Channels: create, promote, visibility

A channel is a named track (like latest or nightly) that points at a current build. Create it, choose its engine, move its pointer, and set who can see it.

Create

A channel must exist before anything can be promoted to it. The default engine is Cargo:

nightship channel create latest --server https://builds.example.com

For a Tide channel, create it in the app (Admin → Channels → Create → Tide) or let a CI push register it with --register. The engine is a create-time choice and is locked once builds exist. See Storage engines: Cargo vs Tide.

Screenshot — the Create channel dialog with the Cargo / Tide engine picker

Creating a channel and choosing its engine, in the app.

Promote

Promoting moves a channel’s pointer to a specific build — that’s how a release goes live, and how you roll back:

nightship promote latest <build-id>
nightship promote latest --from beta

Visibility: public vs private

Channels are private by default — only entitled tokens can read them. A channel can be made public, so anyone can follow and download it without a token; public channels are marked with a globe. Set visibility in the desktop Admin page’s channel detail, or from the CLI:

nightship channel public latest true      # false makes it private again

Public suits open betas and demos; keep NDA builds private.

Screenshot — a channel’s detail: current build, Promote, and the Visibility toggle

Promote and visibility from the Admin page.

Delete

Remove a channel from the Admin page. For a Tide channel, you can also delete it and reclaim its storage from the CLI:

nightship-tide channel delete <channel>
nightship-tide gc --delete

channel delete removes the channel’s manifest; the following gc --delete sweeps the chunks no live build references any more.

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