App Store Operator
App Store competitive intelligence, inside Claude.
App Store Operator is an MCP server that brings App Store research directly into your AI
assistant. Instead of switching to a dashboard, you ask Claude for ranked keyword results,
competitor download and revenue estimates, or App Store Connect-ready In-App Event copy —
and get the answer in the same conversation where you are making the decision.
Built for indie iOS developers who want research inside their workflow rather than in
another browser tab. Free and open source (MIT). A lightweight alternative to SensorTower,
AppTweak, and AppFollow for iOS-only competitive research.
claude mcp add --transport stdio app-store-operator -- npx -y app-store-operator@latest
→ app-store-operator.com · Setup guide
What it does
Searches the App Store for competing apps on a given keyword and pulls detailed analytics
from SensorTower — downloads, revenue, ratings, top markets, publisher info, and more.
search_app_store and prepare_iae work with no account at all. research_rivals and
get_app_details open a browser once for a free SensorTower sign-in, then reuse that
saved session — no paid plan, no API key.
Everything the server exposes — four tools, six prompts, seven resources — is read-only.
Nothing writes to your App Store Connect account, to SensorTower, or anywhere but a local
cache file.
research_rivals
Finds the top 3 apps for a keyword and returns a full metrics report for each.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|
keyword | string | Search term to look up (e.g. meditation, psikoloji) |
country | string | Two-letter country code (e.g. us, tr, gb) |
Returns for each competitor:
- App Store & SensorTower URLs
- Worldwide and last-month downloads & revenue
- Rating score and rating count
- Publisher, categories, top markets
- Release date, last updated, supported languages
- In-app purchases and ad network presence
Cached for 24 hours, so asking again about the same keyword and country costs nothing and
opens no browser.
search_app_store
Searches the App Store for a keyword and returns ranked results as a markdown table — instantly, no SensorTower required.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|
keyword | string | Search term to look up |
country | string | Two-letter country code |
limit | number | Number of results to return (1–25, default 3) |
Use this to discover which apps rank before deciding which to analyse. Follow up with get_app_details for analytics on specific apps.
get_app_details
Fetches SensorTower analytics for one or more app IDs you already have.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|
app_ids | array | Numeric App Store IDs (e.g. from search_app_store) |
country | string | Two-letter country code |
Returns for each app:
- Downloads and revenue (worldwide + last month)
- Rating score and rating count
- Publisher, categories, top markets
- Release date, last updated, supported languages
- In-app purchases and ad network presence
Never cached — every call scrapes fresh, at roughly 10–20 seconds per app ID.
prepare_iae
Generates iOS App Store In-App Event (IAE) copy — 3 variations in the target language, then a final report.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|
keywords | array | Ordered keywords by priority (index 0–2 = Tier 1, 3–6 = Tier 2, 7–9 = Tier 3) |
locale | string | Target locale (e.g. en-us, en-gb, de-de, tr, ja, ko) |
event_purpose | string | What the event is about and why users should care |
audience | string | Target audience (e.g. students, professionals, parents) |
event_context | string | Real-world hook tying the event to a moment (e.g. a holiday, season) |
goal | string | Primary conversion goal (e.g. attract new users, boost engagement) |
tone | string | Copy tone: Engaging, Playful, Motivational, Authoritative, Calm, or Urgent |
Returns: a structured brief used to generate 3 copy variations, each with event name (≤30 chars), short description (≤50 chars), and long description (≤120 chars).
Any field SensorTower does not expose, or keeps behind its paywall, comes back as N/A.
The server reports the gap rather than filling it, and the prompts below tell the assistant
to do the same.
Prompts
Six ready-made workflows that already chain the tools above, so you don't have to describe the sequence yourself. In Claude Code they appear as slash commands; other clients surface them in a prompt picker.
| Prompt | Arguments | What it does |
|---|
competitor_snapshot | keyword, country | Pulls rival analytics for a keyword, then reads out who owns it and how contested it is |
keyword_shortlist | seed_keyword, country, count? | Expands a seed keyword into candidates, tests each against live search results, and ranks them attack / watch / skip |
app_teardown | app_ids, country | Teardown of known apps — scale, standing, monetisation, reach, momentum, acquisition |
positioning_gap | keyword, country, my_app_id | Puts your app on the same measuring stick as the incumbents and separates behind from attackable |
metadata_rewrite | app_name, keyword, country, must_keep? | Three name / subtitle / keyword-field variations, character-counted against Apple's limits |
in_app_event | event_context, locale, keywords?, audience?, tone? | Runs the full In-App Event flow, asking for whatever prepare_iae still needs |
Arguments marked ? are optional. Every prompt tells the assistant not to invent figures and, where SensorTower is involved, not to quietly fall back to a weaker tool when login is required.
Resources
Reference data and local state a client can attach as context without spending a tool call on it.
| URI | Type | Contents |
|---|
asops://guide/tool-selection | markdown | Which tool to use, what each costs, how the SensorTower login works |
asops://reference/country-codes | markdown | Two-letter storefront codes by region |
asops://reference/aso-fields | JSON | App Store Connect character limits and which fields are indexed for search |
asops://reference/iae-fields | JSON | In-App Event limits, artwork sizes, copy rules, keyword tiers |
asops://reference/iae-locales | JSON | Every locale prepare_iae accepts — generated from the same table the tool validates against |
asops://cache/research | JSON | What has already been researched on this machine, and whether it is still fresh |
asops://cache/research/{country}/{keyword} | JSON | One cached research_rivals result, without re-scraping |
Nothing here leaves your machine: the reference resources are static, and the two cache resources read ~/.app-store-operator/cache.json.
Requirements
- Node.js v18+
- A desktop session for
research_rivals and get_app_details. They drive a real,
visible Chromium window so you can sign in to SensorTower, so they need a display —
they do not work over plain SSH or inside a container. The other two tools have no
such requirement.
- Disk space for Chromium. Installing the package downloads a Playwright Chromium
build (a few hundred MB) via a postinstall step. If that step fails, the server installs
it on first use instead; you can also run
npx playwright install chromium yourself.
Usage
As an MCP server (Claude Code / Claude Desktop / OpenAI Codex)
Claude Code — run this command once:
claude mcp add --transport stdio app-store-operator -- npx -y app-store-operator@latest
Claude Desktop — add to your MCP config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"app-store-operator": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["app-store-operator@latest"]
}
}
}
OpenAI Codex — run this command once:
codex mcp add app-store-operator -- npx -y app-store-operator@latest
Codex stores MCP servers in ~/.codex/config.toml. If you prefer to edit it directly:
[mcp_servers.app-store-operator]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "app-store-operator@latest"]
startup_timeout_sec = 20
tool_timeout_sec = 180
Then restart Codex or start a new thread, and ask things like:
Research rivals for "hairstyle" in the GB App StoreSearch the App Store for "beard style" in FrancePrepare an in-app event for a summer hairstyle campaign in en-gb
No installation step needed — npx fetches and runs the package automatically.
The server communicates over stdio and is designed to be invoked by an MCP client. It advertises server-wide instructions during initialize so clients route between the tools correctly, and returns an MCP tool error when SensorTower login is required.
Configuration
Both settings are optional environment variables on the server process.
| Variable | Default | What it does |
|---|
ASO_CACHE_TTL_HOURS | 24 | How long a research_rivals result stays fresh in the local cache before it is scraped again |
ASO_DEBUG_RATINGS | unset | Set to 1 to print SensorTower's ratings panel to stderr when a rating score or count comes back N/A — useful when reporting a scraping bug |
In a container
The repo ships a Dockerfile built on Playwright's official image:
docker build -t app-store-operator .
docker run -i --rm app-store-operator
The server speaks JSON-RPC over stdio, so no port is exposed — point your MCP client at
the container's stdin/stdout. Note that a container has no display: search_app_store
and prepare_iae work there, but the two SensorTower tools cannot open a login window and
will fail rather than prompting you to sign in.
How it works
- Searches the App Store for the keyword and country, and looks up any app IDs you passed
directly against Apple's public iTunes Lookup API
- For each app, drives a Chromium browser to scrape SensorTower analytics
- Extracts the metrics and returns a compiled report
SensorTower data is scraped via Playwright because it is rendered client-side.
A browser window will open. This is deliberate, not a bug: SensorTower requires a login, so the first run opens a visible window for you to sign in. The session is saved to ~/.app-store-operator/profile and reused on every later call, so you only log in once. If a tool reports not_logged_in, finish signing in on that window and run the tool again.
Results from research_rivals are cached for 24 hours in ~/.app-store-operator/cache.json — override the TTL with the ASO_CACHE_TTL_HOURS environment variable.
Limitations
- iOS only. Nothing here covers Google Play or Android.
- Read-only. No tool changes anything in App Store Connect or on SensorTower.
research_rivals is fixed at the top 3 results. Use search_app_store (up to 25)
and then get_app_details when you need a wider set.- Scraping is brittle by nature. SensorTower renders its dashboard client-side and
changes its markup without notice; when it does, affected fields return
N/A until the
selectors are updated. A single app failing never fails the whole call.
- SensorTower's free tier decides what you see. Paywalled figures come back as
N/A.
Privacy Policy
Full policy: https://app-store-operator.com/privacy
App Store Operator runs entirely on your machine. There is no backend, no telemetry, and no analytics — the author collects, receives, and stores nothing about you or your usage.
What each tool sends, and where:
| Tool | Account | What leaves your machine |
|---|
search_app_store | None | Keyword and country code → Apple's public App Store search |
prepare_iae | None | Nothing — pure local computation, contacts no external service |
research_rivals | Free SensorTower | Keyword and country code → Apple, then SensorTower via your own browser session |
get_app_details | Free SensorTower | App Store app IDs → Apple's public lookup API and SensorTower |
What is stored locally:
~/.app-store-operator/cache.json — cached results, expiring after 24 hours by default (ASO_CACHE_TTL_HOURS)~/.app-store-operator/profile — the Chromium profile holding your SensorTower session
You type your SensorTower credentials into SensorTower's own page in a browser window on your machine. The server never reads or stores your password, and the author never receives it.
Deleting everything — no request to the author, nothing to wait for:
rm -rf ~/.app-store-operator
Apple and SensorTower are independent third parties with their own policies. This project is not affiliated with either.
Project structure
src/
├── index.js # MCP server setup and request handlers
├── shared.js # App Store lookup + SensorTower scraping
├── cache.js # 24h local cache (research_rivals only)
├── prompts.js # the six prompt workflows
├── resources.js # reference data + cache resources
└── tools/
├── research-rivals.js # research_rivals tool
├── search-app-store.js # search_app_store tool
├── get-app-details.js # get_app_details tool
└── prepare-iae.js # prepare_iae tool
scripts/postinstall.js # installs Playwright Chromium on install
scripts/sync-version.js # syncs server.json, manifest.json and CHANGELOG.md on release
test/smoke-test-mcp.js # stdio smoke test
server.json # MCP registry manifest
manifest.json # Claude Desktop / MCPB bundle manifest
Dockerfile # container build (no display: search + IAE tools only)
Development
No build step and no linter — clone it, npm install, and run npm start to boot the
server over stdio.
The smoke test verifies the server boots and exposes everything it should. It checks
initialize (including the server instructions and the advertised version), tools/list,
prompts/list, prompts/get, resources/list, resources/templates/list, and reads
every resource, failing if one declared as JSON does not parse. It makes no network calls
and opens no browser:
Releases are tag-driven: write the notes under ## Unreleased in CHANGELOG.md, run
npm version <patch|minor|major> — which syncs the version into server.json and
manifest.json and renames that heading to the new version for you — then push with
--follow-tags. GitHub Actions runs the smoke test, publishes to npm and the MCP
registry, and creates the release from that changelog section. The bump refuses to run
while ## Unreleased is empty.
Contributions are welcome — open an issue or a pull request at
github.com/meyusufdemirci/app-store-operator.
License
MIT © Yusuf Demirci