Cometchat Flutter V6 Production

Ground truth: loginWithAuthToken and logout are catalog-verified against 6.1.0. Token MINTING is a server-side REST call — its exact endpoint is FETCHED from the REST API docs, never guessed. The dev-vs-prod credential rule is RULES.md §4.

Companion skills (read first)

• cometchat-flutter-v6-core — install, credentials, init→login→render, lifecycle.md. This skill ASSUMES it.
• cometchat-flutter-v6-patterns — where config comes from in your build pipeline.

Use this skill when

Hardening before release: "is the Auth Key safe to ship", "set up production auth", "what do I check before shipping".

Prerequisites & install

Core done. No new package.

The one thing that actually matters: the Auth Key must not ship

An Auth Key can log in as ANY user of your app. Everything core writes for development puts it in cometchat-settings.json, which is bundled into the APK/IPA — and a bundle is not a secret. Anyone can extract it.

Development (what core wired): credentials.authKey in the settings asset → CometChatUIKit.login(uid). Fine for building; never for release.

Production (what you must move to):

1. Your server mints a per-user auth token by calling CometChat's REST API with the REST API Key (which stays on the server, never in the app).
2. Your app authenticates the user your normal way, then asks YOUR backend for that token.
3. The app signs in with the token:

dartCopy code
import 'package:cometchat_chat_uikit/cometchat_chat_uikit.dart';

Future<void> signIn(String authTokenFromYourServer) async {
  await CometChatUIKit.loginWithAuthToken(
    authTokenFromYourServer,
    onSuccess: (User user) {},
    onError: (CometChatException e) {},
  );
}

4. Remove credentials.authKey from the shipped settings file. Confirm by unzipping the release artifact and grepping for the key — do not take it on trust.

Fetch the exact token-minting endpoint from the REST API docs (../cometchat-flutter-v6-core/references/docs-map.md → SDK/REST). Never invent a URL or payload.

Session hygiene

• Log out properly — CometChatUIKit.logout() on your app's sign-out, and unregister the push token FIRST (-push), or the next user of the device receives the previous user's notifications.
• One user per session. login no-ops if that UID is already signed in, but switching users requires an explicit logout first.
• Token expiry — a server-minted token can expire; handle the login error by refetching from your backend rather than falling back to the Auth Key.

Release build config

• Android — minSdk 26 (the docs' 24 is too low — the kit's cometchat_calls_sdk dependency pins 26); INTERNET permission; calling adds camera/mic. If you use R8/ProGuard, verify the kit still works in a release build, not just debug.
• iOS — deployment target per the docs; usage-description strings for camera/mic/photos, or the OS kills the app on first use.
• Settings asset — a registered asset, so NOT gitignored (a fresh clone / CI flutter build fails with "No file or variants found for asset"): commit a placeholder (no real Auth Key) and have CI overwrite it at build time with the prod-flavoured file (no Auth Key).
• Flavors — dev and prod should point at different CometChat apps; do not test against production data.

Pre-ship checklist

1. No Auth Key in the release artifact (verified by inspection, not assumption).
2. loginWithAuthToken is the only login path in prod code.
3. Logout clears the session and unregisters push.
4. Permission strings present on both platforms.
5. Release build (obfuscated) actually runs — chat renders, messages send.
6. Tested against the prod CometChat app, on real devices.
7. Errors surface to the user rather than being swallowed in an empty onError.

Common pitfalls (BAKED)

• Shipping the Auth Key — the single most serious mistake here.
• Assuming --dart-define is a secret — it is compiled into the binary, same exposure.
• Only testing debug builds — obfuscation/minification problems appear only in release.
• No logout path → the session persists across users on a shared device.
• Swallowing onError → a production auth failure looks like a blank screen.
• Minting tokens in the app — that needs the REST key, which must never be in the client.

Verify it works

The release artifact contains no Auth Key; sign-in goes through your backend; sign-out clears the session and push; a release build on a real device sends and receives; an expired token produces a clean re-auth rather than a blank screen.