CI/CD for an Android + Gradle + Robolectric App with GitHub Actions

Run Robolectric JVM tests without an emulator, lint, and assemble the APK.

Robolectric runs Android unit tests on the JVM, so most of your suite needs no emulator and stays fast in CI. This recipe runs lint and Robolectric tests, then assembles a debug APK.

What the pipeline does

set up a JDK with Gradle caching
run Android Lint
run Robolectric unit tests on the JVM
assemble the debug APK
upload the APK artifact

The workflow

gradle/actions/setup-gradle caches Gradle and the build cache. testDebugUnitTest runs the Robolectric suite on the JVM, no emulator required.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

name: CI
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  pull_request:
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: temurin
          java-version: 17
      - uses: gradle/actions/setup-gradle@v4
      - run: ./gradlew lintDebug
      - run: ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest
      - run: ./gradlew assembleDebug
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: app-debug
          path: app/build/outputs/apk/debug/*.apk

Caching and speed

setup-gradle restores the Gradle caches and reuses the build cache across runs. Robolectric tests are JVM-fast, but assembling the APK is heavier, so cheaper managed runners such as Latchkey (around 69% cheaper than GitHub-hosted) keep the build affordable, and auto-retry covers a flaky dependency download.

Deploying

For internal builds, upload the debug APK as an artifact. For releases, sign assembleRelease with your keystore (stored as secrets) and upload the AAB to the Play Console, or hand off to fastlane for distribution.

Key takeaways

Robolectric runs Android tests on the JVM, so no emulator is needed.
testDebugUnitTest is the fast bulk of an Android test suite.
setup-gradle caches the Gradle and build caches across runs.