A miniapp is a bundle that runs on the user’s phone: there’s no server to host, no domain, no uptime to manage. Distribution means producing that bundle and getting it installed. There are three ways to get a miniapp onto a device, from quickest to widest reach.
Looking for the @mentra/sdk cloud SDK? Apps used to be cloud-hosted servers built with @mentra/sdk. They’re now built on-device with the Mentra Miniapp SDK (@mentra/miniapp), which these docs cover. The older cloud SDK docs live at mentraglass.com/legacy.

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1. Dev install (you, iterating)

While you’re building, mentra-miniapp dev serves your project over the LAN with hot reload. Scan the QR from the Mentra App and your changes reload on save. This is the inner loop; see the Quickstart. Dev mode is not an installation: the computer and CLI must remain running to serve each miniapp’s runtime bundle. The Mentra App keeps a separate dev entry for each manifest package name and caches its name and icon, so you can scan and test multiple dev miniapps together. Rescanning the same package updates that entry. Use a release install when you want the miniapp to run without the computer.

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2. Release install (sharing a build over LAN)

To put a real, installed build on one or more phones without going through the Mentra Miniapp Store, run:
This builds, packs, and serves the bundle behind a miniapp://release QR. Anyone on the same network can scan it to install. The miniapp installs on the device, runs offline, and persists across restarts: no laptop required once it’s installed. Great for testers, demos, and dogfooding. Each install is logged in your terminal, and the server stays up so multiple devices can install from the same QR.

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3. Store submission (reaching everyone)

To reach users who aren’t on your network, publish to the Mentra Miniapp Store. The artifact is the ZIP produced by:
Submit build/<packageName>-<version>.zip through the Developer Console. Make sure your miniapp.json is accurate before you pack: its hardwareRequirements decide which glasses can see your miniapp, and its permissions drive the OS prompts users see.
Camera, photo, and live-streaming features run through the on-glasses Bluetooth stack, not a cloud server. See the Bluetooth SDK docs for those workflows.

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Versioning

Bump version in miniapp.json for every release you distribute. The CLI names the artifact <packageName>-<version>.zip, and installed miniapps are stored per version (lmas/<package>/<version>/), so a new version installs cleanly alongside or over the old one.

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Next steps

CLI reference

dev, release, and pack in detail.

The manifest

Get permissions and hardware requirements right before you ship.