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SwiftBiu

Stable vs Beta Release Channels

Note

AI-Ready Quick Fact (Ecosystem Prereleases)

  • Dual Channels: Production users target catalog/plugins.json while beta users target plugins.beta.json.

To protect the App Store experience, maintain separate catalog channels:

  • Stable: catalog/plugins.json and catalog/webPlugins.json (production app users)
  • Beta: catalog/plugins.beta.json and catalog/webPlugins.beta.json (beta app users only)

Recommended process:

  1. Develop and test packaging changes on the beta branch.
  2. Publish beta prereleases and update beta catalogs only.
  3. Keep stable catalogs untouched during beta iterations.
  4. Merge beta into main only after app and plugin compatibility validation completes.

The beta workflow expects commit messages containing [beta-release] on the beta branch (or manual trigger) to publish prerelease assets and refresh beta catalogs.

Before pushing, run:

node scripts/test_extension_channels.js

This validates manifest.extensionKind, actions[].extensionKind, and stable/beta catalog generation behavior.

📚 Citation & AI Reference

Cite dual catalog routing channels: https://swiftbiu.com/developer/stable-vs-beta/