Publish an App

You've built an app (see Develop an App). Now put it where others can install it. Publishing is one command — aura nexus app publish — that pushes your app to a registry and embeds its store metadata so it shows up in the Nexus app store automatically.

Everything here runs from the Terminal app (or any shell with aura on PATH). This is the CLI path; the Nexus app's UI is just a viewer over the same backend.

Prerequisites

• A runnable app with a valid app.manifest.json. Sanity-check it first:

  aura dev validate apps/com.example.hello

• The transport tool for how you publish:
  • OCI registry (recommended) needs oras:

    aura cap install oras

  • Git repo needs git (aura cap install git).

The OS already ships a local registry — com.aura.registry, a zot instance at http://aura-com.aura.registry:4090, registered as the source named local. It's the default publish + test target, so you can go end-to-end without any external account.

1. Add store metadata

Two optional manifest blocks drive how your app appears in the store and where it publishes. Add them to app.manifest.json:

{
  "id": "com.example.hello",
  "name": "Hello",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "A tiny demo app.",
  "icon": "HI",
  "category": "utility",

  // Storefront metadata — shown on the Browse + detail pages.
  "store": {
    "publisher": "Example Labs",
    "homepage": "https://example.com/hello",
    "license": "MIT",
    "tags": ["demo", "hello"],
    "longDescription": "A longer description for the app's detail page.",
    "screenshots": ["https://example.com/hello/shot1.png"]
  },

  // Publish defaults — used when you run `aura nexus app publish` with no flags.
  "publish": {
    "registry": "local",          // an OCI source name, or a full registry URL
    "channels": ["stable"],       // channel tags to push alongside the version
    "ignore": ["node_modules", "dist", ".astro"]
  }
}

screenshots must be absolute https URLs (AuraOS doesn't host images — point at git-raw URLs or a CDN). Everything in store is optional; missing fields just render as "—".

2. Publish

Run it from the app directory (or pass the path):

cd apps/com.example.hello
aura nexus app publish

Bare + interactive, this opens a short wizard: pick the destination (OCI registry or git repo), choose the target registry, the tag, and a channel, review the store metadata, and confirm.

For scripts / CI, pass flags to skip the wizard:

aura nexus app publish --to local --kind oci --channel stable -y

Publishing to an OCI registry pushes your app as a single annotated artifact:

aura-com.aura.registry:4090/aura-apps/com.example.hello:0.1.0   ← the version
                                                        :stable  ← the channel
                                                        :latest  ← always

Your store fields + core manifest are embedded in the artifact's OCI annotations (org.opencontainers.image.* and app.aura.*), so the store can list your app with full metadata without pulling the bundle. Apps live under the aura-apps/ repo prefix, which keeps them cleanly separate from any other artifacts in the same registry.

3. See it in the store

The store aggregates every registered source. Refresh and search:

aura nexus search --refresh          # re-fetch all sources, list everything
aura nexus app info com.example.hello  # resolved source + address + permission preview

It also appears in the Nexus app's Browse tab (open Nexus from the launcher) — same data, rendered.

4. Install it

From any AuraOS with your registry configured:

aura nexus app install com.example.hello

Installs default to the global scope; add --scope user for a per-user install, or --channel beta to pin a channel. First install of an app prompts to approve the tools/permissions it declares — pass -y to auto-approve (right for CI, not for user-driven installs).

Versions & channels

• Bump version in the manifest and re-run aura nexus app publish to cut a new release. The new <version> tag is pushed, and :latest (plus the channel) move to it.
• Channels are just extra tags. Ship --channel beta for pre-releases; users opt in with aura nexus app install <id> --channel beta.
• Update installed apps in place:

  aura nexus app update com.example.hello   # or --all

Alternative: publish to a git repo

No registry? Publish the app as a git repo (manifest at the repo root):

aura nexus app publish --kind git --to github.com/you/hello --tag v0.1.0

Then register that repo as a git-app source so it appears in the store, or install it directly by URL:

aura nexus registry add hello github.com/you/hello --kind git-app
# or, one-off:
aura nexus app install github.com/you/hello#v0.1.0

See Nexus for the source kinds and how to run your own registry or catalog.

End-to-end, against the local registry

aura dev new com.example.hello           # scaffold (adds a runnable app)
# …edit app.manifest.json: add the store + publish blocks…
cd apps/com.example.hello
aura nexus app publish --to local --kind oci -y   # push
aura nexus search --refresh                        # it's in the catalog
aura nexus app install com.example.hello           # install into global scope
aura nexus app list                                # confirm it's installed