Rollout & Cohorts

Overview

Hot Updater uses cohorts to decide whether a device is eligible for a bundle.

• Every install gets a persisted numeric cohort from 1 to 1000.
• npx hot-updater deploy -r <percentage> maps 1..100 to those numeric cohorts.
• Omitting -r uses 100, which is a full rollout.
• -r 0 is also valid when you want to deploy a bundle without exposing it to numeric rollout yet.
• Custom cohorts such as qa, dogfood, or vip-testers can be assigned directly on the device.

Gradually Roll Out a Bundle

Use -r during deploy:

npx hot-updater deploy -p ios -r 10
npx hot-updater deploy -p ios -r 25
npx hot-updater deploy -p ios -r 100

• -r 10 targets 100 of 1000 numeric cohorts.
• -r 25 targets 250 of 1000 numeric cohorts.
• -r 100, or omitting -r, targets the full audience.

Hot Updater keeps the selected numeric cohort set stable per bundle. That means increasing a bundle from 10% to 25% expands the same bundle's eligible set instead of reshuffling everyone.

See the Current Cohort on Device

Every device already has a cohort, even if you never call setCohort(). You can read it at runtime with HotUpdater.getCohort():

import { HotUpdater } from "@hot-updater/react-native";
import { Text } from "react-native";

export function CohortStatus() {
  return <Text>Current cohort: {HotUpdater.getCohort()}</Text>;
}

Numeric values such as 17 or 900 participate in percentage rollout. Custom values such as qa or dogfood are useful when you want explicit targeting.

Assign a Custom Cohort on a Device

Use HotUpdater.setCohort() when you want to place a device in a named group:

import { HotUpdater } from "@hot-updater/react-native";

function assignQaCohort() {
  HotUpdater.setCohort("qa");
  console.log("Active cohort:", HotUpdater.getCohort());
}

• Valid values are numeric 1..1000 or lowercase slugs such as qa and vip-testers.
• Hot Updater normalizes the value before storing it.
• The assigned cohort is persisted on the device until you change it again or clear app data.

Target Specific Cohorts from the Console

If you want to ship a bundle to a known set of devices, deploy the bundle first, then edit it in the console:

npx hot-updater deploy -p ios -r 0
npx hot-updater console

In the bundle editor:

1. Open the deployed bundle.
2. Set Rollout Percentage if you want numeric rollout.
3. Add one or more values under Target Cohorts (optional).
4. Click Save Changes.

Target Cohorts accepts both numeric cohorts like 17 and custom cohorts like qa.

Example:

Device cohort: qa
Bundle rollout: 0.0%
Target Cohorts: qa
Result: only devices in the qa cohort receive the bundle

Recommended QA Flow

1. Read the current cohort on the tester device with HotUpdater.getCohort().
2. If needed, assign a known cohort such as qa with HotUpdater.setCohort().
3. Deploy the bundle with hot-updater deploy -r <percentage>.
4. Open the console and add that value to Target Cohorts.
5. Save the bundle and check for updates on the device.

Related APIs

• HotUpdater.getCohort()
• HotUpdater.setCohort()
• Deploy
• Console