Changelog

New tools for managing projects, generating icons, and fixing builds#

Today's release adds several features that make Stora smarter about your project and more capable of handling problems on its own.

Context Manager#

The new Context Manager (ENG-145) gives you a central place to configure project-level settings that flow through every Stora feature. Set your app's target audience, tone of voice, brand colors, and key selling points once — and every AI-generated asset (screenshots, metadata, compliance suggestions) will reflect those settings automatically.

AI App Icon Generation with Gemini#

Stora can now generate app icons using Google's Gemini model (ENG-144). Describe what you want, pick a style (flat, 3D, gradient, minimal), and Stora generates multiple options that meet Apple and Google's icon specifications — correct dimensions, no transparency on iOS, proper safe zones, and rounded corner handling.

Build Repair Agent#

The build repair agent (ENG-143) monitors your builds and automatically diagnoses common failures. When a build fails due to a known issue — missing provisioning profile, expired certificate, incorrect build settings — the agent suggests a fix and can apply it with one click. This catches the problems that waste hours of developer time and usually have straightforward solutions.

API Key Management and MCP Configuration#

The new settings page at /settings lets you create, rotate, and revoke API keys for the REST API. Each key can be scoped to specific permissions (read-only, screenshots, compliance, publishing). The page also provides copy-paste MCP configuration for connecting Stora to Claude Code.

Landing Page Overhaul#

The marketing site has been rebuilt with a mega-menu navbar, dedicated product pages for each feature area (screenshots, compliance, publishing), and a new pricing page. The design is cleaner, faster, and better communicates what Stora does for developers who are discovering it for the first time.

Developer Documentation#

A full documentation site is now live at /docs with:

• MCP server reference — Every tool, its parameters, and example usage with Claude Code
• REST API reference — OpenAPI-style documentation for all endpoints with request/response examples
• Getting started guides — Step-by-step tutorials for common workflows
• Authentication — How API keys work, scopes, and rate limits

The docs are built into the main app, so they stay in sync with the product automatically.

The biggest Stora update yet#

This is a landmark release. Stora is no longer just a web app — it is now a platform with a public API, an MCP server for AI-powered development workflows, and the ability to use the entire product without ever connecting a GitHub repository.

Stora MCP Server#

Stora now ships an open-source MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with 10 tools that plug directly into Claude Code. This means you can manage your entire app store presence from your terminal, inside your existing AI coding workflow.

# Install the MCP server
npm install -g @stora/mcp-server

# Add to your Claude Code config
claude mcp add stora -- npx @stora/mcp-server

Available tools include creating projects, generating screenshots, running compliance checks, uploading binaries, and submitting to the App Store — all callable by Claude Code as part of a natural conversation.

REST API v1#

The new REST API opens Stora to any integration. Authenticate with an API key and access every core feature programmatically:

• POST /api/v1/projects — Create and manage projects
• POST /api/v1/screenshots/capture — Trigger screenshot generation
• GET /api/v1/compliance/{projectId} — Run compliance checks
• POST /api/v1/builds/upload — Upload IPA/APK binaries
• POST /api/v1/publish — Submit to App Store or Google Play

API keys are managed from the new settings page with granular permission scopes.

Binary-Only Mode#

You can now use Stora without connecting a GitHub repository. Upload your .ipa or .apk file directly, and Stora will analyze the binary to extract metadata, detect permissions, identify frameworks, and generate compliance reports.

This unlocks Stora for teams using private CI/CD pipelines, enterprise build systems, or any workflow where source code access is not available. The binary analysis engine extracts:

• App permissions and entitlements
• Linked frameworks and SDK versions
• Bundle identifier, version, and build number
• Privacy manifest declarations (iOS 17+)

Magic Link Authentication#

Sign up and log in with just your email address. No GitHub account required. Magic links are sent via email and expire after 15 minutes. This pairs with binary-only mode to make Stora accessible to non-developer roles like product managers and QA engineers.

Compliance System v2#

The compliance engine has been rewritten with 40+ rules covering both App Store and Google Play requirements:

• Permission sequence checking — Verifies that your app requests permissions in the correct order (e.g., showing a purpose string before the system prompt).
• Account deletion tracing — Confirms that apps offering account creation also provide a discoverable account deletion flow, as required by both stores since 2024.
• AI-powered analysis — Uses Claude to analyze screenshots and metadata for policy violations that rule-based checks would miss.
• Google Play Console deep validation — Checks data safety declarations, content ratings, target audience settings, and store listing completeness against Google's latest requirements.
• Pre-submission readiness checklist — A single dashboard showing every blocker and warning before you hit submit.

Build Management#

A new build management tab provides an Expo-like dashboard for tracking your app's builds:

• View build history with status, version, and timestamps
• Upload new builds directly from the browser
• Track which build is attached to which release
• Monitor processing status after upload to App Store Connect

Project Version Tracking#

Stora now tracks your app's version history across submissions. See which version is live, which is in review, and which is in preparation — with full metadata diffs between versions.

Additional Fixes#

• Character limits on generated metadata — AI-generated titles, subtitles, and descriptions now strictly respect App Store and Google Play character limits.
• Age rating always configured — The age rating questionnaire is now required before submission, preventing a common rejection reason.
• Screenshot config UX — Improved the screenshot configuration flow with better device selection, locale management, and preview layouts.
• Apple ID session persistence — Your App Store Connect session is now persisted securely, enabling one-click publishing without re-authenticating each time.

Ship to the App Store without leaving Stora#

The new App Store Connect Submission Hub brings the entire release workflow into Stora. Connect your Apple Developer account once, then manage versions, fill out metadata, and submit for review — all from a single interface.

What shipped#

• Full submission hub — A dedicated workspace for managing your App Store Connect submissions. View your app's current status, create new versions, and submit for review without switching to Apple's portal.
• Credential encryption — Store connection credentials (App Store Connect API keys, Google Play service accounts) are encrypted at rest using AES-256. Keys are never stored in plaintext.
• Release wizard — A step-by-step flow for creating new releases: set the version number, attach a build, fill in release notes, configure phased rollout, and submit. The wizard validates everything before submission so you catch issues early.
• AI auto-fill for age ratings — Stora analyzes your app's content and source code to pre-fill the age rating questionnaire. It also detects whether your app uses encryption (for HTTPS, cryptographic APIs, etc.) and fills the export compliance section accordingly.
• App review information tab — Add demo account credentials, review notes, and attachments that Apple's review team needs — all stored securely and pre-filled on subsequent submissions.

Design improvements#

• Unified input/textarea design — Every text input across the platform now uses a consistent style: rounded-xl corners, dark background, subtle border. This applies to the submission hub, screenshot editor, and settings pages.
• Welcome modal redesign — The onboarding modal has been updated to match the Spawnlabs design language with a white logo and cleaner copy.

Why it matters#

The average developer spends 30-45 minutes per submission clicking through App Store Connect's labyrinthine UI. The submission hub reduces that to under 5 minutes. Combined with AI-powered age ratings, most of the tedious form-filling is handled automatically.

Stability improvements and operational fixes#

A focused update on reliability and operational tooling.

• Auto-cleanup of stale runner jobs — Jobs that hang due to runner crashes or network issues are now automatically detected and cleaned up. No more phantom "in progress" states blocking new captures.
• Tier override for manual upgrades — Added admin tooling to manually set account tiers, useful for enterprise onboarding and promotional upgrades outside of Stripe.
• Billing portal error handling — Fixed edge cases where the Stripe billing portal would fail silently when a customer's subscription was in an unexpected state. Errors now surface clearly with actionable next steps.
• Demo video updates — Refreshed the onboarding demo videos to reflect the current UI and workflow.

A smarter screenshot pipeline and a new project dashboard#

The screenshot capture experience has been rebuilt from the ground up, and the project dashboard now surfaces the information that actually matters.

What shipped#

• Redesigned project dashboard — The new layout leads with status: build health, screenshot freshness, and compliance score are all visible at a glance. No more digging through tabs to figure out where your project stands.
• Claude Haiku for ASO — App Store Optimization metadata generation has switched from GPT-4o to Claude Haiku. The new model analyzes your app's actual source code to generate more accurate, contextual keywords and descriptions.
• Capture method toggle — Choose between live device capture and simulator-based capture directly from the screenshot wizard. Simulators are faster for iteration; live devices produce pixel-perfect results for submission.
• Locked bundle IDs — Once a project's bundle identifier is set and connected to App Store Connect, it can no longer be accidentally changed. This prevents a class of submission failures caused by mismatched identifiers.

Why it matters#

The switch to Claude Haiku with source code analysis means Stora understands what your app actually does, not just what you tell it. ASO suggestions are more specific, more relevant, and require less manual editing before submission.

A round of polish across the platform#

This update focuses on fit and finish — the kind of work that does not get its own launch post but makes the product noticeably better to use every day.

What shipped#

• UI polish — Platform tags, modal transitions, and dashboard layout improvements. Small things that add up: better spacing, consistent typography, and smoother interactions throughout the app.
• Flutter capture pipeline fixes — Resolved issues with dynamic screen dimensions during Flutter app capture and fixed SSH session flushing that was causing stale frames. Flutter apps now capture as reliably as native Swift/Kotlin projects.
• Credential cleanup — Continued the security work from last month by removing the last hardcoded credentials from build and capture scripts.

These changes ship quietly but they make the difference between a tool that feels rough and one that feels solid.

Scaling screenshot capture with multi-runner provisioning#

Stora's capture pipeline just got a major upgrade. Instead of relying on a single runner to process jobs sequentially, the platform now provisions multiple runners in parallel with full health monitoring.

What shipped#

• Multi-runner provisioning — Capture jobs are distributed across available runners with automatic health checks and heartbeat synchronization. If a runner goes down, Stora detects it and reroutes work.
• Explore-once-replay-everywhere (V2 capture flow) — Stora captures your app's screens once, then replays across every device size and locale. This dramatically reduces capture time for apps targeting multiple device types.
• Per-device status tracking — Each device in a capture job now reports its own status independently. Partial success is supported — if one device fails, the rest still complete.
• Job status polling with SSE fallback — Real-time status updates stream over Server-Sent Events, with automatic fallback to polling if the connection drops.
• Security hardening — Removed hardcoded credentials from 17 scripts across the runner fleet. All secrets are now injected via environment variables at runtime.

Why it matters#

Screenshot generation for a typical app (6 device sizes, 3 localizations) used to take 15+ minutes. With parallel runners and the replay-everywhere flow, the same job completes in under 3 minutes. The security cleanup also means the runner codebase is safe to open-source down the line.

The beginning of Stora#

Today we are shipping the first version of Stora — a platform built to automate the painful parts of shipping apps to the App Store and Google Play. This initial release lays the groundwork for everything that follows: cloud orchestration, screenshot generation, and intelligent metadata optimization.

What shipped#

• Cloud orchestrator with Socket.io job dispatch — Stora now manages remote runners that capture real device screenshots on demand. Jobs are dispatched over WebSockets with full status tracking and interactive prompt forwarding across the cloud.
• Device mockup compositing — Generated screenshots are automatically framed inside pixel-perfect iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy device bezels. No more fiddling with Photoshop templates.
• Inspiration gallery — Browse real App Store screenshots from top apps to find layout and design inspiration before generating your own.
• E2E testing with Playwright — The platform ships with end-to-end test coverage from day one, ensuring reliability as we iterate fast.

Why it matters#

Publishing an app should not require a design degree. Stora handles the visual and metadata busywork so you can focus on building your product. This foundation — cloud runners, compositing, and job orchestration — is the infrastructure every future feature builds on top of.