OTAShip

Self-hosted over-the-air updates for Expo & React Native.
A free, open-source alternative to EAS Updates — own your update infrastructure.

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What is OTAShip?

OTAShip lets you push JavaScript updates directly to your Expo / React Native apps without going through app store review. It implements the Expo Updates protocol, so expo-updates works out of the box — just point it at your own server instead of Expo's.

You get a Go backend, a SvelteKit admin dashboard, a CLI for publishing, and an example Expo client — all wired together with Docker Compose.

Why Self-Host?

• Your data, your server. Update bundles and metadata stay on infrastructure you control.
• No usage caps. No per-update pricing, no monthly limits. Push as many updates as you want.
• Percentage-based rollouts. Ship to 10% of users first, then ramp up — included, not paywalled.
• Rollbacks without republishing. Revert to any previous update or the embedded binary in one command.

Features

Category	What you get
Protocol	Full Expo Updates manifest protocol, including multipart responses and code signing
Storage	Pluggable: AWS S3, MinIO, or Cloudinary — switch via dashboard settings
Rollouts	Percentage-based rollouts with per-update control
Rollbacks	Rollback to any previous update or factory-reset to embedded binary
Dashboard	Real-time overview, project management, API key management, storage usage
CLI	otaship publish — bundles, uploads, and tracks updates from your terminal or CI/CD
API	RESTful API with interactive Swagger docs at /api/docs
Auth	Admin bearer tokens for dashboard, scoped X-API-Key tokens for CLI/projects
Observability	Structured logging (JSON/text), download tracking, per-project stats

Quick Start

Prerequisites: Docker and Docker Compose

By default, the docker-compose.yml uses pre-built images from GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) for faster setup.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/vknow360/otaship.git && cd otaship

# Copy environment files
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
cp admin-dashboard/.env.example admin-dashboard/.env
cp postgres/.env.example postgres/.env

# Start everything
docker compose up -d

That's it. The API is at http://localhost:8080 and the dashboard at http://localhost:3000.

Next steps: Generate an admin token hash, configure your storage provider (S3 or Cloudinary), and create your first project through the dashboard. See the Backend README for environment variable details.

Building from Source

If you want to build the Docker images locally from the source code, use the development compose file instead:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

OTAShip vs EAS Updates

	OTAShip	EAS Updates
Hosting	Self-hosted — your servers	Expo Cloud
Pricing	Free, forever	Free tier with limits, paid plans
Data storage	Your PostgreSQL + your S3/Cloudinary	Expo-managed
Rollouts	Percentage-based, included	Paid tier feature
Rollbacks	One-command via CLI or dashboard	Manual republish
Code signing	RSA manifest signing	Supported
Vendor lock-in	None — standard Expo Updates protocol	Expo ecosystem

Architecture

graph TD
    CLI["otaship CLI"] -->|Publishes bundle| Backend["Go API :8080"]
    Dashboard["Admin Dashboard :3000"] <-->|Manages config| Backend
    Backend -->|Stores metadata| Postgres[("PostgreSQL")]
    Backend -->|Uploads assets| Storage[("S3 / Cloudinary")]
    App["Expo App"] -->|Requests manifest| Backend
    Backend -->|Serves update| App

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Project Structure

This is a monorepo with four components:

Component	Stack	Description	Docs
backend	Go, Chi, PostgreSQL, SQLC	API server — manifests, uploads, rollouts	README
admin-dashboard	SvelteKit, Tailwind CSS	Web UI for managing projects and updates	README
cli	Go, Cobra	Publish updates from terminal or CI/CD	README
expo-client	Expo, React Native	Example app showing OTA integration	README

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether it's a bug fix, a new feature, or documentation improvements — feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

If you found OTAShip useful, consider giving it a ⭐ — it helps others discover the project.

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE for details.