1.2.2"` instead of `--metadata-dir` when carrying localization metadata forward. Add `--strict-validate` when warnings should fail the stage.

Submit a prepared version

Use `asc review submit` after metadata, review details, availability, build processing, and product readiness are already resolved.

asc review submit --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --build "BUILD_ID" --dry-run --output table
asc review submit --app "APP_ID" --version "1.2.3" --build "BUILD_ID" --confirm

Use `--version-id "VERSION_ID"` instead of `--version` when the exact version ID is known. `--build` may be omitted only when the intended build is already attached and verified.

Upload or build, then publish

Use `asc publish appstore` when the release starts from an IPA or a local Xcode project/workspace.

Preview an IPA upload and submission:

asc publish appstore \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --ipa "./App.ipa" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --submit \
  --dry-run \
  --output table

Run it after reviewing the plan:

asc publish appstore \
  --app "APP_ID" \
  --ipa "./App.ipa" \
  --version "1.2.3" \
  --submit \
  --wait \
  --confirm

For local-build mode, provide `--workspace` or `--project` with `--scheme` instead of `--ipa`. Use `--metadata-dir` when the publish command should apply canonical version metadata after ensuring the version.

Omit `--submit` when the user wants upload and attachment only.

Submit multiple review items

Read [references/multi-item-submissions.md](references/multi-item-submissions.md) when the app version must ship with versioned IAP, subscription, subscription-group, or Game Ce