dispatch init

Initialize your Expo project for OTA updates. This is an interactive command that connects your local project to an AppDispatch project.

Usage

dispatch init

Run this from your project root (where app.json lives).

Prerequisites

• You must run dispatch login first
• Your project must have an app.json file

What it does

1. Prompts you to select a project from your AppDispatch dashboard
2. Installs dependencies:
   • expo-updates via npx expo install
   • @expo/fingerprint via npm install --save-dev
3. Patches app.json with the required update configuration:

   {
     "expo": {
       "updates": {
         "url": "https://api.appdispatch.com/v1/ota/manifest/<project-uuid>",
         "enabled": true,
         "checkAutomatically": "ON_LOAD"
       },
       "runtimeVersion": {
         "policy": "fingerprint"
       }
     }
   }

4. Creates .dispatch/config.json with your project UUID and slug
5. Adds .dispatch/ to .gitignore

After init

You’re ready to publish your first update:

dispatch publish --channel production -m "initial release"