Branches and build configurations
Important
Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.
After you connect your repository, you can configure continuous integration for any of your repository's branches. In App Center Build, your branches are the origin of setting up a build. For every branch you can configure whether you want to build on every push, or only when you manually queue a build.
You can see the respective instructions to configure your build for iOS, Android, Windows (UWP), macOS, Xamarin, and React Native.
You may face a situation where you already have a branch that's configured in your repository and you have a similar branch for which you want to apply the same configuration. In this case, you can clone the existing configuration: You can either click on the more dropdown when hovering over an unconfigured branch in the list and select "Clone build configuration", or select the branch and on the overview select "Clone build configuration" on the Configure menu.
From there, you can select the configured branch from which to clone the definition.
A clone copies:
- The configuration from your origin branch to your target branch, such as the selected project and configuration, the trigger to build (automatic or manual)
- All signing configurations and credentials
- All environment variables and build scripts
If you want to use your source branch only as a template and edit individual settings, you can always edit the cloned build configuration after creating it.
Note
App Center doesn't mirror changes between the original and cloned build configurations. When cloning the build configuration of a branch, you'll end up with a new build configuration for your target branch that's independent from the original.