android-release-validation_skill

Overview

This skill validates Android release builds before publishing to ensure production readiness and catch ProGuard/R8 issues. It builds release APK/AAB, verifies signing and mapping files, runs smoke/E2E tests on the release artifact, and analyzes APK contents and sizes. The goal is to prevent obfuscated-code regressions and release-time surprises.

How this skill works

The skill performs a mandatory prerequisite check for a connected device or emulator, then runs a clean release build (APK and AAB) with ProGuard/R8 enabled. It verifies signing, ensures a non-empty ProGuard mapping file exists, analyzes APK/AAB contents and sizes, and executes connected Android tests against the release build to detect runtime issues introduced by minification. It produces a validation report with findings and recommendations.

When to use it

• Before uploading an AAB/APK to Play Console or distributing to testers
• When enabling or updating ProGuard/R8 rules or minification settings
• As part of a release pipeline to gate production deploys
• When changing signing keystores or updating certificates
• If release artifacts grow unexpectedly in size

Best practices

• Always run the mandatory device/emulator check; connectedAndroidTest requires a device
• Use testBuildType = "release" so tests run against the actual release build
• Keep keystore credentials secure and validate certificate expiry well before release
• Maintain and commit proguard-rules.pro and verify mapping file generation every release
• Enable resource shrinking and inspect large resource files to reduce APK size

Example use cases

• CI pipeline step that blocks publishing if smoke tests fail on the release APK
• Manual pre-release checklist for QA engineers to confirm signing and mapping files
• Diagnosing crashes in production by confirming mapping file availability and format
• Detecting regressions caused by R8 removing classes used via reflection
• Size regression detection when adding large assets or native libraries