apple-search-ads-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that wraps the full Apple Search Ads (now Apple Ads) Campaign Management API v5. 74 typed tools, 1:1 mapping to every documented v5 endpoint — campaigns, ad groups, ads, creatives, custom product pages, keywords, negative keywords, reports, impression-share reports, budget orders, ACLs, geo/app search, app metadata, rejection-reason audits — plus a raw passthrough for any future endpoints.

API lifecycle: Apple Ads (Search Ads) v5 is the current production API. v5 sunsets January 26, 2027 in favour of the new "Apple Ads Platform API" arriving Summer 2026. This server targets v5.0 → v5.5.

Quick install

git clone https://github.com/AppVisionOS/apple-search-ads-mcp.git
cd apple-search-ads-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Then register with Claude Code in one line:

claude mcp add apple-search-ads --scope user \
  -e ASA_CLIENT_ID=SEARCHADS.xxxx \
  -e ASA_TEAM_ID=SEARCHADS.xxxx \
  -e ASA_KEY_ID=xxxx \
  -e ASA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH=/absolute/path/to/asa-private.p8 \
  -e ASA_ORG_ID=1234567 \
  -- node $(pwd)/dist/index.js

Setup

1. Get API credentials

The Apple Ads UI splits credentials across two screens. The API tab inside Account Settings only manages access for third-party service providers; for your own programmatic access, the flow goes through User Management first.

a) Invite an API user

In app-ads.apple.com → Account Settings → User Management → Invite User:

• Email: any address you control (can be your own; Apple requires a separate Apple ID for the API user)

• Role: pick one with API permissions (e.g. API Account Manager)

• Send the invite, then accept it from the invited inbox

b) Generate the key pair locally

While the invite is being processed, generate an ES256 key pair on your machine. Make sure it's PKCS#8 — Apple's .p8 examples and the older openssl ecparam output are not PKCS#8 and jose can't load them.

# CORRECT — produces PKCS#8 (-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----)
openssl genpkey -algorithm EC -pkeyopt ec_paramgen_curve:P-256 -out asa-private.p8
openssl ec -in asa-private.p8 -pubout -out asa-public.pem

# If you already produced traditional EC (-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----), convert it:
#   openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -nocrypt -in asa-private.p8 -out asa-private-pkcs8.p8

Keep asa-private.p8 somewhere safe (e.g. ~/.apple-search-ads/, chmod 600). You'll only paste the public half into Apple.

c) Generate the API client

Sign out and sign back in as the invited API user (not the admin account). Go to Account Settings → API. You'll see a Client Credentials screen with a Public Key textarea — this only appears for users who hold the API role.

1. Paste the contents of asa-public.pem (with the -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- / -----END PUBLIC KEY----- markers).

2. Click Generate API Client.

3. Copy the three values Apple shows you: Client ID, Team ID, Key ID — these don't reappear later.

2. Install

npm install
npm run build

3. Configure

Copy .env.example to .env and fill it in, or pass env vars through your MCP client.

ASA_CLIENT_ID=SEARCHADS.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
ASA_TEAM_ID=SEARCHADS.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
ASA_KEY_ID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
ASA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH=/absolute/path/to/private-key.p8
ASA_ORG_ID=1234567   # optional default; can be overridden per call

ASA_PRIVATE_KEY (PEM contents inline, with \n escapes if injected via JSON) is supported as an alternative to ASA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH.

4. Wire into your MCP client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apple-search-ads": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/apple-search-ads-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "ASA_CLIENT_ID": "SEARCHADS.xxxx...",
        "ASA_TEAM_ID": "SEARCHADS.xxxx...",
        "ASA_KEY_ID": "xxxx...",
        "ASA_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH": "/absolute/path/to/private-key.p8",
        "ASA_ORG_ID": "1234567"
      }
    }
  }
}

Authentication

The server handles OAuth 2.0 client-credentials flow with an ES256 JWT client assertion:

1. Sign a JWT with your .p8 private key (header: kid=Key ID, alg=ES256; payload: iss=Team ID, sub=Client ID, aud=https://appleid.apple.com).

2. POST it to https://appleid.apple.com/auth/oauth2/token with grant_type=client_credentials and scope=searchadsorg.

3. Use the returned 1-hour access token with Authorization: Bearer … and X-AP-Context: orgId=… on every API call.

The token is cached in memory until ~30 s before expiry, so you sign one assertion and exchange one token per hour. On 401 the server force-refreshes and retries once. On 429/5xx it backs off (honouring Retry-After) up to 3 times.

Tool inventory (74 tools)

Account & access (2)

org_acls, me_user — call without an org context to discover what your token can do.

Discovery (3)

search_apps, search_geo, geo_lookup

App metadata (6)

apps_get, apps_locale_details, apps_eligibilities_find, apps_assets_find, creative_app_preview_devices, countries_or_regions_list

Custom Product Pages (3)

cpp_list, cpp_get, cpp_locale_details

Campaigns (6)

campaigns_create, campaigns_get, campaigns_list, campaigns_find, campaigns_update, campaigns_delete

Ad groups (7)

adgroups_create, adgroups_get, adgroups_list, adgroups_find_in_campaign, adgroups_find_org_wide, adgroups_update, adgroups_delete

Creatives (4)

creatives_create, creatives_list, creatives_get, creatives_find — creatives wrap a Custom Product Page, Default Product Page, or Creative Set reference. Ads bind to creatives via creativeId.

Ads (7)

ads_create, ads_get, ads_list, ads_find_in_campaign, ads_find_org_wide, ads_update, ads_delete

Targeting keywords (7)

targeting_keywords_create, targeting_keywords_get, targeting_keywords_list, targeting_keywords_find, targeting_keywords_update, targeting_keywords_delete (bulk), targeting_keywords_delete_single

Negative keywords — ad-group scope (6)

adgroup_negative_keywords_create, adgroup_negative_keywords_get, adgroup_negative_keywords_list, adgroup_negative_keywords_find, adgroup_negative_keywords_update, adgroup_negative_keywords_delete

Negative keywords — campaign scope (6)

campaign_negative_keywords_create, campaign_negative_keywords_get, campaign_negative_keywords_list, campaign_negative_keywords_find, campaign_negative_keywords_update, campaign_negative_keywords_delete

Reports (7)

All accept startTime, endTime, optional granularity (HOURLY/DAILY/WEEKLY/MONTHLY), optional groupBy (adminArea / ageRange / countryCode / countryOrRegion / deviceClass / gender / locality), selector, returnRowTotals, returnGrandTotals, returnRecordsWithNoMetrics, timeZone (UTC | ORTZ).

Impression Share Reports (3) — async

custom_reports_create → returns reportId. Poll with custom_reports_get until state=COMPLETED. List with custom_reports_list.

Budget Orders (4) — LOC accounts only

budget_orders_create, budget_orders_get, budget_orders_list, budget_orders_update. v5 has no delete for budget orders.

Rejection-reason audit (2)

product_page_reasons_find, product_page_reasons_get — read-only inspection of why Apple's reviewers rejected creatives.

Escape hatch (1)

apple_search_ads_request — call any path with any method. Auth and org context are still handled for you.

Selectors

*_find tools accept Apple's selector grammar:

{
  "conditions": [
    { "field": "status", "operator": "EQUALS", "values": ["ENABLED"] },
    { "field": "countriesOrRegions", "operator": "CONTAINS_ANY", "values": ["US", "GB"] }
  ],
  "fields": ["id", "name", "status"],
  "orderBy": [{ "field": "name", "sortOrder": "ASCENDING" }],
  "pagination": { "limit": 100, "offset": 0 }
}

Operators: EQUALS, NOT_EQUALS, CONTAINS, STARTS_WITH, ENDS_WITH, GREATER_THAN, LESS_THAN, IN, NOT_IN, CONTAINS_ALL, CONTAINS_ANY, BETWEEN. values is always an array.

End-to-end example

A workflow you can drive entirely through Claude:

1. org_acls → pick the orgId.

2. search_apps for your app → grab the adamId.

3. campaigns_create with that adamId, daily budget, US targeting, adChannelType=SEARCH, supplySources=["APPSTORE_SEARCH_RESULTS"], billingEvent=TAPS.

4. adgroups_create inside the campaign with defaultBidAmount={amount:"1.00",currency:"USD"} and pricingModel=CPC.

5. targeting_keywords_create with a batch of {text, matchType, bidAmount} rows.

6. cpp_list → pick a productPageId → creatives_create with type=CUSTOM_PRODUCT_PAGE to mint a creativeId → ads_create to bind it to the ad group.

7. Wait a few days. reports_campaigns for top-line, then reports_search_terms_in_campaign to harvest new keywords / negatives.

8. custom_reports_create for impression-share / share-of-voice on your top searches.

Known surface notes (v5 quirks)

• No legacy creative-set CRUD. Apple removed it in v5; create a creatives row instead and reference it from ads.creativeId.

• No app categories endpoint. Use apps_get and read primaryGenre / secondaryGenre.

• No postal-code geo targeting. Geo entities in v5 are Country / AdminArea / Locality only.

• No org-wide find for keywords or ad-group-scoped keyword find. Apple scopes targeting-keyword find at the campaign level (/campaigns/{id}/adgroups/targetingkeywords/find) and rolls up across ad groups; filter by adGroupId in the selector to narrow.

• No DELETE on budget orders. Update them, don't delete them.

• Audiences, forecasting, conversion events are NOT in v5 — those live in separate Apple APIs (AdServices Attribution etc.).

Local development

npm run dev        # tsc --watch
npm run typecheck  # one-shot type check
npm run build      # compile to dist/

Use apple_search_ads_request to debug any endpoint directly — it returns the raw envelope so you can see the exact response shape Apple returned.