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Setup

1. Create an API Key​

Go to App Store Connect > Users and Access > Integrations > App Store Connect API and generate a new key. Download the .p8 private key file.

2. Configure​

ascelerate configure

This will prompt for your Key ID, Issuer ID, and the path to your .p8 file. The private key is copied into ~/.ascelerate/ with strict file permissions (owner-only access).

The configuration is stored at ~/.ascelerate/config.json:

{
    "keyId": "KEY_ID",
    "issuerId": "ISSUER_ID",
    "privateKeyPath": "/Users/.../.ascelerate/AuthKey_XXXXXXXXXX.p8"
}

configure also prompts for an optional vendor number (App Store Connect → Payments and Financial Reports). It's only needed for Sales and Finance reports and is stored as a vendorNumber field; you can skip it and add it later, or pass --vendor-number per command.

For Apple Ads, ascelerate needs separate credentials, which ascelerate ads configure sets up and stores in an ads section of the same file. Running configure again keeps them.

A key for one run​

To run a command with another key, for another team or in CI, set all three environment variables. They take precedence over config.json for that run, and the file stays as it is:

export ASCELERATE_KEY_ID=KEY_ID
export ASCELERATE_ISSUER_ID=ISSUER_ID
export ASCELERATE_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH=~/keys/AuthKey_KEY_ID.p8
ascelerate apps list

builds archive and builds upload also hand this key to xcodebuild (-authenticationKeyPath, -authenticationKeyID, -authenticationKeyIssuerID), so profiles are fetched with the key instead of the Apple ID signed in to Xcode. That needs a key allowed to manage certificates, identifiers and profiles. ascelerate configure --show says which key a run uses.

3. Verify​

Run a quick command to verify everything is working:

ascelerate apps list

If your credentials are correct, you'll see a list of all your apps.

Rate limit​

The App Store Connect API has a rolling hourly quota of 3600 requests. You can check your current usage at any time:

ascelerate rate-limit
Hourly limit: 3600 requests (rolling window)
Used:         57
Remaining:    3543 (98%)