App Store Optimization CLI

Research ASO keywords, inspect competition, and manage results from one local-first CLI.

What Is It?

• Fast, free keyword research and visibility tracking
• Keyword scoring with popularity + difficulty + brand classification in one command
• Local ASO dashboard for reviewing keyword/app data
• MCP tool (aso_evaluate_keywords) for agent workflows and automated keyword research

ASO Dashboard

MCP

The dashboard keywords shown above were discovered and added automatically by an agent using the MCP tool.

Install

npm install -g aso-cli

Note: requires Node.js >=18.14.1.

Apple Search Ads Setup

ASO commands require Apple Search Ads setup.

Prerequisites

• App Store Connect account
• App ID of a published app you can access
• No campaign creation required
• No billing information required

Setup

1. Create/sign in: https://searchads.apple.com
   • If your country is not available during signup, select United States.
2. Open Apple Search Ads Advanced: https://searchads.apple.com/advanced
3. Click your account name in the top-left corner.
4. Under Campaign Groups, click Settings.
5. Click Link Accounts.
6. Select your App Store Connect account and save.
   • If this is your first time using Apple Search Ads, you will usually have only one campaign group.
7. Copy an App ID from your App Store URL (number after id) Example App Store URL:

   https://apps.apple.com/us/app/example-app/id123456789
   

   App ID is 123456789 in this example.
8. Run aso auth and complete Apple ID + password + 2FA in terminal

Notes:

• You may see a missing billing information warning; this can be safely ignored.
• Ensure all campaign groups are linked to a valid App Store Connect account.
• Troubleshoot App Store Connect account linking

Quick Start

# Authenticate once
aso auth

# Fetch keyword metrics
aso keywords "meditation,sleep sounds,white noise"

# Open dashboard
aso

Command Reference

Command	What it does
aso	Starts the local dashboard (default command)
aso keywords "k1,k2,k3"	Fetches keyword popularity/difficulty and prints JSON
aso keywords "k1,k2" --stdout	Machine-readable mode for automation/agents
aso auth	Reauthenticates Apple Search Ads session
aso reset-credentials	Clears saved credentials/cookies
aso --primary-app-id <id>	Sets primary App ID used for popularity requests

Supported flags

• --country <code>: currently US only
• --primary-app-id <id>: saved locally for future runs
• --min-popularity <number>: filters out low-popularity keywords before enrichment
• --max-difficulty <number>: filters out high-difficulty keywords after enrichment
• --app-id <id>: associates keywords to this local app id (default: research)
• --no-associate: skips app-keyword association writes for the current aso keywords run

Association behavior for aso keywords:

• Association writes happen only after a successful command return.
• Without filters, requested keywords are associated.
• With --min-popularity and/or --max-difficulty, only accepted items are associated.
• With --no-associate, no association write occurs.

Output Example (aso keywords "meditation")

{
  "items": [
    {
      "keyword": "meditation",
      "popularity": 45,
      "difficultyScore": 62,
      "minDifficultyScore": 38,
      "isBrandKeyword": false
    }
  ],
  "failedKeywords": [],
  "filteredOut": []
}

--stdout Contract

aso keywords "<comma-separated-keywords>" --stdout is the machine-readable contract.

• Success: exit code 0, stdout contains exactly one JSON object with:
  • items
  • failedKeywords
  • filteredOut
• Failure: exit code != 0, stdout contains exactly one JSON object with:
  • error.code (CLI_VALIDATION_ERROR or CLI_RUNTIME_ERROR)
  • error.message
  • optional error.help
• In --stdout mode, CLI logs and prompts are kept off stdout so parsers can read one JSON payload safely.

Failure example:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "CLI_RUNTIME_ERROR",
    "message": "Primary App ID is missing. Run 'aso --primary-app-id <id>' or run 'aso' in a terminal to set it, then retry this command with --stdout."
  }
}

MCP

This package also installs aso-mcp with tool: aso_evaluate_keywords.

aso_evaluate_keywords runs aso keywords ... --stdout with default filters:

• minPopularity = 6 (floor: 6)
• maxDifficulty = 70

MCP returns only accepted rows (keyword, popularity, difficulty, minDifficultyScore, isBrandKeyword).

Example MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aso": {
      "command": "aso-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Current Scope

• Storefront support: US
• Multi-storefront support is planned

Project Docs

• Contribution guide: CONTRIBUTING.md