lukotta-appcast

Lukotta update feed

Two appcasts, served over GitHub Pages at updates.lukotta.com:

Feed	Address
Release	https://updates.lukotta.com/appcast.xml
Beta	https://updates.lukotta.com/beta/appcast.xml

Lukotta checks the release feed. The beta build has its own bundle identifier and checks the beta feed, so the two can sit on one Mac without either offering the other’s updates.

Each feed has a notes directory beside it holding the release notes its entries link to. The archives are not here: they are attached to the releases in the app’s repository.

scripts/release.sh in the app’s repository writes the feed entry and the notes into a checkout of this repository, which is then committed.

Separate from the app’s repository because a GitHub Pages site carries one custom domain, and the project’s own site already uses it.

Maintaining

Fact	Value
Artefacts	appcast.xml, beta/appcast.xml, the rendered notes beside each
Channel	GitHub Pages at updates.lukotta.com, public, fixed by CNAME
Publishing	a push to main; Pages serves the tree directly, so a merge is the release
CI	none
Claims	scripts/checks.tsv: both appcasts are well-formed XML
Checking a change	fetch the served feed; it parses and its entry points at an artefact that exists
Verifying a release	fetch both feed URLs over the network; each parses; the newest entry’s artefact downloads
Request host	GitHub
Release notes	notes/<version>.html, one per version, rendered from the app repository’s releases/<version>.md
Documents	README.md; plans and research go at the root
Visibility	public

• A wrong or malformed entry reaches every installed copy on that channel at once: wrong build, downgrade, or no update.
• The two feeds are independent: a change to one is not a change to the other.
• A feed error shows only as the updater silently offering nothing: check the served feed, not the file in the tree.
• Check version, URL, length and signature against the artefact they describe, and which feed the entry is in.
• Feed validity depends on the Sparkle version the app embeds: appcast schema and signature requirements are read for that version.
• Release notes are shown in the app’s update dialog, written for that reader, never generated from a commit log.
• Audit: both feeds parse, every artefact URL resolves, the channels are not crossed, CNAME matches the domain the app asks for.
• The feed addresses in the table at the top are configured against: they do not change silently.