🎨 Aseprite Builder

Build Aseprite from source for Windows, Linux, and macOS using GitHub Actions — no manual compilation, no shady binaries, no EULA violations.

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What is this?

An automated GitHub Actions workflow that compiles Aseprite from its official source code on demand. You pick a version (or just say latest), trigger the workflow, and minutes later you have a fresh build as a draft release in your repo.

Why use it?

• 🔒 Safe — compiled directly from the official aseprite/aseprite source on GitHub runners
• 📦 EULA-friendly — binaries are published as draft releases (only visible to the repo owner), not as public artifacts
• 🎯 Version-pinned — build any released tag (v1.3.7, v1.3.14.2, etc.) or grab the latest one automatically
• ⚡ Cached — Skia dependencies are cached per-OS for faster subsequent builds

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🚀 Usage

1. Fork or clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/meitrix8208/aseprite_builder.git
cd aseprite_builder

2. (Optional) Pick your target platforms

Edit .github/workflows/aseprite_build_deploy.yml and adjust the os matrix to only the platforms you need:

strategy:
  matrix:
    os: [windows-latest, ubuntu-latest, macOS-latest]

💡 Skip this if you want all three. See build times for the cost breakdown.

3. Trigger the build

You have two options:

Option A — Manual dispatch (recommended):

1. Go to the Actions tab on your fork
2. Select Build and deploy Aseprite new version
3. Click Run workflow
4. Enter a version tag (e.g. v1.3.7) or leave it as latest
5. Hit Run workflow

Option B — Push to master: any push to the master branch triggers a build of the latest Aseprite release.

4. Grab your build

Once the workflow finishes, a draft release appears in your repo's Releases tab containing the .zip package for each OS you built. Only you (the repo owner) can see it.

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⚙️ How it works

The workflow is split into three jobs that run in sequence:

┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────┐
│  prepare-build   │ ──▶ │  build-aseprite  │ ──▶ │  create-release  │
│  (Ubuntu)        │     │  (matrix: 3 OS)  │     │  (Ubuntu)        │
└──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘     └──────────────────┘

Job 1 — prepare-build

Resolves which Aseprite version to build and extracts its metadata.

• Reads the aseprite_version input (defaults to latest)
• Queries the GitHub API for either the latest release or the specified tag
• Extracts the source zip URL and the release notes
• Fails early if the requested tag doesn't exist
• Exposes selected_tag, selected_download_url, and version_info as outputs for downstream jobs

Job 2 — build-aseprite

Runs in parallel across the OS matrix (fail-fast: false, so one platform's failure doesn't kill the others).

1. Install OS-specific dependencies
   • Windows: Ninja (via gha-setup-ninja), and strips the preinstalled OpenSSL from PATH to avoid conflicts
   • Ubuntu: g++, clang, cmake, ninja-build, and X11/GL/fontconfig dev libraries
   • macOS: ninja and p7zip via Homebrew
2. Restore Skia from cache (key: skia-<os>-m124-cache)
3. Download Skia (release m124-08a5439a6b from aseprite/skia) if the cache missed
4. Download and unzip the Aseprite source using the URL resolved in job 1
5. Configure the Visual Studio environment (Windows only, via gha-setup-vsdevenv, x64)
6. Run CMake with -G Ninja, LAF_BACKEND=skia, and the cached Skia paths
   • macOS pins x86_64 with deployment target 10.9 against the Xcode SDK
   • Windows ignores Chocolatey/Strawberry Perl paths to avoid picking up stray toolchains
7. Build with ninja aseprite
8. Clean up generator binaries (gen, modp_b64_gen, and their .exe variants)
9. Make it portable on Windows by dropping an empty aseprite.ini next to the binary
10. Package the bin/ directory as Aseprite-<tag>-<OS>.zip using 7-Zip
11. Upload the zip as a GitHub artifact (30-day retention)

Job 3 — create-release

Runs only if prepare-build succeeded (builds can partially fail and you'll still get releases for the successful ones).

• Downloads all build artifacts
• Creates a draft release tagged with the Aseprite version, containing:
  • All Aseprite-*.zip packages
  • The original Aseprite release notes as the body
• Uses allowUpdates: true, so re-running for the same tag updates the existing draft instead of failing

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🔧 Configuration at a glance

Setting	Value	Where
Build type	Release	env.BUILD_TYPE
Skia version	m124-08a5439a6b	Skia download step
LAF backend	skia	CMake flag
Windows arch	x64	VsDevCmd.bat -arch=x64
macOS arch	x86_64	CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES
macOS min target	10.9	CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET
Artifact retention	30 days	upload-artifact
Release visibility	Draft	ncipollo/release-action

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⏱ Build times

GitHub gives you 2,000 free Actions minutes per month on public repos with private forks. Each OS burns minutes at a different rate:

Operating System	Real minutes	Multiplier	Billed minutes
🐧 Ubuntu	~10	×1	10
🪟 Windows	~20	×2	40
🍎 macOS	~8	×10	80
		Total (all 3)	130

⚠️ A full three-OS build costs ~130 billed minutes. If you only need one platform, trim the matrix and you'll get ~15× more builds out of the same quota. See the GitHub Actions billing docs for details.

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📁 Project structure

aseprite_builder/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── aseprite_build_deploy.yml   # The entire build pipeline
├── LICENSE                              # MIT
└── README.md

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💚 Support Aseprite

This workflow compiles Aseprite from source, which is perfectly legal thanks to its open source code — but Aseprite is an amazing tool made by people who deserve your support. If you use it regularly, please buy a license:

👉 aseprite.org/#buy

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📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.