Building an app is just the start. Publishing it to the App Market puts it in front of everyone using Caffeine — they can browse it, remix it into their own projects, and like it. It is the fastest way to share your work, grow an audience, and contribute to the creator community.
Publishing is available to all users on a paid Caffeine plan.
What a published listing includes
When you publish an app, you create a listing that other users can discover. A listing includes:
- App name and short description (shown in browse views and search results)
- Full description (shown on the app detail page)
- An app icon (shown in browse views and on the detail page)
- A thumbnail image (shown in browse views and on the detail page)
- A category (one of: Education, Games, Productivity, Shopping, Social Networking, Travel)
- Optional tags to help users find your app
- A link to remix the app directly into a new project
Your listing is attached to your creator profile — a public page that shows all your published apps along with your bio and social links.
Requirements before you can publish
Paid subscription
Publishing requires an active paid Caffeine subscription (Starter, Plus, or Pro). The number of active apps you can have in the App Market at one time depends on your plan tier. This quota counts only your apps that are currently in review or published — draft, suspended, and archived apps do not count toward the limit. If you reach your plan's limit, you will need to archive or unpublish an existing listing, or upgrade your plan, before you can submit another.
Confirmed email address
Your Caffeine account email must be verified before you can publish.
A live app
The app you want to publish must be deployed as a live app on the Internet Computer network — not just a draft. Go Live from the Caffeine builder before starting the publish flow.
Setting up your creator profile
Every publisher has a creator profile — a public page showing your apps and a short bio. Your profile is created automatically the first time you enter the publish flow or visit the App Market as a creator. It starts as private.
Before you can submit an app for listing, your creator profile must be set to public. You will be prompted to do this inline when you first publish. You can also set your profile to public or private at any time from your creator profile page.
When you make your profile private, all your published apps are removed from the App Market immediately.
You can customize your creator profile at any time: add a subtitle, write a bio, upload a profile picture and banner image, and add links to your social profiles (up to six).
The publish flow
Step 1 — Open the publish flow
You can start the publish flow from three places:
- App Market sidebar — click Publish on app market in the left navigation panel of the App Market.
- Caffeine builder — click Publish app from within your project.
- Creator profile — click Publish app from your creator profile page.
Select the project you want to publish.
Step 2 — Make your creator profile public
If your profile is still private, you will be asked to make it public before continuing. This is a one-time step.
Step 3 — Fill in your listing details
Complete all required fields:
- App name — up to 50 characters. This is how your app appears in browse views.
- Short description — up to 100 characters. Shown in cards and search results.
- Long description — up to 1000 characters. Shown on the app detail page.
- Category — choose the one that best fits your app.
- Thumbnail image — a 16:9 image (1920×1080 recommended), JPEG or PNG, up to 7 MB.
- App icon — a required icon image (JPEG or PNG, up to 2 MB). The icon represents your app in browse views and on the detail page. You can upload one or generate one with AI (1 credit per generated image).
- Tags — optional, up to 6. Use tags to describe what your app does so users can find it.
Generating listing content with AI
A Generate with AI button appears at the top of the listing form. Clicking it fills in your short description, full description, category, and tags automatically based on your app. If you have already entered content in any of those fields, you will be asked to confirm before the AI overwrites them. If Caffeine does not have enough information about your project yet, the auto-fill will show an error message instead of generating content.
Adding a thumbnail and app icon
The image section has two tabs — Thumbnail and App Icon.
Thumbnail tab
Drag and drop or click Upload to choose an image file from your device (JPEG or PNG, 16:9 ratio, up to 7 MB). A Homepage snapshot button is also available: it captures a screenshot of your app's deployed homepage and uses that as the thumbnail.
App Icon tab
The app icon appears alongside your app name in browse views and on the detail page. You can set it in two ways:
- Upload — click Upload to choose an image file from your device (JPEG or PNG, up to 2 MB).
- Generate with AI — click Generate with AI to let Caffeine create an icon based on your project. This costs 1 credit per generated image. Generation runs in the background and the icon updates automatically when ready. You can only have one generation job running at a time.
An app icon is required before you can submit your listing.
Step 4 — Acknowledge the terms
Check the acknowledgement box confirming that you have the rights to publish the app and that it complies with the App Market guidelines.
Step 5 — Submit for review
Click Publish to the App Market. A confirmation dialog appears. Confirm to submit your app for review.
After you submit, Caffeine runs an automated content scan on your app. Your listing shows as In Review while the scan is in progress. Once the scan completes:
- If the scan passes, your app is automatically published and becomes visible in the App Market. You will receive a notification in your AI Assistant confirming that your app has been published.
- If the scan does not pass, your app is suspended instead of published. You will receive a notification in your AI Assistant explaining that the app has been suspended.
App suspension from content review
If the automated content scan on your app does not pass, your app is moved to Suspended instead of being published. You will receive a notification in your AI Assistant. A suspended app is not visible in the App Market and cannot be remixed by other users.
From the app's detail page, a suspended app shows Suspended in the state badge. The only action available for a suspended listing is to permanently delete it from the App Market — suspended listings cannot be unpublished or archived. If you believe your app was suspended in error, contact Caffeine support.
Creator account suspension
In rare cases, the Caffeine team may suspend a creator account for a policy violation. If your creator account is suspended:
- Your profile badge shows Suspended.
- All your App Market listings are suspended and are no longer visible in the App Market.
- You cannot publish new apps or edit your creator profile.
- You will receive a notification in your AI Assistant explaining that the account has been suspended.
If you believe a suspension was made in error, contact Caffeine support.
When a suspension is lifted, your creator profile returns to private. Your previously suspended app listings remain suspended — they are not automatically restored to the App Market. You will need to resubmit them for review if you want them to be visible again. Suspended listings can be permanently deleted if you choose.
Managing your listing
Finding your listing's current status
When you open one of your own app's detail pages in the App Market, a badge in the top-right of the creator row shows the current state of that listing: Draft, In Review, Published, Suspended, or Archived. This lets you confirm the listing's status at a glance without having to navigate to your creator profile.
Editing a published app
To update your listing — description, thumbnail, tags, or the app code itself — go to your creator profile, find the app, and click Edit. You can update any metadata field. You can also choose to update the listing to your latest draft version if your code has changed since you first published. Save your changes to resubmit.
Managing from the app detail page
You can perform most listing management actions directly from the app's detail page in the App Market, not just from your creator profile or edit page. Open the detail page for one of your own apps and click the More button (the three-dot icon in the action row) to see the options available for that listing's current state:
- Published — Unpublish, Copy share link, Archive, Go to chat
- Draft — Publish, Archive, Go to chat
- Archived — Publish, Move to draft, Go to chat
- Suspended — Delete from the App Market, Go to chat
Go to chat opens the original project in the Caffeine builder so you can continue working on or updating the app.
Archiving a listing
Archiving is a reversible way to remove an app from the App Market without permanently deleting it. You can archive a published app or a draft listing. From your creator profile, the app's edit page, or the app's detail page, click Archive. The app is immediately removed from the App Market and is no longer visible or remixable by other users, but the listing data is preserved. You can move an archived app back to draft at any time and republish it later. Archived apps do not count toward your plan's App Market quota, so archiving an active app frees up a slot.
Unpublishing
Unpublishing moves a published app back to draft state. From your creator profile, the app's edit page, or the app's detail page, click Unpublish. The app is immediately removed from the App Market and is no longer visible or remixable by other users. Your listing data is preserved — you can republish it later. Like archiving, unpublishing frees up a slot in your plan's quota, since draft apps do not count toward the limit.
Deleting a listing
Permanently deleting a listing removes it from the App Market entirely and cannot be undone. You can only delete a listing that has been suspended by the Caffeine team — it is not possible to directly delete a draft, published, or archived listing. If you want to permanently remove an active or draft listing, archive it first. Deleted listings are permanently gone and do not count toward your plan's quota.
Frequently asked questions
Which plans allow publishing?
Any paid plan — Starter, Plus, or Pro. Publishing is not available on the Free plan.
How many apps can I have in the App Market?
The number depends on your plan. Only apps that are currently in review or published count toward the limit — draft, suspended, and archived listings do not. If you reach your limit, you can archive or unpublish an active app to free up a slot, or upgrade your plan to increase the limit.
Does my app need to be live before I can publish it?
Yes. The app must be deployed as a live app. A draft-only project cannot be published to the App Market.
What image format should my thumbnail be?
JPEG or PNG, 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920×1080 pixels recommended, up to 7 MB. You can also use a snapshot of your app's homepage — the Homepage snapshot button is available in the Thumbnail tab of the listing form.
Can the AI fill in my listing details for me?
Yes. Click Generate with AI at the top of the listing form and the AI will fill in your short description, full description, category, and tags based on your app. If you have already entered content in those fields, you will be asked to confirm before anything is overwritten.
How much does AI app icon generation cost?
1 credit per generated icon. You can also upload your own icon image at no credit cost.
What image format should my app icon be?
JPEG or PNG, up to 2 MB. The icon appears alongside your app name in browse views and on the app detail page. An app icon is required — you must upload one or generate one with AI before you can submit your listing.
Can I run multiple image generation jobs at the same time?
No. You can only have one generation job in progress at a time. If you try to start another while one is already running, you will see an error asking you to wait for the current job to finish.
How long does AI app icon generation take?
Generation runs in the background after you click Generate with AI. The icon preview updates automatically when the job completes. Results typically arrive within a minute, though timing can vary.
Can I update the app code after publishing?
Yes. When editing your listing, enable the "Update to latest draft version" toggle to replace the published code with your current draft. Other users who remix your app after the update will get the new version.
What happens when someone remixes my app?
They get a copy of your app's code and assets as a new project in their account. No data from your live app is included — only the application code is cloned.
Can I see how many people have liked or remixed my app?
Yes. Your creator profile shows like and remix counts for each of your published apps. The app's detail page also shows the current remix and like counts.
Where can I manage my listing — archive, unpublish, or publish?
You can manage your listings from your creator profile, the app's edit page, or directly from the app's detail page. On the detail page, click the three-dot More button in the action row to see the options available for that listing's current state.
What happens to my App Market listings if I downgrade to the Free plan?
Your listings are not automatically removed, but you will be unable to publish new ones. Only in-review and published apps count toward your quota. If your active listing count exceeds the limit of your new plan, you will need to archive or unpublish listings to bring the count within the new limit before you can publish another.
Can I have more than one creator profile?
No. Each Caffeine account has one creator profile. All your published apps appear on the same profile page.
What happens during the automated content review?
After you submit your app, Caffeine automatically scans it to check for content that violates App Market guidelines. While the scan runs, your app shows as In Review. When the scan finishes, your app is either published automatically or suspended. You receive a notification in your AI Assistant either way.
What are the App Market guidelines?
Apps must be your own work or something you have the rights to publish. Apps must not contain inappropriate content, malicious code, spam, or misleading information. Apps that violate the guidelines can be removed. You confirm compliance when you acknowledge the terms during the publish flow.
What does it mean if my creator account is suspended?
A suspended creator account cannot publish new apps, edit the creator profile, or perform any creator actions. All existing App Market listings are suspended and hidden from the App Market. You will receive a message in your AI Assistant when this happens. If you think the suspension is a mistake, contact support. When the suspension is lifted, your profile returns to private and your listings remain suspended until you resubmit them.