LlamaCasty/Distribution.md

Distribution & release mechanics

How the build becomes a file someone installs. Policy — prices, entitlement, which channels exist and why — is docs/ai/commercial.md. This file is the how.

The previous version of this document was a 736-line Polar/MSIX/obfuscation plan. It was superseded on 2026-10-31; the reasoning that still matters lives in commercial.md and docs/ai/decisions.md, and the full text is in git log -- Distribution.md.

1. The artifact

One self-contained single-file exe plus the bundled ffmpeg folder, zipped. No .NET install on the target machine, no installer framework, no admin rights.

dotnet publish ytLive.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true \
  -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true \
  -p:PublishReadyToRun=true

• PublishTrimmed stays OFF. Trimming breaks WPF's XAML reflection (Binding, DataTemplate, StaticResource). The exe is therefore fat — expect ~110–150 MB compressed with the runtime inside, and that is the accepted cost of "copy it and run it".
• ffmpeg stays outside the exe — ffmpeg\ beside it (already the app's locator contract, see output.md → "FFmpeg locator"). Embedding it passes 200 MB and adds an extraction step for no benefit.
• WebView2 is the one machine dependency: the Evergreen runtime ships with Windows 11 and most Windows 10; a genuinely clean machine needs the bootstrapper once. Say so in the download note.
• AssemblyName is still ytLive → the shipped exe is ytLive.exe today. The rename to LlamaCasty.exe is queued (three pack URIs break — see product.md), and until it lands every release note names the real file.

Portable mode. A portable.txt marker beside the exe keeps the layout DB, Assets and settings in .\data\ instead of %APPDATA%\ytLlive (hung off LayoutPathOverride). Same binary, USB-stick behaviour, nothing to uninstall.

2. Release

publish → zip → SHA-256 → GitHub Release → winget manifest PR → update notice

1. Tag and publish. v<major>.<minor>.<patch> tag; attach LlamaCasty-<version>-win-x64.zip to the GitHub Release. Binaries live there, never on the droplet — free CDN, durable URLs, release notes in the same place, and wingetcreate reads releases/latest natively.
2. Record the hash. sha256sum the zip; it goes in the winget manifest and in the release notes. This is the anti-tamper wall: the official channel delivers exactly this artifact or fails.
3. winget. wingetcreate update LlamaCasty.LlamaCasty --version <v> --urls <release-url> --submit — it opens the PR against microsoft/winget-pkgs. Manifest shape: InstallerType: portable, InstallerSha256, NestedInstallerType where the zip nests the exe. First submission is wingetcreate new; the identifier is LlamaCasty.LlamaCasty.
4. Update notice. Write the current version into a small version file on the site (or read releases/latest from the GitHub API). The app shows one line — "v1.4 is out — winget upgrade LlamaCasty.LlamaCasty". Nothing downloads or executes: that is Store policy 10.2.2 and a permanent no (see product.md).
5. Optional mirrors. Scoop (a small JSON manifest hosted in a bucket) and Chocolatey (a nupkg with a checksum) — ten minutes each, same audience.
6. MSIX stays buildable for the parked Store channel: scripts/package-msix.sh → artifacts/LlamaCasty.msix, submitted nowhere until the Individual account exists.

3. Signing

Azure Trusted Signing, ~$9.99/month — Microsoft-issued, individuals eligible after identity verification, and it accrues SmartScreen reputation without buying a certificate.

signtool sign /v /fd SHA256 /tr http://timestamp.acs.microsoft.com /td SHA256 `
  /dlib "Azure.CodeSigning.Dlib.dll" /dmdf "metadata.json" LlamaCasty.exe

• ⛔ No EV certificate. Microsoft removed the EV SmartScreen instant-bypass in March 2024, so EV ($400+/yr) buys exactly what OV (~$150–300/yr) buys — and a bought cert is a 460-day recurring line item whose key must live on an HSM or hardware token.
• No certificate at all is the interim state: ship unsigned and accept the "unknown publisher" line. winget spares the browser prompt, not the publisher line, so signing is what makes the channel feel legitimate — the reason it is in the year-one budget.
• Signing never clears the warning on day one — only download volume does. Plan for weeks.
• Secrets: the Trusted Signing profile lives in CI secrets; never commit a .pfx or metadata.json with credentials. MSIX_PFX/MSIX_PFX_PASSWORD are for local test installs only.
• Verify every release: signtool verify /pa /v <file>, and confirm the hash in the manifest matches the uploaded zip.

4. Release checklist

• Build clean, 0 warnings (./scripts/verify.sh), full test suite green.
• signtool verify /pa passes on the shipped exe.
• Launch on a clean Windows profile: first-run works, recording writes where it claims, ffmpeg is found beside the exe, WebView2-loaded UI renders.
• Fresh install through winget install LlamaCasty.LlamaCasty on a second machine, then winget upgrade over the previous version.
• ZIP hash published; manifest PR merged; version notice updated.
• Portable mode: portable.txt present → data lands in .\data\, deleting the folder deletes the app's footprint.

5. Legal and takedown

• LICENSE (EULA) forbids redistribution, resale, reverse-engineering and circumvention, and disclaims warranty. It is what makes a mirror site a licence breach rather than a grey area.
• PRIVACY.md must name any third party the app contacts — today that is Google/YouTube, ffmpeg is local, and Polar is added the day licence validation ships.
• THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt stays shipped and shown in About; the ffmpeg pin stays lgpl-shared, and no GPL component may be linked (see product.md → "Licensing").
• DMCA: statutory damages need a registration ($65), and a takedown needs only the notice — host, link, good-faith statement, signature. Worth doing once there is something to pirate.
• What actually protects the product is in commercial.md → "Anti-piracy posture": signed hash-pinned delivery, short leases, a free tier good enough that a crack buys nothing, and a licence ID in About. Not obfuscation, not a native DLL, not hardware locking.

6. Effort, once

Step	Effort
Publish profile + portable mode	0.5 day
GitHub Release + hash + version notice	0.5 day
First winget manifest (wingetcreate new)	0.5 day, then ~15 min per release
Azure Trusted Signing profile + CI step	0.5 day
Clean-machine + winget smoke test	0.5 day