I Built RelayPublisher: A winget-like Publishing Workflow for Microsoft Intune A developer created RelayPublisher, an open-source tool that publishes winget-like YAML manifests as Microsoft Intune LOB apps from CI. The tool enables application definitions to be managed as code, with commands for validation, planning, packaging, and publishing, and was made feasible by generative AI reducing development effort. Note about this article The original version of this article was written entirely by me in Japanese. I used AI to translate and polish the English version for a global audience, but the ideas, design decisions, implementation details, and original content are all my own work. If you'd like to read the original Japanese article, you can find it here: Managing custom applications in Microsoft Intune has always felt more complicated than it should be. When you need to publish an internal application, you typically have a few options: All of these approaches work, but none of them feel particularly developer-friendly. In my case, the process was even more frustrating because I normally don't operate with elevated privileges. Every time I needed to publish or update an application, I had to perform a PIM elevation before making changes. That led me to a simple question: Why can't Intune application publishing work more like winget? I wanted a workflow where application definitions could live in source control, be described in YAML, and be published automatically through CI/CD. That idea became RelayPublisher . Relaypublisher publishes winget-like YAML manifests as Microsoft Intune LOB apps from CI. Distribution: relaypublisher relaypublisher vX.Y.Z win-x64 , win-arm64 , and osx-arm64 are attached to each GitHub release. They are neither code-signed nor notarized, so macOS shows a Gatekeeper warning.Quick install: dotnet tool install --global relaypublisher See doc/05-operation.md https://github.com/kkamegawa/Relaypublisher/doc/05-operation.md 0-tool-installation-and-version-control for installing from GitHub Packages or Azure Artifacts instead. The repository now contains the .NET CLI foundation for the normal workflow: validate checks manifest schema rules and repository-wide identity uniqueness. plan resolves the target manifest set once and writes manifest-list.json for later CI jobs. package stages app files: Windows Win32 .intunewin packages Windows runner required or a staged, checksum-verified macOS .pkg any OS . publish creates or updates Intune apps, uploads packaged content…RelayPublisher is an open-source tool that allows you to define Intune applications using YAML and publish them through automation. Instead of clicking through the Intune portal, you manage application definitions as code. If you're already familiar with Infrastructure as Code IaC or GitOps practices, the concept should feel natural. Historically, building this type of tool felt like a lot of work. There are many moving parts: The emergence of generative AI significantly reduced the effort required to create and maintain a project like this. Tasks that would previously have been tedious became much easier to implement. As a result, I was finally able to build the tool I had wanted for a long time. A sample YAML definition is included in the repository to help you get started quickly. Example: SchemaVersion: "1.0" PackageIdentifier: Microsoft.PowerShell PackageName: PowerShell Developer: Microsoft Corporation Publisher: Microsoft Corporation Description: PowerShell 7 cross-platform automation and configuration tool. PackageVersion: 7.6.5 AssignmentSync: merge Apps: - Platform: macos Architecture: arm64 InstallerType: pkg pkg default : unmanaged macOSPkgApp, unsigned allowed, up to 8 GB, and the only AppType that can target MinimumOSVersion 14+ v14 0/v15 0 are beta-only flags; see doc/01-manifest-schema.md 5.7 and MacOsMinimumOperatingSystemTable . AppType: pkg DisplayName: PowerShell macOS ARM64 Single Source item for macOS unified source item shape, doc/01-manifest-schema.md 5.0.1 . PowerShell/PowerShell is a public repository, so Auth.Type: none is enough for anonymous asset download. Source: Type: githubRelease Owner: PowerShell Repository: PowerShell Tag: v7.6.5 AssetName: powershell-7.6.5-osx-arm64.pkg Destination: powershell-7.6.5-osx-arm64.pkg Sha256: "6ea58f4e91ab2df133ac18a42e291e4e870a623e3c5ab6f8368259cd9ac22770" Auth: Type: none Requirements: PowerShell 7.6 LTS supports macOS 14 Sonoma , 15 Sequoia , and 26 Tahoe . 14.0 is the lowest version Relaypublisher's version table can map 26.0 is not yet defined there ; AppType: pkg allows the beta-only v14 0 flag. MinimumOSVersion: "15.0" Detection: IgnoreAppVersion: false IncludedApps: - BundleId: com.microsoft.powershell BundleVersion: 7.6.5 Optional, AppType: pkg only doc/01-manifest-schema.md §5.4.2 : pre/post-install shell scripts, mapped to Graph macOSPkgApp.preInstallScript/postInstallScript. Paths are relative to --repo-root samples/, per this file's own README . Scripts: PreInstall: scripts/macos/powershell/preinstall.sh PostInstall: scripts/macos/powershell/postinstall.sh Left empty so this manifest applies unmodified in any tenant. Add your own target group s before a real non-dry-run publish, for example: Assignments: - Target: group GroupId: "