What is AppRelay?

AppRelay is a native desktop app — for macOS and Windows — that gives every software project you own a single command center. Instead of hopping between Xcode, Android Studio, a half-dozen terminal tabs, and a folder of deploy scripts, you open one window and see — for each project — what's shipped, what's building, what your tests say, and what's ready to release.

Crucially, nothing about your projects is compiled into AppRelay. You don't fork the app or edit source to add a product. You point it at your folders, and your repositories, build lanes, brand, and pipelines all become runtime data that you can edit in the UI and carry between machines.

What you can do in one place

Every project gets the same set of sections, whether it's a single iOS app or a five-repo product family:

And when it helps, Dispatch — the built-in assistant — answers questions about your own lanes, recipes and servers, proposes config for you to approve, drafts release notes, suggests a version bump, and explains a failed build. It's powered by your own Claude Code, and never your secrets. See Dispatch — the built-in assistant.

Four ideas that make it work

1. Everything is runtime data

A project is a value tree: repos, lanes, recipes, and brand tokens. You create and edit it in the UI. Because it's data, AppRelay can read your projects, prefill them from what it finds on disk, and move them between machines.

2. Build ≠ Distribute

Most tools tangle up how a project builds with where it ships. AppRelay separates them. A lane has one toolchain (how it builds) and one or more distributions (where each build goes). One React Native app can build once and ship to the App Store, Google Play, and Firebase together — adding a destination is a single entry, never a code change. See Build ≠ Distribute.

3. Every pipeline is an editable recipe

Build, run, and deploy steps aren't buried in scripts. They're a visible, editable recipe library — shipped presets plus recipes you author in-app. AppRelay orchestrates and observes; it shells out to the real tools (Xcode, Gradle, EAS, Fastlane, Vercel, npm, Docker, and so on) rather than reimplementing them. See Recipes.

4. Projects are portable and encrypted

Any project exports to a single .relay archive — repos, lanes, recipes, brand, and secrets. Secrets travel inside it, encrypted with a passphrase you set. Double-click the file to open it on any computer — macOS or Windows. See The .relay archive.

What AppRelay is not

• It's not a CI server. It runs on your own computer, on demand, using tools you already have installed. There's no build farm and no always-on runner.
• It doesn't replace Fastlane, EAS, or the Vercel CLI. It calls them. That means your existing scripts and lanes keep working — AppRelay gives them one consistent front end.
• It's not a cloud service. The app has no login. Your code and secrets never leave your machine unless you deliberately export an archive; what it does send is anonymous, aggregate counts of the actions it runs (builds, runs, and the like — plain tallies, never your code or secrets), plus a licensing check-in if you unlock the paid tier. (Buying a license optionally gets you a website account for managing it — the app never asks you to sign in.) See Security & privacy.

Next steps

• Make sure you meet the system requirements and install AppRelay.
• Then create your first project by scanning a folder.