Distribute your apps

When you’re ready to share your Forge app with users, you’ll need to enable sharing for your app in the developer console. This generates a link that you can share with users to install your app on their Atlassian site.

Use this method to share your apps for internal use, or to test your apps before listing them on the Atlassian Marketplace.

You can stop sharing your app at any time.

Start sharing your app

1. Using the Forge CLI, deploy your app to the production environment.

2. In the developer console, choose the app you want to share.

3. Select Distribution in the left menu, and under 'Distribution controls', select Edit.

4. Select the Sharing option, fill in the app details, and select Save changes.

5. Select which Atlassian products you want your user to install your app onto.

   • This affects where users can install your app. For example, if you select both Jira and Confluence, your user can only install it on sites running both Jira and Confluence.
   • You must tell your user to install it on both products; otherwise, it won’t work as expected.
   • The Atlassian Marketplace does not support cross-context apps yet.

6. Copy the installation link and send it to your user. Remind them to keep the link somewhere safe, as they'll need it to update or uninstall the app in the future.

When your user visits the link, an installation screen appears, similar to the one below. It displays information about your app, including the permissions your app is requesting. From here, your user can choose a site and product to install your app onto.

Restrict installation links

If you want to restrict or change who can install your app, you can generate a new installation link. This disables the previous installation link.

Users with the previous link will no longer be able to install your app. However, if they've already installed your app, they can continue to use it, and update it when you release new versions.

1. In the developer console, choose the app you want to generate a new link for.

2. Select Distribution in the left menu.

3. Next to the installation link, select Generate new link.

   If no link appears, check that sharing is enabled for your app.

4. A modal appears. If you’re happy to continue, select Generate new link.

Stop sharing your app

If you want to stop sharing your app with users, you must disable sharing in the developer console.

1. In the developer console, choose the app you want to stop sharing.
2. Select Distribution in the left menu, and under 'Distribution controls', select Edit.
3. Select the Not sharing option, then select Save changes.

Your app is no longer being shared. This has the following effects:

• Users with the installation link will no longer be able to install your app.
• Users who have already installed your app can continue to use it. However, they can't update the app when you release new versions.

You can start sharing your app again any time.

Share an app update

You might want to deploy a new version of your app that includes updated scopes. Once you've deployed the new version to the production environment using the Forge CLI, users can either:

• Update the app through the Universal Plugin Manager (UPM).
• Select the installation link you previously sent to them, and under the 'Installations' tab of the installation screen, select Update.

If needed, you can copy the installation link from the developer console and send it to them again.

Distributing an app update to existing installations (Preview)

After deploying a new major version of your app, you might want to upgrade all installations of the app on an eligible older major version to the newer one.

You can use the Forge CLI to start, cancel and list these bulk major version updates, without site admin approval, with forge version bulk-upgrade.

Requirements for eligibility

Currently, major version updates may require users and admins to re-consent or review the changes before upgrading. For an update to be eligible for bulk distribution, it should adhere to the following criteria:

• The app must remain within the same environment.
• The target version must be greater than the source version.
• The new major version must not introduce new scopes or egress permissions. The following changes are eligible for bulk upgrades:
  • Removal of scopes
  • Addition of the sql module
• The new major version’s licensing information must remain unchanged.

Limitations of the bulk upgrade feature

• Apps are limited to one concurrent bulk upgrade per environment.
• Developers will be limited to one concurrent bulk upgrade per Atlassian account.
• During preview, there will be a global limit enforced on global concurrent bulk upgrades.

List your app on the Atlassian Marketplace

If you've finished testing your app, and want to provide or sell it to a large customer base, see Listing Forge apps on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Cross-context apps

Currently, the Atlassian Marketplace doesn't support cross-context apps. If you have built an app that is compatible with multiple contexts and would like to distribute it via the Atlassian Marketplace, you'll need to create separate Forge apps using the same code base, and publish two separate listings on the Marketplace.

We have recently announced an EAP for cross-context apps to allow select users to try out the developer experience of creating apps that work across multiple contexts. This includes apps with modules from multiple products, and apps that make cross-product API calls. For details on how to sign up for the EAP, see the [changelog announcement].

This EAP is exclusively for the experience of creating cross-context apps. Distribution for apps created as part of this EAP is not supported.

Developing for Atlassian Government Cloud

This content is written with standard cloud development in mind. To learn about developing for Atlassian Government Cloud, go to our Atlassian Government Cloud developer portal.