Troubleshooting

This page collects the questions that come up most often when running apps in Apptrope, along with practical fixes. Each answer points you to the exact control or setting involved, so you can get back to running your app quickly. If you hit something that isn’t covered here, check your app’s per-run logs first (the ⋯ menu on the app card → View logs). The live output usually names the problem directly.

The keychain keeps prompting me for permission

Symptom: Every time you run an app or open the Environment… editor, your operating system asks for permission to access the keychain.

Apptrope stores per-app environment variables and secrets in your OS credential store (Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows, Secret Service on Linux). A signed release build prompts once and then remembers its access grant. Repeated prompts almost always mean you’re running a development or unsigned build, where the OS can’t persistently authorize an unsigned binary.

Fix: In a debug/unsigned build, Apptrope can keep secrets in a local secrets.json file (created with 0600 owner-only permissions) instead of the keychain, which avoids the repeated prompts. You can force the backend explicitly with an environment variable:

# Use the local file backend (no keychain prompts)
APPTROPE_SECRET_STORE=file

# Or force the OS keychain
APPTROPE_SECRET_STORE=keychain

A few things worth knowing:

  • The file backend is intended for local development convenience. For everyday use, install a signed release and let the keychain handle secrets. You’ll only be prompted the first time.
  • Secrets are never placed inside a shared .apptrope bundle regardless of which backend you use, so switching backends does not affect what you share.

R can’t be found

Symptom: An R-based app (for example, a Shiny for R app) fails to start because no R installation was located on your system.

Apptrope resolves each R app’s packages with rv, but it still needs an R toolchain to run against. If you don’t have system R installed, Apptrope can provision a portable R for you via micromamba, with no system-wide install and no changes to your existing setup.

Fix: Provision the portable R toolchain using the Portable R installed / Remove control at the bottom of the window. Once the portable R is in place, re-run your app. The first run resolves and locks the app’s environment, and later runs reuse it.

If you later want to reclaim the space or switch to a system R, use the same control’s Remove action to uninstall the portable toolchain.

The app’s port is already in use

Symptom: An app fails to start, and the logs mention that its port or address is already in use.

This usually means another process (often a previous run of the same app that didn’t fully shut down, or an unrelated program) is already listening on the port the app wants.

Fix:

  • Close the other tab/run. Each app runs in its own tab and environment. If you have the same app open in more than one tab, close the extra tab so the port is released.
  • Check for a leftover process. If a prior run didn’t exit cleanly, the old process may still be holding the port. Quit it, then re-run.
  • Free up the conflicting program. If a different application is using that port, stop it (or wait for it to finish) before launching the app.

After the port is free, run the app again from its Library card or the Run bar.

How do I check for updates?

Apptrope is a download-only desktop app, currently at version 0.1.0. To make sure you’re current, check the version shown in the app and compare it against the latest download. Running the current signed release also gives you the best secrets experience (a single keychain prompt rather than repeated ones).

How do I clear stored secrets?

Symptom: You want to remove saved credentials, for example after rotating an API token, handing off a machine, or cleaning up test data.

Fix: Open the Publishers panel from the top bar and use Clear stored secrets. This removes the secrets Apptrope has saved for you.

Related notes:

  • Per-app environment variables are edited from each app card’s ⋯ menu → Environment…, where values are masked with a reveal toggle.
  • Because secrets are excluded from bundles, clearing them affects only your local machine. It never changes anything you’ve already exported or shared.

Still stuck?

When an app misbehaves, the fastest path to a diagnosis is the app’s own output:

  1. Open the app card’s ⋯ menu and choose View logs to see the full captured output for that run.
  2. If the environment looks wrong, use ⋯ → Environment… to review the variables set for that app.
  3. Re-run the app. The first run resolves and locks its isolated environment, and subsequent runs reuse it, so a clean re-run often clears transient issues.