appskyline

Command-line access to your App Store Optimization data on app.appskyline.com: tracked apps and keywords, live store search results and rankings, keyword search volume and difficulty, store-listing metadata, and Google Play reviews and install reports — across four stores: the iOS App Store, the macOS App Store, Google Play, and the Microsoft Store.

Install

npm install -g appskyline   # global install
npx appskyline --help       # or run without installing

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

Quick start

appskyline login            # opens the browser to authorize the CLI
appskyline apps list        # your apps with their AppSkyline ids
appskyline rank com.example.pos --store google-play --term "restaurant pos" --country US

Found 2 app(s):
1. Example POS (64a1f2c9e4b0a1b2c3d4e5f6)
2. Example POS Desktop (64a1f2c9e4b0a1b2c3d4e5f7)

✓ com.example.pos ranks #6 of 25 for "restaurant pos" on google-play (US)  (Example POS)

Signing up

No account yet? Create one from the terminal — the generated password prints exactly once, and the session is stored so every other command works immediately:

appskyline signup --email [email protected] --json

Pass --password to choose your own (it is never echoed back), and --first-name / --last-name to override the names derived from the email address. Without --email in an interactive terminal the CLI asks for one; without a terminal it fails fast with exit code 1 rather than hanging on a prompt. If the address already has an account, the error says so — run appskyline login instead.

Authentication

Two ways in; both persist in ~/.appskyline/:

• Browser — appskyline login --browser (or pick it in the interactive appskyline login chooser) starts a temporary localhost server, opens your browser to app.appskyline.com, and receives the session tokens on the redirect back. If the browser does not open, the login URL is printed so you can visit it by hand. Tokens are refreshed automatically when they expire.
• API key — appskyline login --with-key prompts (masked) for an API key secret, verifies it with one authenticated request, and stores it. Or skip login entirely and export APPSKYLINE_API_KEY=<key secret> — ideal for CI and headless agents. Create keys per app in the AppSkyline web UI; new keys default to read-only scopes. The secret is never accepted as a command argument.

Precedence at request time: a stored browser session wins over a stored key, which wins over the APPSKYLINE_API_KEY environment variable.

appskyline logout clears the stored session and any stored key (an environment key stays in effect — the CLI tells you so). Without a terminal and without credentials, commands fail fast with exit code 1 and instructions on stderr; the CLI never opens a browser headlessly. A 401 error ending with "Not logged in?" means there is no valid credential — run appskyline login (or set APPSKYLINE_API_KEY) and retry.

JSON output and errors

Every data subcommand accepts --json and then prints real, parseable JSON on stdout — no colors, no ANSI escapes. Without the flag, output is formatted for human reading. Mutations under --json print a small result object such as { "ok": true, "id": "…" }. Errors always go to stderr with exit code 1; in --json mode the error is a single JSON line ({"error":{"message":"…","status":401}}), so stdout stays parseable either way.

Commands

Wherever a store is named, four values are accepted: ios-app-store, macos-app-store, google-play, microsoft-store.

Session

appskyline signup --email [email protected]   # create an account and log in
appskyline login               # interactive: choose browser or API key
appskyline login --browser     # log in via browser; tokens land in ~/.appskyline/
appskyline login --with-key    # masked prompt for an API key secret
appskyline logout              # clear the stored session and any stored key

Apps

appskyline apps list                 # list apps (-n/--limit, default 25; --json for raw)
appskyline apps get <appId>          # raw JSON for one app
appskyline apps read <appId>         # formatted view: platform, bundleId, store ids

Keywords

appskyline keywords list --appId <appId>                    # tracked terms (-n/--limit 50, --skip, --json)
appskyline keywords get <keywordId>                         # raw JSON for one keyword
appskyline keywords add --term "invoice app" --appId <appId> --lang en --country US
appskyline keywords update <keywordId> --body '{"country":"IT"}'   # merge raw JSON fields
appskyline keywords delete <keywordId...>                   # one or more ids
appskyline keywords overview --country US --terms "invoice app,billing software"   # volume, CPC, difficulty
appskyline keywords translate --term "invoice app" --locales "it,es,de" --appId <appId>

--appId can be omitted when an appskyline.json supplies it — see Configuration below.

Search

appskyline search ios-app-store --term "restaurant pos" --country US --lang en -n 10
appskyline search macos-app-store --term "invoice" --country US -n 10
appskyline search google-play --term "dental software" --country US --lang en -n 10
appskyline search microsoft-store --term "pos" --country US -n 10

Each prints the live top-N results with title, rating, developer, and the store-native id. --json returns the raw response.

Rank

appskyline rank <storeAppId> --store ios-app-store --term "restaurant pos" --country US
appskyline rank com.example.app --store google-play --term "crm" --country US -n 50

<storeAppId> is the store-native id (numeric Apple id, bundle id, Google Play package name, or Microsoft Store product id); matching is case-insensitive. -n/--num sets how deep to search (default 25).

iOS App Store

appskyline ios-app-store app <id> --country US --lang en        # public listing details
appskyline ios-app-store searches --id <id> --country US        # tracked terms the app appears in
appskyline ios-app-store diagnostics <appId> --type HANGS --platform IOS --builds 3 --logs
appskyline ios-app-store crashes <appId> --platform IOS --limit 50 --log
appskyline ios-app-store metadata list --appId <appId>          # cached App Store Connect metadata
appskyline ios-app-store metadata download <appId>              # refresh the cache from App Store Connect
appskyline ios-app-store metadata upload <appId> --path ./fastlane/ios --platform IOS --dry-run

diagnostics covers hangs, disk writes, and launches (--type HANGS, DISK_WRITES, or LAUNCHES; default all). crashes returns TestFlight crash logs — Apple does not expose production crash logs via the API. Both, and the metadata subcommands, require an App Store Connect API key configured for the app in the AppSkyline web UI.

macOS App Store

appskyline macos-app-store app <id> --country US --lang en      # public listing details
appskyline macos-app-store searches --id <id> --country US      # tracked terms the app appears in

Google Play

appskyline google-play app <appId> --country US --lang en       # public listing details
appskyline google-play reviews <appId> --max 50                 # user reviews; --token pages, --translation-language, --start-index
appskyline google-play installs <appId> --month 202607 --dimension country   # monthly installs report

reviews and installs require a Google Play service account configured for the app in the AppSkyline web UI (installs additionally needs Storage Object Viewer on the developer account's reporting bucket; override the account with --developer-account-id). --dimension accepts overview, country, device, app_version, carrier, language, or os_version.

Microsoft Store

appskyline microsoft-store app <id> --country US                # public listing details
appskyline microsoft-store searches --id <id> --country US      # tracked terms the app appears in

Team

appskyline users list                                  # users in the organization (--json)
appskyline users get <userId>                          # raw JSON for one user
appskyline roles list                                  # roles in the organization (--json)
appskyline roles add --userId <userId> --type admin    # assign a role
appskyline roles delete <roleId>                       # remove a role
appskyline invites list                                # pending invites (--json)
appskyline invites add --email [email protected] --type admin --locale en
appskyline invites delete <inviteId>                   # revoke an invite

Zapier hooks

appskyline zapier-hooks add --url https://hooks.example.com/x --event KEYWORD_ADDED
appskyline zapier-hooks delete <hookId>

Skills

appskyline skills list             # names and descriptions of the bundled agent guides
appskyline skills get appskyline   # print a bundled SKILL.md to stdout

Schema

appskyline schema                  # the full command tree as JSON (options, arguments, subcommands)
appskyline schema keywords list    # describe one command path only

Agents can discover every command, flag, and argument from schema instead of scraping help text.

Keyword volume

keywords overview returns monthly search volume, CPC, competition, and difficulty per term. Terms missing from the shared cache trigger billable upstream lookups, so batch instead of looping: collect the full candidate list first, then make one call per country with up to 100 comma-separated terms.

appskyline keywords overview --country US --terms "invoice app,billing software,estimate maker"

Store-listing metadata

metadata list reads a cache that can be days stale — run metadata download <appId> first and never infer the current listing state from list alone. metadata upload reads fastlane-shaped <path>/metadata/<locale>/*.txt files and maps them to App Store Connect fields:

| File | Field | | ---------------------- | ---------------- | | name.txt | name | | subtitle.txt | subtitle | | privacy_url.txt | privacyPolicyUrl | | description.txt | description | | keywords.txt | keywords | | release_notes.txt | whatsNew | | promotional_text.txt | promotionalText | | marketing_url.txt | marketingUrl | | support_url.txt | supportUrl |

iOS and macOS share App Store Connect — select with --platform IOS or --platform MAC_OS (TV_OS and VISION_OS are also accepted). Narrow an upload with --locale, push a single field with --only keywords, skip appInfo-level fields with --skip-app-info when only the version draft is editable, and preview the payload with --dry-run before sending anything.

Configuration

An appskyline.json in the working directory (or any parent, up to 10 levels) supplies the default --appId for keywords list, keywords add, and keywords translate:

{ "appId": "64a1f2c9e4b0a1b2c3d4e5f6" }

APPSKYLINE_API_URL overrides the API endpoint (default https://api.appskyline.com) — only needed against a non-production deployment. APPSKYLINE_API_KEY supplies an API key secret for headless authentication (see Authentication above).

Usage with AI agents

Install the AppSkyline agent skills — appskyline (this CLI) and aso-research (the MCP-based ASO workflow) — for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any other agent that supports the Skills standard:

npx skills add appskyline/skills

The same guides ship inside the npm package, version-matched to the installed CLI:

appskyline skills list             # what is bundled
appskyline skills get appskyline   # the CLI guide matching this version

Or paste this into your AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md:

## App Store Optimization

Use the `appskyline` CLI for ASO data: app rankings, keyword research, live
store searches, and listing metadata across the iOS App Store, macOS App
Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store. Run
`npx appskyline skills get appskyline` for the full guide, and
`appskyline schema` for the machine-readable command reference. Log in once
with `appskyline login`, or export `APPSKYLINE_API_KEY` for headless use.
Pass `--json` for parseable output.

Prefer a connector? The AppSkyline MCP server at https://mcp.appskyline.com/mcp exposes the same data as tools for Claude, ChatGPT, and any MCP-capable host — see appskyline.com/developers.

License

Apache-2.0