Great question—this is a common pain point for white-label app developers since Fastlane's Supply doesn't handle initial public app creation out of the box. Here's how you can automate the end-to-end workflow:

First, clarify: the Custom App API you referenced is for private apps only, but the standard Google Play Developer API supports creating new public apps via the Apps.insert endpoint. You can pair this with Fastlane to build a full automated pipeline.

Step 1: Set Up API Access #

• Create a service account in your Google Cloud Project with either the Owner or App Manager role in the Google Play Console.
• Download the service account's JSON key file and store it securely (e.g., play-store-key.json in your repo, or use environment variables to avoid hardcoding).

Step 2: Automate App Creation #

Fastlane doesn't have a built-in action for creating new apps, so you have two straightforward options:

Option A: Custom Ruby Script in Fastlane #

Add a lane that uses Google's official API client gem to call the Apps.insert endpoint:

lane :create_new_app do
  require 'google/apis/androidpublisher_v3'
  require 'googleauth'

  # Initialize the API client
  android_publisher = Google::Apis::AndroidpublisherV3::AndroidPublisherService.new
  android_publisher.authorization = Google::Auth::ServiceAccountCredentials.make_creds(
    json_key_io: File.open("play-store-key.json"),
    scope: 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/androidpublisher'
  )

  # Define your app's core details
  app_details = Google::Apis::AndroidpublisherV3::App.new(
    title: "My New Public App",
    package_name: "com.example.mynewapp",
    default_language: "en-US"
  )

  # Send the request to create the app
  response = android_publisher.insert_app(app_details)
  puts "App created successfully! Draft status confirmed: #{response.draft}"
end

Option B: Use Fastlane's google_play_api Action #

Fastlane's built-in google_play_api action lets you make direct API calls without writing full Ruby scripts:

lane :create_new_app do
  google_play_api(
    api_version: 'v3',
    endpoint: 'apps',
    http_method: 'post',
    params: {
      "title": "My New Public App",
      "packageName": "com.example.mynewapp",
      "defaultLanguage": "en-US"
    },
    json_key: "play-store-key.json"
  )
end

Step 3: Upload Build & Metadata with Supply #

Once the app is created (it may take 1-2 minutes for the Play Console to register it), use your standard Supply lane to push the AAB/APK and metadata:

lane :upload_to_play do
  supply(
    package_name: "com.example.mynewapp",
    json_key: "play-store-key.json",
    track: "internal",
    aab: "path/to/app-release.aab",
    metadata_path: "fastlane/metadata"
  )
end

Step 4: Chain Lanes for a Single Workflow #

Combine the steps into one lane to run the full automation with a single command:

lane :deploy_new_app do
  create_new_app
  # Add a short delay to ensure the app is ready in the Play Console
  sleep(30)
  upload_to_play
end

Key Notes #

• Permissions: Double-check your service account has the right roles—without App Manager or Owner, the API will reject your app creation request.
• Draft Status: The app starts in draft mode. You can automate moving it to public via the API's tracks.update endpoint once you're ready, or handle it manually after review.
• Retry Logic: If you hit race conditions where Supply can't find the app immediately, add retry logic to the upload_to_play lane instead of a fixed sleep.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者omri tal