Managing an app's bitrise.yml configuration

The bitrise.yml file is the heart of your Bitrise setup: it stores your build configuration, right down to Step input values, the trigger map, and stack information. When you edit your Workflows on the graphical UI of our Workflow Editor, you actually modify the bitrise.yml file.

There are two ways to manage the bitrise.yml file of your app:

• Keep the file in your Git repository: with this solution, you have full control over maintaining and versioning the bitrise.yml file.
• Keep it on bitrise.io: Bitrise will store your configuration, and you can access it any time on the website. With this solution, the configuration file is fully independent from your repository.

You can switch between the two solutions at any time.

Storing the bitrise.yml file in your repository ⚓

When you store the bitrise.yml configuration file in your repository, the build process on Bitrise will use that file to run your builds. This means that:

• You have full control over versioning your configuration file.
• Every time you make a change to your Workflows or your trigger map, you must commit the changes to the file in the repository.

To store the file in your repository, you must commit it to the root of your Bitrise app’s default branch. You can check the app’s default branch on bitrise.io: open the app, and go to the Settings tab. Scroll down to the DEFAULT BRANCH option to check which branch should contain the bitrise.yml file.

You don’t need to create your own bitrise.yml file in advance to use this solution though: during the process of updating your settings, you will have the chance to download the current file from the website, or copy its full content. Once you commit that file to the appropriate branch, you can change the setting. Let’s see how to do that:

1. Open the app on Bitrise.
2. Go to the Workflows tab.
3. In the Workflow Editor, go to the bitrise.yml tab.
4. Click Store in app repository.

5. If you don’t have a bitrise.yml file the repository, you will be prompted to add one.

   
   You can download the current bitrise.yml file from the website, or copy its entire content to the clipboard. Either way, you have to commit the file to the root directory of the repository to proceed. Remember: you must commit the file to the branch that is set as the default branch on bitrise.io! You can check the default branch under the Settings tab on our website.

6. Click Update setting.
7. When prompted to make sure your bitrise.yml file is valid, click Continue.

If all goes well, you should receive confirmation of successfully changing your bitrise.yml storage settings.

Storing the bitrise.yml on multiple branches ⚓

When you first add the bitrise.yml to your repository, it must be committed to the default branch. You can check out the app’s default branch on bitrise.io under the Settings tab.

However, once you did the initial configuration to set up using the bitrise.yml from your repository, you can store bitrise.yml files on other branches and use any of them to run builds. If you want to build a branch of your repository on Bitrise, you need to have a bitrise.yml file on that branch. And don’t forget that you always need to keep a bitrise.yml file on the default branch.

Storing the bitrise.yml file on bitrise.io ⚓

The default setting is to store the bitrise.yml file on bitrise.io: when you add a new app, we automatically create a bitrise.yml file for you and it’s stored on our website. If this works for you, then you don’t need to change anything!

If, however, you changed your storage settings to keep the configuration file in your repository, you can easily change it back any time to store the file on bitrise.io.

1. Open the app on Bitrise.
2. Go to the Workflows tab.
3. In the Workflow Editor, go to the bitrise.yml tab.
4. Click Store on bitrise.io.
5. Choose which bitrise.yml file should be used on bitrise.io from now.
   - You can copy the content of the bitrise.yml file stored in the app’s repository.
   - You can copy the last version of the bitrise.yml file that you used on bitrise.io.
6. Click Update setting.

If all goes well, you should receive confirmation of successfully changing your bitrise.yml storage settings.

Accessing a build’s bitrise.yml ⚓

Every bitrise.yml file is stored for your builds on bitrise.io. They come in handy when you’d like to check the configuration with which a specific build has run. To do that, you can either use the online Workflow Editor or your build’s online bitrise.yml file. If you choose the latter, you can compare changes, restore the current build to the original version, edit the config, and download the file to your computer.

1. Select an application on your Dashboard and select one of its builds.

2. Click the Show bitrise.yml button at the top OR at the bottom of your inline log.

   You should see your build’s bitrise.yml content displayed in ace editor but it’s not editable here. See where you can edit the bitrise.yml online.

Checking changes in bitrise.yml online ⚓

Once you’ve clicked Show bitrise.yml, you will see the BUILD’S BITRISE YML pop-up window displaying your builds’ configuration details. If the build’s bitrise.yml content differs from the current build’s bitrise.yml, you will see two editors displayed side-by-side in the BITRISE.YML CHANGES pop-up window. The differences between the builds are highlighted in the following colors:

• Green means added content.
• Blue means modified content.
• Red means deleted content.

Restoring and undoing changes in bitrise.yml online ⚓

If you don’t like the changes made to your current bitrise.yml, you can easily restore it to the build’s original bitrise.yml.

1. Click the Show bitrise.yml button at the top OR at the bottom of your inline log on bitrise.io.
2. In the BITRISE.YML CHANGES pop-up window, click the orange Restore button.
3. Hit OK in the Are you sure? pop-up window to confirm and override the current bitrise.yml.

Editing and downloading bitrise.yml online ⚓

You can edit your build config in yml format in the bitrise.yml editor if you go to your app’s Workflow Editor and click the bitrise.yml tab.

• Press F1 for the full command list.
• Fold and unfold with the - and + signs.
• Press Ctrl/Cmd + F for search and replace where you can search with RegExp, Match Whole Word, case-sensitive, case-insensitive, or to search only in the selected section.
• Use the preview sidebar on the right for easier navigation.

You can save or discard any changes you have made with the config. If you click Download currently saved config, you can download this YML version to your own computer and run it with bitrise CLI on your computer.

You might want to copy this whole YML configuration or just part of it to another app, so that you can use the copied version as a base and extend it with a few extra steps. All you have to do is copy this bitrise.yml content and paste it into the new app’s bitrise.yml editor and develop it further.

Deleting a build’s bitrise.yml ⚓

If you wish, you can simply delete a build’s bitrise.yml file. But please note that this action cannot be undone: nobody will be able to view that particular build’s bitrise.yml file once you delete it.

1. Select an application on your Dashboard and select one of its builds.

2. Click the Delete bitrise.yml button.

   

3. In the confirmation window, click Yes.

Check out a `bitrise.yml` file online

Go to your app