Indie App Autopilot

June 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

Agents that take an indie iOS app from GitHub issue → tested PR → TestFlight → App Store, with a human in exactly two places: merging the PR and pressing Submit.

GitHub issue (spec) ──► issue-worker ──► PR ──► [HUMAN: merge]
                                                    │
                                              CI: fastlane beta
                                                    │
                                              TestFlight build
                                                    │
       feedback-triage ◄── beta feedback ◄──── testers
            │
        new issues ──► [HUMAN: promote to agent-ready] ──► queue
                                                    │
"prepare release X.Y" ──► release-agent ──► [HUMAN: Submit for Review]
                                                    │
                                          phased release + crash watch

The stack

Three repos, three layers — use one or all:

Layer	Repo	What it is
Knowledge	claude-code-apple-skills	139 skills — how to build right
Action	indie-app-autopilot ← you are here	7 agents — who ships it
Integration	asc-metadata-mcp	65+ MCP tools — live ASC API wire

release-agent and portfolio-health-monitor use asc-metadata-mcp to read and write App Store Connect directly. Install it alongside this repo for the full pipeline.

Why this exists

Born June 2026, during WWDC26 week, from three observations:

Solo developers don't scale; queues + agents do. With a portfolio of apps, anything you do per-app you effectively don't do. Defining all work as GitHub issues and letting an agent work them one at a time — tests first, screenshots attached, human merging — turns "I should update that app" into a queue that drains itself.
The autonomy boundary is the design problem, not the AI. A pipeline you can trust is one with exactly two human gates (PR merge, App Store submit), a WIP limit of 1, and agents that ask instead of guess. This repo is mostly an encoding of that boundary — see docs/SAFETY.md.
Agent skills became an open standard. Xcode 27 ships Apple's own Agent Skills in the same SKILL.md format used here and in claude-code-apple-skills. Operating procedures for agents are now portable, shareable artifacts — so a pipeline like this can be open source instead of every indie rebuilding it privately.

The build philosophy is deliberately incremental (docs/PIPELINE.md): issue→PR first, live with it two weeks, then TestFlight CI, then the release agent, then the orchestrator. Each phase is useful even if you stop there. Don't build the orchestrator first.

What this is (and isn't)

This is the action layer: agent operating procedures, CI wiring, and per-app templates for running an issue-driven development pipeline with Claude Code.

It is not a knowledge library. Platform knowledge (SwiftUI patterns, HIG review, App Store optimization, code generators) lives in claude-code-apple-skills — the knowledge layer. App Store Connect reads and writes go through asc-metadata-mcp — the integration layer. This repo is the action layer. They are cross-linked, never merged.

The agents

Agent	Trigger	What it does	Uses asc-metadata-mcp	Human gate
`issue-worker`	manual or queue-runner	Oldest `agent-ready` issue → TDD implementation → simulator screenshots → PR	—	You merge
`release-agent`	you say "prepare release X.Y"	Release notes, App Store Connect metadata, submission checklist	Yes	You submit
`feedback-triage`	daily schedule	TestFlight crashes + feedback → deduplicated GitHub issues (`triage`)	—	You promote to `agent-ready`
`queue-runner`	nightly schedule	Runs issue-worker when no agent PR is open (WIP = 1); weekly digest	—	—
`beta-break-bot`	new Xcode beta drops	Rebuilds every portfolio app against the new SDK, reports breakage	—	—
`portfolio-health-monitor`	weekly schedule	Sales, downloads, sessions, crashes, perf, rating deltas, new/unanswered reviews → week-over-week digest, anomalies on top	Yes	— (read-only)
`daily-sales-pulse`	daily (launchd runs `scripts/daily-sales-pulse.py`)	Yesterday's downloads/proceeds per app vs trailing 7-day average → a macOS notification + email	Yes	— (read-only)

Agents use the open Agent Skills format (SKILL.md + YAML frontmatter) — the same format as Xcode 27's built-in Agent Skills.

Quick start

# 1. Clone
git clone https://github.com/rshankras/indie-app-autopilot.git

# 2. Install the agents globally (or per-project into .claude/skills/)
cp -r indie-app-autopilot/agents/* ~/.claude/skills/

# 3. (Optional but recommended) Install asc-metadata-mcp for App Store Connect access
#    https://github.com/rshankras/asc-metadata-mcp

# 4. Onboard one app (labels, issue template, TestFlight workflow, Fastlane)
./scripts/setup-app.sh /path/to/your-app-repo YourScheme

# 5. Read docs/SETUP.md for the one-time signing/CI setup, then:
#    file issues → label one `agent-ready` → ask Claude Code to "work the next issue"

Documentation

Doc	Contents
docs/PIPELINE.md	The full Phase 0–4 build plan and rollout order
docs/SETUP.md	Onboarding one app, step by step (signing, CI runner, secrets)
docs/SAFETY.md	The operating contract: two human gates, WIP limit, hard rules
docs/ROADMAP.md	Where this is heading: portfolio-operations agents (review concierge, ASO experimenter, overnight QA)

Repository structure

agents/        Agent operating procedures (SKILL.md format) — read by Claude
templates/     Files COPIED into each app repo by scripts/setup-app.sh
scripts/       setup-app.sh — bootstrap an app repo (labels, templates, Fastlane)
docs/          Pipeline plan, setup guide, safety contract

Agent logic lives only here. App repos get wiring (labels, workflows, Fastlane) — so improving an agent improves it for every app at once.

The safety contract (summary)

Two human gates, forever: PR merge and App Store submit.
One issue = one branch = one PR = one agent run. WIP limit = 1.
Agents never touch main, never expand scope, never weaken a test, and prefer asking (agent-blocked) over guessing.
Secrets (App Store Connect API keys) live in CI secrets — never in any repo.

Full contract: docs/SAFETY.md.

Status

Early. Built in public against a real 16-app portfolio during the iOS 27 beta cycle (summer 2026). Expect sharp edges; issues and PRs welcome.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.