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Initializing a Bitrise project locally

Abstract

You can use the bitrise init plugin to initialize a new Bitrise app on your own computer, without adding it to Bitrise online.

When you add a new app to Bitrise, we detect the type of your project and generate a basic bitrise.yml file for you, with Workflows that are appropriate for your project type.

With the Bitrise CLI, you can make this work on your own computer:

  1. Install the Bitrise CLI on your computer.

  2. Make sure that $GOPATH/bin is added to $PATH on your computer.

    By default, your Go workspace is at $HOME/go/bin.

    Installing Go

    If you don't have Go installed on your computer, bitrise init will automatically install it for you.

  3. Start the bitrise init plugin:

    bitrise init

  4. Wait while the plugin runs all available scanners to determine your project type.

  5. Depending on the detected project type, the scanner asks for some input. Follow the instructions.

    For example, with an iOS project, it asks the user to specify an export method:

    Select: ipa export method
Please select from the list:
[1] : app-store
[2] : ad-hoc
[3] : enterprise
[4] : development
(type in the option's number, then hit Enter) :

Based on the scanner outputs, the plugin generates a Bitrise configuration, with a bitrise.yml file. In the automatically generated Workflows, every required input will have a valid value.

The plugin also generates a bitrise.secrets.yml file. You can store your Secrets in this file.

In this section:
app

The bitrise.yml file stores your entire build configuration for an app. It specifies your stack and the build triggers, and defines the Workflows of the app. When you make changes on the graphical UI of our Workflow Editor, you actually modify the bitrise.yml file.

A Workflow is a collection of Steps, Environment Variables, and other configurations. When Bitrise starts a build, it runs one or more Workflows according to the configuration defined in the bitrise.yml file.

A Secret is a specific type of Environment Variable: they hide their information in an encrypted format and their value is not exposed in the build logs nor in the bitrise.yml configuration. You can store confidential information, such as passwords or API keys as Secrets.