Gplay Customapps

gplay customapps (managed Google Play private apps)

One experimental command, customapps create. It creates a Custom app, a private Android app distributed to one organisation through managed Google Play. This is the only Play Developer API path that creates an app record (public apps can only be created in the Play Console). Shared conventions (auth, output, exit codes, --dry-run/--confirm) are in gplay-cli-usage.

Create a custom app

# Rehearse first, validates inputs + artifact, no HTTP, reports the gate:
gplay customapps create ./app-release.aab \
  --title "Acme Internal" --default-language en-US --dry-run

# Live (irreversible), requires --confirm:
gplay customapps create ./app-release.aab \
  --title "Acme Internal" --default-language en-US --confirm

# Restrict to specific organizations (repeatable; omit to default to the
# organization linked to the developer account):
gplay customapps create ./app-release.aab \
  --title "Acme Internal" --default-language en-US \
  --organization 04f4m6gc --organization 7e9k2p1 --confirm

--title and --default-language (BCP 47, e.g. en-US) are required; the artifact path is a positional AAB or APK. --output json mirrors the created CustomApp verbatim, including the output-only packageName Google assigns; capture it, since there is no read endpoint to look it up later.

Irreversible: the named safety gate

The API exposes no delete (and no read: no get, no list), so a created custom app permanently occupies the account. create is therefore the destructive/irreversible tier: it requires the named --confirm flag.

• Missing --confirm on the live path → exit 3, naming the flag. CI=true never auto-confirms; gplay never auto-confirms (the flag is the only way).
• --dry-run rehearses with zero HTTP and, with --output json, emits a requires array (["confirm"]) so an agent learns the gate before hitting it. Read requires, add --confirm, re-run.
• GPLAY_READONLY refuses the live write (exit 4); --dry-run is exempt.

Capability + enrollment

The Developer account must be enrolled in managed Google Play, and the service account must hold the account-level CAN_CREATE_MANAGED_PLAY_APPS capability (never bundled into a role). If either is missing, the API returns 403 and gplay surfaces an agent-resolvable refusal naming both, enroll in managed Google Play and grant the capability in the Play Console (Users & permissions), then retry.

Developer account addressing

Custom apps live on the developer-account axis (accounts/{account}), not a package; the app does not yet exist to be keyed by a package name. The account id resolves through the gplay cascade (later wins): the active Account's developer-id → .gplay/config.local.json → GPLAY_DEVELOPER_ID → --developer-id <id>. An unresolved id fails with exit 10. This is the same addressing gplay team uses (ADR-0015).