The Goal

Push to main → GitHub Actions builds the app → submits to App Store and Play Store. No manual steps.

This is the pipeline I use for all 4 of my production apps. Total manual time per release: zero.

Prerequisites

• Expo project with eas.json configured
• EAS account (free for limited builds)
• GitHub repository
• App Store Connect API key
• Google Play service account

GitHub Actions Workflow

Create .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Build and Submit

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build-ios:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm ci
      - uses: expo/expo-github-action@v8
        with:
          eas-version: latest
          token: ${{ secrets.EXPO_TOKEN }}
      - run: eas build --platform ios --profile production --non-interactive
      - run: eas submit --platform ios --profile production --non-interactive

  build-android:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm ci
      - uses: expo/expo-github-action@v8
        with:
          eas-version: latest
          token: ${{ secrets.EXPO_TOKEN }}
      - run: eas build --platform android --profile production --non-interactive
      - run: eas submit --platform android --profile production --non-interactive

Required Secrets

In GitHub → Settings → Secrets:

Secret	Where to Get It
EXPO_TOKEN	expo.dev → Account → Access Tokens
App Store Connect API key	Configured in EAS
Google Play service account	Configured in EAS

EAS stores the App Store and Play Store credentials. You only need the EXPO_TOKEN in GitHub.

How I Actually Use This

My workflow:

1. Develop on a feature branch
2. Test on Expo Go or development build
3. Merge to main
4. GitHub Actions runs automatically
5. 20 minutes later: builds submitted to both stores
6. 24-48 hours later: apps are live (after store review)

No Xcode. No Android Studio. No manual uploading.

Optimizations

Only Build When App Code Changes

Add path filters to avoid building on docs-only changes:

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - 'apps/mobile/**'
      - 'packages/**'
      - 'package.json'

Parallel Builds

iOS and Android builds run in parallel (separate jobs). Total time is the slower of the two, not the sum.

Version Auto-Increment

With "autoIncrement": true in eas.json, build numbers increment automatically. No manual version bumping.

Cost

• EAS free tier: 30 builds/month. Enough for most indie developers.
• EAS priority builds: $99/month if you need faster builds.
• GitHub Actions: free for public repos, 2,000 min/month for private.

Related

• Expo EAS Build — the build service details
• Mobile Deployment Complexity — what this automates
• How to Submit to App Store — the manual version