App Store

The in-Möbius browser for discovering, installing, and updating Möbius mini-apps. Lives at github.com/mobius-os/app-store.

What it is

A Möbius mini-app whose job is to install other Möbius mini-apps. It pulls a curated catalog from the mobius-os organization and can also install any public manifest URL — paste the URL, preview the manifest, confirm permissions, install.

The store is meta: it's an app whose Install button hits the atomic POST /api/apps/install endpoint with a manifest URL or manifest preview. The backend fetches the entry file, compiles it, seeds storage, uploads the icon, writes the editable source tree, and registers any cron schedule as one transaction.

How it's installed

The first time a Möbius container boots, the entrypoint script clones github.com/mobius-os/app-store and installs it via the standard manifest install path — same code path users will trigger from inside the store later. After that bootstrap, the store can update itself + install any number of community apps.

See Möbius ticket 061 for the bootstrap details.

The curated catalog

The default catalog is a hardcoded list of mobius-os/app-* repos in constants.js. Browse renders immediately from generated manifest snapshots, then refreshes the live discovery index and each app manifest in the background. The remote catalog.json never embeds version-coupled manifests, so publishing an app release does not require an App Store catalog change. Install and update actions always send the live manifest_url to the backend, so a snapshot is never treated as install authority.

Browse cards use the catalog's concise discovery summary when available and fall back to the manifest description. Summaries are capped at 52 characters on a word boundary; the complete manifest description remains in app details. Catalog entries can declare a curated collection: Everyday, Create, Explore & learn, Play, or Build & run Möbius. Entries without one fall back to their audience and categories, so new apps still land somewhere sensible.

Naming convention

Manifest id == repo name minus the app- prefix == lowercased display name; renames set previous_id so installs migrate in place rather than duplicating.

Adding a new curated app

1. Publish your app as mobius-os/app-<id> (public, MIT or compatible). Repo must contain a valid mobius.json per the manifest spec.
2. Add the entry to CATALOG in constants.js and catalog.json.
3. Run npm run refresh-catalog to validate every live manifest and refresh the baked first-paint snapshots. This never writes manifests into the remote discovery index.

If you don't want PR-curation, that's fine too — anyone can install your app from a mobius.json URL using the From URL tab, no PR required.

Publishing an app update

Shipping a new version of an app that's already in the catalog is just a repo push — you never touch this repo:

1. Push your changes to the app repo (mobius-os/app-<id>).
2. Bump the version in that repo's own mobius.json. That version is human-facing: it's what the store shows on the card and in the Update to vX button.

Update detection is git-native: the backend compares each installed repo's actual content with upstream, so an update can surface even when the version string did not move. The snapshots keep first paint fast and resilient; refresh them when publishing Store changes, but app installation and updating still resolve the live manifest URL at click time.

Permissions

The store requests only manage_apps: true so it can install apps. It does not request cross_app_access — seeding storage into a newly-installed app's own scope is done server-side by the installer, so the store never needs cross-app write. It also does not request share_with_apps (other apps cannot read the store's storage).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.