rn-update-cli · React Native OTA Update CLI

One bundle. Multiple channels.

Build and publish over-the-air (OTA) updates for React Native, Expo and HarmonyOS. Native build registration, staged rollouts, CI/CD and sourcemap archiving from your terminal.

简体中文 · Pakta · Quick start · CLI guide · SDK · Pricing

---

From build to rollout.

Capability	What you can do
Cross-platform builds	Register APK / AAB / IPA / HarmonyOS APP files and create .ppk updates
Channel-based rollouts	Deploy one artifact to multiple channels and native versions at independent percentages
CI/CD automation	Token authentication, non-interactive publishing, zero-write previews and exact deployment retries
Hermes & diagnostics	Reuse verified Hermes bases, archive sourcemaps and symbolicate error stacks

Quick start

Requires Node.js ≥18.17, your platform build toolchain and native integration of the rn-update SDK. Run these commands from your React Native project root.

1. Install and select an app

Register and verify your email in the Pakta dashboard, then:

npm install -g rn-update-cli
pakta login
pakta selectApp --platform android

Need an app? Run pakta createApp --platform android --name MyApp first. Select each platform separately; configuration is saved in update.json.

2. Register your distributed native build

pakta uploadApk ./app-release.apk

For other formats, use uploadAab, uploadIpa or uploadApp. The native build is the compatibility baseline for OTA updates.

3. Bundle and roll out to 10%

pakta bundle --platform android --output .pakta/output/android.ppk --no-interactive
pakta publish .pakta/output/android.ppk --platform android --name fix-001 --channel default --packageVersion 1.0.0 --rollout 10 --sourcemap .pakta/intermedia/android/index.bundlejs.map

Replace default and 1.0.0 with your registered channel and native version. Add --expo when bundling Expo apps. Omitting --rollout defaults to 100%.

Publishing behavior and channel rules

An explicit --output avoids guessing timestamped filenames. bundle --name ... also publishes; omit --name to build only.

Interactive publishing without targets asks whether to bind a native build after upload; declining only stores the artifact. Non-interactive publishing requires --targets, --packageId or --packageVersion.

Channels come from native metadata, defaulting to default. Upload --channel asserts identity without rewriting it. Standalone uploads/publishes create missing channels. A channel/native-version pair cannot have conflicting JS fingerprints; buildTime stays an opaque string.

Multi-channel CI/CD

Create targets.json, with one independent deployment per entry:

[
  { "channel": "default", "packageVersion": "1.0.0", "rollout": 10 },
  { "channel": "huawei", "packageVersion": "1.0.0", "rollout": 30 }
]

Set RNU_SERVICE_URL in CI and inject PAKTA_API_TOKEN from your secret store, using a personal token created in account settings. Validate the built artifact’s targets, then publish:

pakta publish .pakta/output/android.ppk --platform android --targets targets.json --dryRun --no-interactive
pakta publish .pakta/output/android.ppk --platform android --targets targets.json --name fix-001 --sourcemap .pakta/intermedia/android/index.bundlejs.map --no-interactive

--dryRun does not upload, create channels or write packages/deployments. A target’s rollout overrides the global value, falling back to 100%. Save the returned packageId and deploymentIds for exact retries:

pakta publish --deploymentIds DEPLOYMENT_ID_1,DEPLOYMENT_ID_2 --platform android --no-interactive

Command reference

Purpose	Commands
Account	login, logout, me
Apps	createApp, apps, selectApp, deleteApp
Channels	channels, createChannel, updateChannel, deleteChannel
Native builds	uploadApk, uploadAab, uploadIpa, uploadApp, packages, deletePackage
Inspect	parseApk, parseAab, parseIpa, parseApp, extractApk
OTA	bundle, publish, versions, update, updateVersionInfo, deleteVersion
Patches	hdiff, hdiffFromApk, hdiffFromIpa, hdiffFromApp, registerPdiff
Diagnostics	symbolicate, cache, cache clean

Local hdiff* commands only generate patches; register exact native-build patches separately with registerPdiff. Full options: cli.json.

Advanced usage

Hermes & sourcemaps

bundle generates sourcemaps by default and composes the final Hermes map. Archive it with publish --sourcemap, then symbolicate:

pakta symbolicate stack.txt --platform android --hash UPDATE_HASH

The hash comes from the SDK’s getUpdateMetadata().currentVersion. Alternatively use --versionId, or - to read the stack from stdin.

Hermes defaults to --hermesBase auto; use none to disable it or pass a .hbc/.ppk/.apk/.ipa path. --verifyHermesBase checks readable disassembly and then raw HBC operands against complete binary strings, constants, function references and control-flow targets. Unknown or unreadable layouts fail closed and fall back to plain compilation; patch size depends on your build. The probe, verification and compiler/sourcemap subprocesses have bounded deadlines (30/120/300 seconds), configurable with PAKTA_HERMES_PROBE_TIMEOUT_MS, PAKTA_HERMES_VERIFY_TIMEOUT_MS and PAKTA_HERMES_COMPILE_TIMEOUT_MS. See Hermes base verification.

For Sentry, configure platform sentry.properties, use @sentry/react-native/metro for matching bundle/map Debug IDs, and use the bundle publishing flow for automatic uploads. Legacy Sentry accepts explicit --sentry-release and --sentry-dist, matching runtime values.

Provider API

Install a development dependency when importing the API in build scripts:

npm install --save-dev rn-update-cli

Configure service and authentication first. Place this in an async function or a module supporting top-level await:

import { CLIProviderImpl } from 'rn-update-cli';

const provider = new CLIProviderImpl();
const bundle = await provider.bundle({
  platform: 'android',
  output: '.pakta/output/android.ppk',
  sourcemap: true,
});
if (!bundle.success) throw new Error(bundle.error);

const release = await provider.publish({
  filePath: '.pakta/output/android.ppk',
  sourcemap: '.pakta/intermedia/android/index.bundlejs.map',
  platform: 'android',
  name: 'fix-001',
  targets: 'targets.json',
});
if (!release.success) throw new Error(release.error);

Methods return CommandResult; check success before consuming data. Full interfaces: src/types.ts.

Connect your own service

The default backend is https://pakta.yoghourt.space; the CLI appends /admin/api/v1. To use another deployment:

export RNU_SERVICE_URL=https://YOUR_HOST

PowerShell:

$env:RNU_SERVICE_URL = 'https://YOUR_HOST'

Credentials are scoped by service URL.

Environment variables and CLI automatic updates

Variable	Purpose
RNU_SERVICE_URL	Standalone service URL
PAKTA_API_TOKEN	Personal access token for CI
NO_INTERACTIVE=true	Disables prompts
RNU_LANG	Optional language override: zh/zh-CN selects Chinese; any other value selects English. If unset, the CLI uses LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LANG, then the system locale.
RNU_DEBUG=1	Prints error stacks
HTTPS_PROXY / HTTP_PROXY / NO_PROXY	Proxies; lowercase names supported
PAKTA_CACHE_DIR	Hermes base cache directory
PAKTA_HERMES_PROBE_TIMEOUT_MS / PAKTA_HERMES_VERIFY_TIMEOUT_MS / PAKTA_HERMES_COMPILE_TIMEOUT_MS	Hermes probe, equivalence verification and compiler/sourcemap deadlines in milliseconds
RNU_AUTO_UPDATE=0	Disables background updates

Global installations can update in the background after a successful command, retaining their package manager, registry, authentication, proxy and global prefix. CI, local dependencies and npx installs are not modified. Alternatively set RNU_DISABLE_AUTO_UPDATE=1, or select npm, pnpm, yarn or bun with RNU_AUTO_UPDATE_PACKAGE_MANAGER.

---

MIT · Copyright (c) 2026 Yoghourt Technology(BeiJing) Company Limited.