App Management

Device Cloud provides several ways to manage your application binaries during test execution.

App Binary Options

You can pass your application binary in any of these ways:

1. As the first argument

dcd cloud ./path/to/your/app.apk flows/

2. With --app-file

dcd cloud --app-file ./path/to/your/app.apk flows/

3. Using a previously uploaded binary

dcd cloud --app-binary-id 67894274-b789-4c1e-80d4-da8998998999 flows/

Get a binary ID from an earlier run, or upload the binary on its own with dcd upload:

dcd upload ./path/to/your/app.apk

4. From an Expo build URL (iOS only)

dcd cloud --app-url "<signed-expo-build-url>" flows/

The URL must point to an Expo iOS simulator build (.tar.gz). The CLI downloads the archive and extracts the .app inside it. Expo signed URLs expire after about an hour.

Supported file types

File	Platform
.apk	Android
.app	iOS simulator build
.zip	iOS: a zip containing exactly one .app
.tar.gz	iOS: an Expo simulator build archive, extracted automatically

Binary Management

SHA Hash Checking

By default, Device Cloud checks the SHA hash of your binary to avoid redundant uploads (it will automatically work out the app-binary-id for you). Encrypted uploads (the default) are only matched against your earlier encrypted uploads, so a binary you previously uploaded unencrypted is uploaded once more the first time it's encrypted. To override:

dcd cloud --app-file ./app.apk flows/ --ignore-sha-check

Use this when:

• You need to force a re-upload of the same binary
• You're experiencing hash verification issues

Retention

Uploaded binaries are deleted after 1 month without use. After that, runs that reference the binary's ID fail, so upload the build again.