At a Glance:
Capgo is an open-source Capacitor live update and bundle management system, providing an official self-hostable alternative to Ionic Appflow with channel-based distribution, rollback support, and delta updates.
Overview:
Capgo is a live update management console and distribution platform for Capacitor applications. It allows developers to push instant over-the-air updates to their iOS and Android apps without going through app store review cycles. The platform provides bundle management with channel-based distribution, enabling different update streams for production, staging, or individual device debugging. Capgo functions as the official open-source alternative to Ionic Appflow, offering both a cloud-hosted option and full self-hosting support through its Supabase backend. The system includes a Vue 3 web console for managing updates and a Capacitor plugin that handles update delivery, delta patches, and secure bundle verification on end-user devices.
Key Decision Points:
Self-hosting pathway: The
supabase/directory contains the complete backend, with Supabase as the primary and required component for self-hosted deployments. Cloudflare Workers is provided as an optional cost-optimization layer for high-traffic scenarios.Plugin API scope: The plugin endpoints (
updates,stats,channel_self) run inside the Capacitor app and handle device-specific update checks, usage stat collection, and channel assignment for QA or debugging individual users.Channel-based distribution: Updates are assigned to channels rather than pushed globally, allowing developers to manage separate release streams and target specific devices by overriding the channel assignment.
Backend endpoint separation: The API is split into public (programmatic customer access), private (web console admin workflows), plugin (in-app device communication), and trigger (scheduled and DB-triggered automation) endpoints with distinct access scopes.
Core Features:
Bundle management: Upload, assign to channels, and manage Capacitor app bundles through the web console or API.
Channel support: Create and manage multiple distribution channels for different environments, with the ability to set a specific channel for individual devices.
Delta updates: Only download changed files between bundle versions when pushing updates to devices.
Rollback: Revert to the last known working bundle when an incompatible update has been distributed.
Auto update: Automatically download and set the latest bundle for the application.
Deployment statistics: View analytics about update distribution and device adoption through the console.
Use Cases:
App developers managing over-the-air updates for Capacitor applications who want to bypass app store submission delays for content or configuration changes.
Development teams that need separate release channels for production, staging, and QA environments.
Developers seeking a self-hosted alternative to Ionic Appflow with full control over their update infrastructure using a Supabase backend.
Open-Source Alternative Value:
Capgo is positioned as an official open-source alternative to Ionic Appflow, providing comparable live update capabilities under the AGPL license. The platform supports full self-hosting through its Supabase backend, allowing developers to run the entire update infrastructure on their own servers. The project includes the same backend code used in its production cloud offering, exposed through the supabase/ directory as the primary self-hosting path, with an optional Cloudflare Workers layer available for operators who need to optimize for cost at scale. Developers can also interact programmatically with the platform through its public API endpoints for managing apps, bundles, channels, and devices.
