flutter_deploy

A Dart CLI tool that saves Flutter developers from tedious release prep work.

Every app release involves the same repetitive steps:

1. Open pubspec.yaml, find the version line, increment the build number
2. Open ios/Runner/Info.plist, update CFBundleVersion
3. Open ios/Runner.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj, update CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION and MARKETING_VERSION
4. Run flutter pub get

flutter_deploy handles all of that in one command, with smart defaults so you can press Enter through the entire flow.

---

Installation

Global (recommended — use from any project)

dart pub global activate flutter_deploy

Then run from your Flutter project root:

flutter_deploy

As a project dev dependency

Add to pubspec.yaml:

dev_dependencies:
  flutter_deploy: ^0.0.1

Run:

dart run flutter_deploy

---

Usage

Interactive mode

flutter_deploy

┌────────────────┐
│ flutter_deploy │
└────────────────┘

Stamp a build-info Dart file? [y/N]:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  Current version : 1.0.0+79
  Suggested       : 1.0.0+80
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Update version? [Y/n]:
New version [Enter for 1.0.0+80]:
Sync iOS project files? [Y/n]:

  pubspec.yaml    :  1.0.0+79  →  1.0.0+80
  Info.plist      :  1.0.0 / 80
  project.pbxproj :  MARKETING_VERSION=1.0.0, CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION=80

Apply changes? [Y/n]:
✅ pubspec.yaml → 1.0.0+80
✅ Info.plist → 1.0.0 / 80
✅ project.pbxproj → MARKETING_VERSION=1.0.0, BUILD=80

🔄 Running flutter pub get…
✅ flutter pub get succeeded.

🚀 Done! Version: 1.0.0+80

All prompts default to Y — just mash Enter for the happy path.

Non-interactive / CI mode

# Auto-increment build number, auto-detect iOS, no prompts
flutter_deploy --bump

# Set a specific version
flutter_deploy --version 1.2.0+50

# Bump build and stamp a build-info Dart constant
flutter_deploy --bump --stamp lib/constants/build_info.dart

# Bump without syncing iOS files
flutter_deploy --bump --no-ios

# Preview all changes without writing anything
flutter_deploy --dry-run

All flags

Flag	Short	Description
--bump	-b	Auto-increment build number (non-interactive)
--version <x.y.z+n>	-v	Set an explicit version
--[no-]ios		Force or skip iOS project file sync
--stamp <path>		Stamp a Dart file with the build timestamp
--no-stamp		Skip build timestamp stamping
--dry-run		Preview changes, write nothing
--help	-h	Print usage

---

Features

Version bumping

Reads the current version from pubspec.yaml and suggests the next build number automatically. Accept with Enter or type a custom value.

iOS project file sync

When iOS files are detected, updates:

File	Field
ios/Runner/Info.plist	CFBundleShortVersionString, CFBundleVersion
ios/Runner.xcodeproj/project.pbxproj	MARKETING_VERSION, CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION

Info.plist updates use PlistBuddy (macOS only).
project.pbxproj updates are pure Dart and work on all platforms.

Build timestamp stamping (optional)

Writes the current datetime to a static const String in a Dart source file:

// auto-generated — do not edit
class BuildInfo {
  static const String deployedAt = "240420261541"; // DDMMYYYYHHmm
}

Enable with --stamp <path> or answer the interactive prompt.

fvm support

flutter_deploy automatically detects and uses fvm when it is present on the PATH.

---

Programmatic use

The library can be used directly in Dart code:

import 'package:flutter_deploy/flutter_deploy.dart';

void main() async {
  // Version parsing and bumping
  final manager = PubspecManager();
  final current = manager.readVersion();          // FlutterVersion(1.0.0+79)
  final next    = current!.withIncrementedBuild(); // FlutterVersion(1.0.0+80)
  manager.writeVersion(next);

  // Build timestamp
  final stamper = BuildStamper(filePath: 'lib/build_info.dart');
  final ts = stamper.stamp(); // "240420261541"

  // iOS sync
  final ios = IosSync();
  ios.updatePlist(next.versionName, next.buildString);
  ios.updatePbxproj(next.versionName, next.buildString);

  // Run flutter pub get
  await PlatformUtils.flutterPubGet();
}

---

Platform support

Feature	macOS	Linux	Windows
Version bump (pubspec.yaml)	✅	✅	✅
project.pbxproj update	✅	✅	✅
Info.plist update	✅	❌¹	❌¹
Build timestamp stamping	✅	✅	✅
fvm auto-detection	✅	✅	✅

¹ PlistBuddy is macOS-only. iOS development itself requires macOS.

---

Author

Ravdeep Singh — ubxty.com — info.ubxty@gmail.com

License

MIT