How to Deploy an Android App to Google Play

Build, sign, and submit to the Play Store from Claude Code — no Android Studio required.

What you're building

A Kotlin Android app submitted to the Google Play internal test track, with PromptShip handling the Gradle build, APK signing, and Play Store upload automatically.

Prerequisites

• Android repo on GitHub with a standard Gradle project structure
• Google Play Developer account
• App created in Play Console (can have zero releases so far)

Step 1: Create and configure the app

create_app(
  name: "my-android-app",
  github_repo: "github.com/me/my-android-app"
)

configure_app(
  app_name: "my-android-app",
  app_type: "android",
  android_package_name: "com.example.myapp"
)

Step 2: Add a Google Service Account

PromptShip needs API access to upload to Google Play on your behalf.

1. In Play Console → Setup → API access → link to a Google Cloud project (or create one)
2. In Google Cloud Console → IAM & Admin → Service Accounts → Create service account
3. Grant the service account the Service Account User role in Cloud Console
4. Back in Play Console → Grant the service account the Release manager role
5. In Cloud Console → Service Accounts → Keys → Create new key → choose JSON → download
6. Upload the key to PromptShip:

set_secret(
  app_name: "my-android-app",
  environment: "prod",
  key: "GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON",
  value: "<paste contents of the downloaded JSON file>"
)

Step 3: Submit to Google Play

submit_app(
  app_name: "my-android-app",
  environment: "prod",
  branch: "main",
  play_track: "internal"
)

PromptShip will clone your repo, run ./gradlew assembleRelease, sign the APK with a managed keystore, and upload it to the internal test track. Check status with:

get_submit_app_status(app_name: "my-android-app")

Keystore management

PromptShip auto-generates a signing keystore on the first submission and reuses it for all future builds. Download it anytime as a base64-encoded PKCS12:

get_android_keystore(app_name: "my-android-app", environment: "prod")

To use your own keystore, set these secrets before submitting:

set_secret(app_name: "my-android-app", environment: "prod", key: "ANDROID_KEYSTORE_B64", value: "<base64>")
set_secret(app_name: "my-android-app", environment: "prod", key: "ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD", value: "<password>")
set_secret(app_name: "my-android-app", environment: "prod", key: "ANDROID_KEYSTORE_KEY_ALIAS", value: "<alias>")

Next steps