// the find
altstoreio/AltStore
AltStore is an alternative app store for non-jailbroken iOS devices.
AltStore is an alternative iOS app store that sideloads .ipa apps by resigning them with your own Apple ID and installing them via a companion macOS/Windows app, AltServer, over WiFi, periodically refreshing them to keep them from expiring. It's for iOS users who want tweaked apps or emulators without jailbreaking, and for developers curious about how Apple's free-developer-account sideloading actually works under the hood.
The AltStore app itself is built entirely on standard iOS frameworks (Core Data, Network.framework, Background App Refresh) rather than private APIs, so any iOS developer can read the client code without special tricks. The hard part — talking to Apple's provisioning/signing servers — is isolated in a separate AltSign submodule, keeping that fragile logic out of the UI layer. Splitting AltServer, AltDaemon, and AltJIT into separate small executables keeps the privileged macOS-side code minimal instead of one monolithic app. It's a real, long-running project with 14k+ stars and recent commits, not an abandoned experiment.
The build depends on multiple git submodules (AltSign, Roxas) plus Apple's undocumented sideloading behavior, so a compile that works today can break on the next Xcode or iOS release with no changelog to follow. Getting a working build requires manually editing Info.plist values like device UDID and server ID, which is a rough first-run experience even for an experienced iOS dev. The project is forced onto AGPLv3 by a dependency's license, which the README itself calls out as a real constraint for anyone wanting to fork or embed it. There's no visible automated test coverage for the resigning/installation pipeline, which is the single riskiest part of the app and the one most likely to silently regress.