F-Droid submission checklist

[digitalby]

Goal

Publish the app on F-Droid. This issue tracks every required and recommended item for a successful submission to the fdroiddata repository.

---

Required

App icon

• Replace the placeholder launcher icon (ic_launcher_foreground.xml is the default Android Studio robot template)
• Replace all raster mipmap PNGs/WEBPs (mdpi → xxxhdpi) with renders of the new icon
• Adaptive icon layers (ic_launcher_foreground.xml, ic_launcher_background.xml) must reflect the new design
• Supply a 512 × 512 px PNG in fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/icon.png

Fastlane supply metadata

F-Droid reads the fastlane supply directory structure from the repo root.

• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/title.txt — app name, max 30 chars
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/short_description.txt — one-liner, max 80 chars
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/full_description.txt — store description, max 4000 chars
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/changelogs/1.txt — changelog for versionCode 1
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/changelogs/2.txt — changelog for versionCode 2

fdroiddata submission

• Create a metadata YAML at metadata/info.yuryv.androiddebugmode.yml in a fork of fdroiddata and open a merge request. Minimum viable file:

Categories:
  - System
License: MIT
SourceCode: https://github.com/digitalby/android-debug-mode
IssueTracker: https://github.com/digitalby/android-debug-mode/issues

AutoName: Debug Mode Widget

Builds:
  - versionName: '1.1'
    versionCode: 2
    commit: v1.1
    gradle:
      - release

AutoUpdateMode: Version v%v
UpdateCheckMode: Tags ^v[0-9.]+$

• Push a signed v1.1 tag so the CI release job creates the GitHub Release the build recipe points to

README

• Update the "What it does" section to include the Running Services shortcut added in v1.1
• Add an F-Droid install badge and link once the app is accepted

---

Recommended

Screenshots

F-Droid displays screenshots if provided. At minimum, one screenshot of the widget placed on a home screen.

• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/01_widget.png

Feature graphic

• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/featureGraphic.png — 1024 × 500 px banner (optional but displayed on the F-Droid website)

---

Notes

• No anti-features detected. The app has no ads, no analytics, no proprietary dependencies, and no Google Play Services. All runtime dependencies (AndroidX Glance, Compose BOM, Kotlin) are Apache 2.0 or MIT.
• Signing: F-Droid builds from source and signs with their own key. The existing CI keystore setup is unaffected. The fdroiddata build recipe does not need signing config.
• Reproducible builds: F-Droid increasingly requires byte-for-byte reproducible APKs. This is a stretch goal for now but worth tracking: it would require pinning buildToolsVersion and ndkVersion and verifying output with diffoscope. Not blocking for initial submission.

[digitalby]

Progress from this session

App icon (closes icon item)

Replaced the Android Studio template placeholder with a real adaptive icon:

• Background (ic_launcher_background.xml): solid Material Blue 800 (#1565C0), replaces the default green with grid lines
• Foreground (ic_launcher_foreground.xml): the Material adb symbol (Android robot with antennas) in white, scaled 2.5× and centred in the 66 dp adaptive-icon safe zone

Both ic_launcher.xml and ic_launcher_round.xml already reference these layers, so both variants are updated automatically.

Still needed: The legacy raster mipmap .webp files (used on API 23–25) still show the old placeholder. Regenerate them from Android Studio → right-click res → Image Asset Studio, or export from the updated vector. The 512 × 512 fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/icon.png also needs to be generated from the same vector.

Fastlane setup

• Gemfile — pins the fastlane gem
• fastlane/Appfile — declares the package name
• fastlane/Fastfile — three lanes: test (lint + unit tests), build_debug, build_release (reads keystore from env vars, matching the existing CI approach)

F-Droid metadata

All required fastlane supply files created under fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/:

File	Content
title.txt	Debug Mode Widget
short_description.txt	73-char one-liner
full_description.txt	Full store description including Running Services
changelogs/1.txt	v1.0 release notes
changelogs/2.txt	v1.1 Running Services addition

README

• Added Running Services to "What it does"
• Added "From F-Droid: coming soon" placeholder under Installation

---

Remaining checklist items

• Export and commit fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/icon.png (512 × 512 px from the updated vector)
• Regenerate legacy mipmap .webp files for API 23–25 (Android Studio Image Asset Studio)
• Add at least one screenshot to fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/
• Push a v1.1 tag to trigger the CI release job
• Open a merge request in fdroiddata with the YAML build recipe from the issue description
• Add the F-Droid badge to README once the app is accepted

[digitalby]

Automated via 1ad1370.

Added scripts/generate_icons.py + .github/workflows/generate-icons.yml. The script converts the adaptive icon AVD XMLs to SVG at runtime and rasterises them with cairosvg + Pillow. The CI workflow triggers on any push to main that touches the drawable sources and auto-commits the regenerated assets — no manual steps required going forward.

Assets produced:

• mipmap-{mdpi,hdpi,xhdpi,xxhdpi,xxxhdpi}/ic_launcher.png + ic_launcher_round.png — replaced the old WebPs
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/icon.png — 512×512
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/featureGraphic.png — 1024×500 placeholder
• fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/01_widget.png — 1080×1920 placeholder

The feature graphic and screenshot are basic placeholders (blue canvas + app name/label). They can be replaced with real designs by dropping updated files into those paths; the generation script only writes them if you re-run it, so manual replacements won't be overwritten by CI unless you touch the vector sources again.

[digitalby]

The screenshot at fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/01_widget.png is now a real emulator capture (1080×2400) showing the widget on the home screen — not a placeholder. The automated workflow (.github/workflows/screenshots.yml) runs on every push to feature/real-screenshots and on workflow_dispatch, builds the test APK, places the widget via UIAutomator2, and commits the result. Merged in #6.

Remaining blockers before F-Droid submission:

• Signing setup (Set up 1Password service account for CI signing secrets #2): set up 1Password service account and push a signed v1.1 tag
• fdroiddata MR: fork fdroiddata, add metadata/info.yuryv.androiddebugmode.yml, open a merge request

[digitalby]

fdroiddata MR opened: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/36002

Remaining:

• Wait for F-Droid CI checks and reviewer feedback
• Add F-Droid install badge to README once accepted

[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-04-06)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-04-06T17:46:22.760Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-04-11)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-04-11T10:12:23.815Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-04-12)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-04-12T07:26:21.302Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-04-13)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-04-12T15:51:45.519Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-05-11)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-05-11T07:58:55.773Z)

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[digitalby]

check apk blocker fixed (v1.1.2)

The MR's check apk job was failing on Found extra signing block 'Dependency metadata'. The v1.1.1 attempt to disable it used the wrong Gradle property name (android.includeDependencyInfoInApks instead of the plural includeDependenciesInfoInApks), so it was a no-op and the published APK still carried the block.

Fixed via the AGP dependenciesInfo {} DSL (includeInApk = false, includeInBundle = false) in app/build.gradle.kts, removed the dead gradle.properties line, released v1.1.2 (versionCode 4).

Verified on the published app-release.apk:

• Signing block now only 0x7109871a (v2) + 0x42726577 (padding); dependency-metadata 0x504b4453 gone.
• Signer SHA-256 matches AllowedAPKSigningKeys.

fdroiddata MR #36002 recipe updated to a single clean 1.1.2 build (older dirty 1.1.0/1.1.1 builds dropped) and a comment posted asking a maintainer to re-run the pipeline. The fork-side pipeline has no runners so it fails instantly with zero jobs; only the maintainer-triggered fdroiddata pipeline validates. The daily monitor will report the next state change automatically.

[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-05-22)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-05-21T14:56:24.604Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-06-18)

MR state: opened (updated 2026-06-18T10:41:40.712Z)

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[github-actions]

F-Droid monitor (2026-06-26)

MR state: merged (updated 2026-06-25T12:01:26.436Z)

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[github-actions]

The app is now live on F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/info.yuryv.androiddebugmode/