play-store-promote

name	play-store-promote
description	Promote a release from Google Play internal testing to a closed testing track (Alpha or App Hive Testing). Use when the user asks to promote a release, move to closed testing, push to alpha, push to App Hive Testing, or mentions track promotion.

Play Store Promote

Promote a release from the internal testing track to one of the closed testing tracks using the Gradle Play Publisher (GPP) plugin.

Prerequisites

• Release already uploaded to internal testing (via play-store-upload or android-release)
• Service account key at app/play-service-account.json
• Service account has "Release to testing tracks" permission in Play Console

Workflow

Step 1: Choose the target track

Ask the user which closed testing track to promote to:

Track	Name in Play Console
Alpha	Alpha
App Hive Testing	App Hive Testing

Step 2: Promote the release

Promote to Alpha:

./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track alpha --release-status completed

Promote to App Hive Testing:

./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track "App Hive Testing" --release-status completed

• Use block_until_ms: 60000 (promotion typically takes 10-30s).
• The --from-track internal flag tells GPP to take the latest release from internal testing.
• The --release-status completed flag makes the release immediately available to testers.

Step 3: Report result

After a successful promotion, provide:

• Confirmation of the source track (internal) and destination track
• Link to Play Console: https://play.google.com/console/developers/apps/com.baijum.ukufretboard/tracks

Quick Reference

Task	Command
Promote to Alpha	./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track alpha --release-status completed
Promote to App Hive Testing	./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track "App Hive Testing" --release-status completed
Promote to production	./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track production --release-status completed
Staged rollout to production	./gradlew promoteReleaseArtifact --from-track internal --promote-track production --release-status inProgress --user-fraction 0.1

Troubleshooting

• "No release found in track 'internal'": Upload a release to internal testing first using ./gradlew publishReleaseBundle.
• "Track not found": Verify the track name matches exactly what's in Play Console (case-sensitive). Use quotes around names with spaces.
• "Unauthorized" or 403: The service account needs "Release to testing tracks" permission in Play Console.
• Release not visible to testers: Ensure testers are added to the target track's tester list in Play Console under Testing > Closed testing.