Skip to content
Shorebird

Getting Started

Welcome to Shorebird! 👋

In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up Shorebird and integrating it into your app in just a few minutes.

Sign up

The first thing you’ll need to do is sign up for a Shorebird account. This will allow you to use the Shorebird CLI to manage your apps.

Create an account

To create an account, head over to the Shorebird Console and authenticate with one of the available authentication methods. Once you’ve authenticated, you will have a free Shorebird account.

Next, let’s install the Shorebird CLI on your machine.

Install

Using install script

To install the Shorebird command line interface (CLI):

Open a terminal and run:

Terminal window
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shorebirdtech/install/main/install.sh -sSf | bash

This installs shorebird into ~/.shorebird/bin and adds it to your PATH. It also installs a copy of Flutter and Dart inside ~/.shorebird/bin/cache/flutter. The copy of Flutter is slightly modified to add Shorebird code push and is not intended to be added to your PATH. You can continue to use the versions of Flutter and Dart you already have installed.

Manually installing

Shorebird can also be manually installed, allowing users to choose where the installation will be placed.

In order to do so, in a terminal, inside the folder where Shorebird should be installed at, run:

Terminal window
git clone -b stable https://github.com/shorebirdtech/shorebird.git

Add the bin folder from the repository you just cloned into your PATH.

Once the installation has completed, shorebird should be available in your terminal:

$ shorebird
The shorebird command-line tool


Usage: shorebird <command> [arguments]


Global options:
-h, --help            Print this usage information.
    --version         Print the current version.
-v, --[no-]verbose    Noisy logging, including all shell commands executed.


Available commands:
  cache      Manage the Shorebird cache.
  doctor     Show information about the installed tooling.
  flutter    Manage your Shorebird Flutter installation.
  init       Initialize Shorebird.
  login      Login as a new Shorebird user.
  login:ci   Login as a CI user.
  logout     Logout of the current Shorebird user
  patch      Manage patches for a specific release in Shorebird.
  preview    Preview a specific release on a device.
  release    Manage your Shorebird app releases.
  upgrade    Upgrade your copy of Shorebird.


Run "shorebird help <command>" for more information about a command.

You can use the shorebird doctor to ensure things are setup correctly:

Terminal window
shorebird doctor

Example output:

$ shorebird doctor
Shorebird 0.18.4 • git@github.com:shorebirdtech/shorebird.git
Flutter 3.13.9 • revision 39df2792f537b1fc62a9c668a6990f585bd91456
Engine • revision e81fa131e59506d9f6af2a0cee7de749131f1bf0


✓ Shorebird is up-to-date (0.5s)
✓ Flutter install is correct (0.3s)
✓ Has access to storage.googleapis.com (0.2s)


No issues detected!

Integrate Shorebird

Once you have registered and installed the CLI, you’re ready to use code push!

Start by creating a new Flutter app:

Terminal window
flutter create my_shorebird_app

As with any Flutter app, you can verify this created the standard Counter app by following the instructions printed by flutter create:

Terminal window
cd my_shorebird_app
flutter run

Initialize Shorebird

To make this a Shorebird app, run:

Terminal window
shorebird init

This will create a shorebird.yaml file in the root of your project. This file contains your Shorebird app_id. Your app_id is not secret and can be checked into source control and freely shared.

This will also run shorebird doctor to ensure everything is set up correctly.

Create a release

We will create a release using the unmodified Counter app. Run:

Terminal window
shorebird release android

When prompted, use the suggested version number (1.0.0+1), and enter y when asked if you would like to continue.

Preview the release

To preview the release with Shorebird (that is, with Shorebird’s fork of the Flutter engine), run:

Terminal window
shorebird preview

Now kill the app on your device or emulator.

Create a patch

We will now make a small change to the Counter app. In lib/main.dart, change the app theme’s primarySwatch from blue to green:

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});


  // This widget is the root of your application.
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        // This is the theme of your application.
        //
        // Try running your application with "flutter run". You'll see the
        // application has a blue toolbar. Then, without quitting the app, try
        // changing the primarySwatch below to Colors.green and then invoke
        // "hot reload" (press "r" in the console where you ran "flutter run",
        // or simply save your changes to "hot reload" in a Flutter IDE).
        // Notice that the counter didn't reset back to zero; the application
        // is not restarted.
       primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
       primarySwatch: Colors.green,
      ),
      home: const MyHomePage(title: 'Flutter Demo Home Page'),
    );
  }
}

After making this change, save the file and run:

Terminal window
shorebird patch android

See the patch in action

Launch the app from your device or emulator. The app will still have the original blue theme, but it will be downloading the patch we just created in the background. Kill and launch the app again, and the app will be green! 🎉

Connect on Discord

Shorebird has an active Discord where we’re happy to help you with any questions https://discord.gg/shorebird