CRT
710c3a53d0
README is a short front page (about 120 lines) with one real visual per section; every former section moved unchanged into docs/*.md with a docs/README.md index (journey, rejections, getting-started, commands, growth, studios, store-art, listing-languages, api, skills, mcp, safety, faq, project). The site tells the same story on one page: the teaser in the hero, real CLI output as text, the desktop app as a section with light/dark captures of eight screens and the per-system downloads (desktop/latest.json); /desktop/ redirects to /#download. New capture tools: tools/site-desktop-shots.ts (fixture-mode desktop frames) and tools/site-term-shots.ts (real CLI output as text and WebP). tests/docs-links.test.ts checks README, docs and site links resolve.
101 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
101 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# The journey: from an empty folder to Submit for review
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## Why storebound
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Hey, I'm CRTkafa. I built this while getting my own game through both stores and hit every wall on the way: draft
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apps, edits that die when you touch the Console, the "first IAP must ship with a version" dance, Data safety CSVs that
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silently need one more answer, an IARC questionnaire, target audience, App Privacy labels that are saved but not
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published, screenshots in 7 sizes x 14 languages... I wrote each fix down as code or as a checklist. None of those
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walls is game-only: a to-do app with accounts and a subscription hits the same ones, plus a few of its own (a demo
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account for the reviewer, account deletion, subscription disclosures), so storebound covers apps and games alike. It
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works for me, so I open-sourced it. Use it too.
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No account, no sign-up, no telemetry. A small Bun CLI that talks to the official store APIs,
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Agent Skills that walk your AI coding tool (or you) through the parts that are still console clicks, and an MCP server
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so agents can call the CLI safely. **storebound never presses Submit, Release or Publish for you.**
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## How agents use storebound
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**Do it, don't ask.** Your AI agent and storebound do the work: API calls, uploads, builds, CSV and template
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exports, every console page (open, Get Started, Edit, Next, Save draft), console forms and the check afterwards. You
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are not asked to click through consoles or run commands one by one.
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- **You press only the final public or irreversible buttons:** Submit for review, releasing a version or a production
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rollout, App Privacy Publish, legal agreements; plus deleting store data, changing live prices, sending review
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replies and inviting or removing testers. The agent prepares each one and shows you the dry run first.
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- **You answer only what no file can prove** (Data safety, App Privacy, age rating, export compliance, partial
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deletion): all of it in one batch at the start (`storebound check` / `validate` list the questions), saved in the
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config so nobody asks again.
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- **The loop:** plan, the agent drives (API first, its browser for consoles without an API), verify by reading back,
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continue. `check` and `--dry` catch what a store would refuse before anything is written.
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The full rules are in [AGENTS.md](../AGENTS.md) (generated from `docs/agents-core.md`).
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## Profiles and after launch
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Pick a profile and start from honest templates: `init --profile app` (utility / productivity app, optional account,
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analytics, no ads; the default), `--profile subscription-app` (accounts + auto-renewable subscriptions) or
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`--profile game` (free-to-play with ads and IAP).
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It keeps going after launch: TestFlight groups and testers, crash and ANR vitals against the store thresholds, review
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replies you approve before they go out, prices for many products and regions from one CSV, store analytics next to
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your listing changes, and App Store product page tests from your screenshot variants.
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## The journey
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Everything an app or game needs before review, in the order I do it. For each step: what storebound does through the store
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APIs (or on your machine), what the skill walks your agent through where the stores have no public API, and what stays
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your own click.
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- **storebound**: a CLI command (also an MCP tool). Every write has `--dry`; MCP write tools default to a dry run.
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- **skill + agent (UI)**: no public API exists for it. The named skill has the exact navigation and the prepared
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answers. An agent with browser tools (a Chrome extension, computer use, a Playwright MCP ...) can click through it
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while you watch; without one, you click with the skill as your checklist.
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- **you**: public, legal or money steps. The skills tell every agent to stop and hand these to you.
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| # | step | storebound (API / local) | skill + agent (UI) | you |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 1 | **Set up** | `init --profile app\|game\|subscription-app` (config, `store/*.md`, declarations, App Privacy and privacy templates per profile), `install --agent <tool>`, `check` | Play: service account + API access invite; App Store: API team key (`play-first-release`, `appstore-first-release`) | developer accounts; Paid Applications agreement, banking and tax; Play payments profile |
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| 2 | **App records and bundle id** | `apple bundle` registers the bundle id, `apple status` finds the app record | App Store Connect > New App (no API); Play Console > Create app; the very first AAB upload when Play needs it from the Console | the declarations you accept when creating the Play app |
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| 3 | **Builds and testers** | `play next-version-code`, `play build`, `play upload --track internal`, `apple signing ensure`, `apple build`, `apple upload` (waits for processing), `apple encryption`, `apple testflight groups / what-to-test / info / distribute` (internal groups) | Play internal testers list, Apple sandbox testers (`play-first-release`, `testflight`) | `apple testflight testers` (Apple emails the invitations), external groups and Beta App Review (`distribute --submit-review`) |
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| 4 | **In-app products and subscriptions** | `play products` (regional prices from USD + your overrides, activated), `apple iap` (consumable, non-consumable, non-renewing; localizations, price schedule, availability), `apple iap-review`, `apple subscriptions` (groups, levels, equalized prices, intro and promotional offers, offer codes), `play subscriptions` (base plans, regional prices, offers), `catalog diff` (both stores against one catalog) | Play license testers, Apple sandbox testers, "Add for Review" of the first IAPs and subscriptions into the version's submission, Play promo codes (`store-iap-setup`, `store-subscriptions`) | custom offer codes (`apple subscriptions --codes` asks first) |
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| 5 | **Store listings, every language** | `play listing` (title, short / full description, contact email + website, promo video URL), `apple listing --version x --build N` (name, subtitle, description, keywords, promo text, URLs, privacy URL, manual release), `listing translate` (drafts per language), `whats-new`, `check` (limits), `check --aso` | Play store settings: category and tags (`play-first-release`) | |
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| 6 | **Play questionnaires** | `play data-safety`: the whole Data safety form from `dataSafety` in the config (CSV import through the API) | Policy and programs > App content, answers prepared in `store/declarations.md` (`store-declarations`): privacy policy, app access with the demo account (`review-access`), delete-account URL (`account-deletion`), ads, content rating (IARC), target audience and content, advertising ID, news, government, financial and health features; Data safety summary check | the answers themselves are your statements: the agent asks when the code does not prove them |
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| 7 | **App Store questionnaires** | `apple appinfo` (categories, age rating declaration, content rights, Free price, availability), `apple encryption` (export compliance from `apple.usesNonExemptEncryption`, never guessed), `apple review-details` (contact, demo account from `.storebound/`, notes) | App Privacy nutrition labels from `store/app-privacy.md`, then **Publish** (`store-declarations`); encryption documentation when the answer is yes (`export-compliance`); the first availability record if the API refuses it | the export compliance answer (a legal statement, set once in the config) |
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| 8 | **Privacy and accounts** | privacy policy page template (`init`), `privacy-manifest --ios <path>` (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy, required-reason APIs, SDK manifests), `validate` checks the policy, delete-account and terms URLs answer | host the pages, link them in both consoles and inside the app; in-app account deletion (`privacy-policy`, `privacy-manifest`, `account-deletion`) | |
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| 9 | **Icons** | `icons`: App Store 1024 without alpha, Play 512, adaptive + legacy Android launcher icons, web icons, Capacitor sources | | |
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| 10 | **Screenshots and previews** | `shots capture / render / check / gallery`, `play images`, `apple screenshots`, `shots record / video`, `apple previews`, `apple ppo create / upload` (App Store product page tests from `shots` variants; see [Store art](store-art.md)) | Play store listing experiments (optional, `store-screenshots`) | uploading the promo video to YouTube; `apple ppo start / stop` |
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| 11 | **Validate** | `scan` (offline: rejection risks in the project files, see [Catch rejections before you submit](rejections.md)), `check` (offline) and `validate` (read-only on both stores: every blocker in fix order, plus the local renders) | the UI-only items `validate` cannot see (`store-preflight` lists them) | |
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| 12 | **Submit** | `play release --version-code N --production draft`, `apple status` | Play: countries / regions, open the production draft and save it (`play-first-release`) | **Play: Send changes for review. App Store: Submit for Review.** |
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| 13 | **After review** | `apple status --wait-review`, `apple release --phased on / pause`, `play rollout --halt`, reply drafts (`review-rejections`) | | releasing the approved version, resuming or completing a phased release or rollout (terminal commands that ask first, `release-management`) |
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| 14 | **Live app** | `health [--weekly]` (crash / ANR vitals vs Play's thresholds, App Store diagnostics; also in `validate`), `reviews list / draft`, `analytics snapshot / compare`, `prices export`, `prices import --dry`, `apple ppo status` | `store-health`, `review-replies`, `store-analytics`; Play statistics come from the reports bucket (no API) | `reviews send` (approved drafts only), `prices import` (asks first) |
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New personal Play developer accounts also need a closed test with 12+ testers for 14 days before production; the
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`play-first-release` skill covers it.
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## API or console, honestly
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- **Through the API** (storebound does it): bundle id, builds on tracks, versions and build selection, listings in
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every language, graphics, screenshots, app previews, in-app products and prices (also from one CSV), Play Data
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safety, Apple age rating, categories, content rights, price and availability, export compliance answer, App Review
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details with the demo account, subscriptions (Apple groups, levels, prices, introductory and promotional offers,
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offer codes; Play base plans, regional prices, offers), phased release and staged rollout, TestFlight groups / testers / What to Test / Test Information / build
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processing / expiring builds, crash and ANR vitals and App Store diagnostics, TestFlight feedback, review replies,
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App Store analytics reports, sales and finance reports, App Store Product Page Optimization tests, IAP and
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subscription review submissions, offer codes for one-time purchases, win-back offers, promoted IAPs, pre-orders,
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custom product pages and in-app events, and pulling live listing texts back.
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- **Console only** (no public API; the skill + your agent's browser, or you): creating the App Store Connect app record
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and the Play app, Play App content (IARC content rating, target audience, ads, advertising ID, app access,
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government / financial / health / news, app access with the demo account), Play category and tags, Play countries,
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App Privacy labels and their Publish, Play promo codes, Play pre-registration, Play store listing experiments, test results of both stores' experiments, promotional images of promoted IAPs.
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Play store statistics have no API either: storebound reads the monthly exports from your Play reports bucket.
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- **Only you**: agreements, banking and tax, and the final Send for review / Submit for Review (apps, IAPs, custom
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product pages, in-app events). Releases and rollouts after approval, Beta App Review, tester invitations, sending
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review replies, applying price changes, starting / stopping a product page test, creating offer codes, win-back
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offers, switching on promoted IAPs, pre-orders and expiring builds too. None of these is an MCP tool; the terminal commands ask first.
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---
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[All docs](README.md) · [README](../README.md)
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