CI and automation¶

Feather works in a pipeline, but not all of it does. This page covers what to install, which commands make sense without a terminal, and where the release gate goes.

Pick an install path¶

curl -fsSL -o feather \
  https://github.com/Kyonru/feather/releases/download/v4.0.0/feather-cli-linux-x64-4.0.0.bin
chmod +x feather
./feather --version

npm install -g @kyonru/feather@4.0.0

Pin the version either way. Feather releases each component on its own train, so @kyonru/feather@4.0.0 is independent of the desktop app and runtime versions.

Install LÖVE¶

Feather drives LÖVE; it does not replace it. A runner needs it too, plus xvfb for anything headless that opens a window.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y love xvfb

Commands that belong in CI¶

build takes a platform subcommand, not a flag: love, web, android, ios, windows, macos, linux, steamos.

feather build linux
feather build android

Commands that do not¶

feather run and feather watch expect a live game process and a Feather desktop app on the other end of the WebSocket. Neither exists on a build runner, so they will not do anything useful there. Use them locally.

The release gate¶

doctor --production is the check to fail a pipeline on. It fails when the project is configured in a way that should not ship:

• unsafe or development-oriented config,
• an embedded debug runtime in a release build,
• hot reload persisting to disk,
• Console exposed,
• replay and debug artifacts left in the tree,
• missing signing or upload dependencies for the target you asked about.

feather doctor --production --json > doctor.json || {
  echo "Feather production checks failed"
  cat doctor.json
  exit 1
}

Add --target <platform> to include build and upload dependency checks for that platform, and --release with it for mobile release signing checks.

For a security-focused report, feather doctor --security --json emits a sterile report with no secrets in it — safe to archive as a build artifact.

Run non-interactively¶

The CLI has an Ink-based interface for humans. In a pipeline it needs to be told not to wait for anyone:

• Pass --yes to anything destructive. These refuse to proceed without it when there is no TTY, rather than guessing:

  Command	Without --yes
  feather upload	Refuses, and requires an explicit target
  feather remove	Refuses to remove Feather files
  feather package remove	Refuses
  feather plugin remove	Refuses

  That refusal is deliberate. It is what stops a pipeline silently deleting a runtime or a dependency.

• package install has its own gate. Installing an experimental or unreviewed source needs --allow-untrusted non-interactively, and repairing lockfile entries does too. A pipeline that hits this should be fixed by reviewing the package, not by adding the flag reflexively.

• Prefer --json where it exists (doctor, upload, init) so a step can parse the result instead of scraping human output.
• package install --dry-run reports what would change without writing, which is useful as a drift check on a pull request.

A worked example¶

name: Ship

on:
  push:
    tags: ["game-v*"]

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install LÖVE
        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y love xvfb

      - name: Install Feather
        run: |
          curl -fsSL -o /usr/local/bin/feather \
            https://github.com/Kyonru/feather/releases/download/v4.0.0/feather-cli-linux-x64-4.0.0.bin
          chmod +x /usr/local/bin/feather

      - name: Restore Love2D dependencies
        run: feather package install

      - name: Verify package checksums
        run: feather package audit

      - name: Production checks
        run: feather doctor --production --target linux --json

      - name: Build
        run: feather build linux