tauri-crabnebula_skill

Overview

This skill guides you through distributing Tauri v2 applications with CrabNebula Cloud, covering account setup, release pipelines, auto-update configuration, and CI/CD integration. It focuses on practical steps to publish installers, enable Tauri auto-updates, and automate releases via GitHub Actions. Followable commands and configuration snippets are provided for a reliable distribution workflow.

How this skill works

It walks through creating a CrabNebula organization and app, generating an API key, and using the CrabNebula CLI or GitHub Action to draft, upload, and publish releases. It shows how to generate Tauri signing keys, configure tauri.conf.json updater endpoints, register updater-related plugins, and implement an in-app update check. The workflow produces signed updater artifacts uploaded to a global CDN for automatic client updates.

When to use it

• You need a hosted update server and global CDN for Tauri apps.
• You want automated releases and multi-platform CI/CD for desktop builds.
• You require built-in auto-update support tied to Tauri's updater plugin.
• You want release channels (stable/beta/nightly) and download analytics.
• You need a reproducible GitHub Actions workflow for building and signing artifacts.

Best practices

• Store CN_API_KEY and signing keys as GitHub repository secrets (not environment secrets).
• Keep tauri.conf.json endpoints with {{target}}, {{arch}}, and {{current_version}} placeholders unchanged.
• Generate and reuse one signing key pair across builds; add the public key to config.
• Create draft releases before upload and ensure upload flags (channel, update-platform) match the draft.
• Use matrix builds in CI to produce platform-specific artifacts and upload them in one job.

Example use cases

• Automated nightly builds: build all platforms, upload to a nightly channel, and publish nightly releases.
• Stable release rollout: draft a stable version, run CI to sign and upload installers, then publish.
• Beta testing: create a separate CrabNebula app or channel for beta releases and configure updater endpoints accordingly.
• Seamless auto-updates: enable the updater plugin, ship public key, and check for updates on app startup.
• Cross-platform release pipeline: use GitHub Actions matrix to build Linux, macOS (arm/intel), and Windows artifacts.