Content
# app-market-mcp
[](https://buy.polar.sh/polar_cl_v4ZIuYffdbN9E9iVLmlHh1W5sxAmxvqNVqIn81048FX)
**ASO tools tell you about your app. This one tells you about the market.**
An MCP server for App Store market intelligence: competitor sets, studios, share-of-search,
and rank movement over time. Built on Apple's public endpoints — no API keys, no accounts,
no scraping.
```bash
npx app-market-mcp
```
## Why another App Store MCP?
Existing App Store MCP servers are single-app ASO optimizers: *how does my app rank, what
keywords should I add.* They're good at that. This server covers the layer they don't —
**market-level questions across sets of apps and studios**:
- *Who owns the "sleep tracker" keyword space in the US?* → `share_of_search`
- *Where do we and our five competitors rank across our ten keywords?* → `keyword_matrix`
- *Map the meditation app market in Germany.* → `market_map`
- *What has this studio shipped in the last six months?* → `studio_releases`
- *Who's climbing on our keywords since last month?* → watchlists + `rank_movement`
The intended user is anyone doing competitive analysis, market research, BD scouting, or
portfolio tracking — not just developers optimizing their own listing.
## Quick start
**Claude Code**
```bash
claude mcp add -s user app-market -- npx app-market-mcp
```
**Claude Desktop** — add to `claude_desktop_config.json`:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"app-market": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["app-market-mcp"]
}
}
}
```
Any MCP client with stdio transport works (Cursor, Windsurf, etc.).
## Tools
### Market
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
| `search_apps` | Raw App Store search results for a term, in rank order |
| `app_profile` | Full metadata for one app (by track id or bundle id) |
| `share_of_search` | Top-50 leaderboard for a keyword + which studios hold the slots; flags your app and rivals |
| `keyword_matrix` | The grid: N keywords × M apps, who ranks where (≤10×10) |
| `market_map` | One-call landscape: top apps, dominant studios, free/paid mix, concentration, median age |
| `top_charts` | Apple's top-free / top-paid chart for any storefront |
### Studios
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
| `studio_profile` | A developer's full portfolio with totals (by artist id or name search) |
| `studio_releases` | New apps + updates a studio shipped in the last N months |
| `suggest_competitors` | Likely competitors for an app, scored from its search neighborhood |
### Watchlists (local, stateful)
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|---|
| `create_watchlist` | Save a named competitor set: focal app + rivals + keywords + storefront |
| `snapshot_watchlist` | Record current rankings for every keyword in the set |
| `rank_movement` | Who climbed, who slipped, top-10 churn — across stored snapshots |
| `list_watchlists` / `delete_watchlist` | Manage saved sets |
Watchlists are plain JSON in `~/.app-market-mcp/` (override with `APP_MARKET_MCP_DIR`).
Snapshot whenever you like — daily, weekly, before/after an ASO push — and `rank_movement`
turns the snapshots into movement reports. Rank change is `previous_rank − rank`:
**positive = climbed toward #1**.
### Prompts
Two bundled workflows show the composite moves: `market-scan` (keyword → full landscape
read) and `keyword-battle` (two apps → head-to-head matrix). Saved watchlists are also
exposed as `watchlist://` resources.
## Example
`share_of_search` with `{"keyword": "habit tracker", "focus_app_id": "…"}` returns:
```json
{
"keyword": "habit tracker",
"country": "US",
"result_count": 200,
"leaderboard": [
{ "rank": 1, "id": "1", "name": "Habitica", "studio": "HabitRPG Inc", "rating": 4.7, "ratings_count": 84210 },
{ "rank": 2, "id": "2", "name": "Streaks", "studio": "Crunchy Bagel", "rating": 4.8, "ratings_count": 31544 }
],
"focus_summary": { "rank": 7, "rivals_above": 2, "rivals_below": 1, "unranked_rivals": [] },
"studio_concentration": [
{ "studio": "HabitRPG Inc", "apps_in_top": 2, "best_rank": 1, "total_ratings": 91000, "examples": ["Habitica", "…"] }
]
}
```
## Data source, pacing, and honesty
- Everything comes from Apple's **public iTunes Search/Lookup APIs** and the public
marketing-tools RSS feeds. No private APIs, no store scraping, no credentials.
- Apple soft-limits the search endpoint to roughly **20 requests/min/IP**. The server paces
search calls ~3s apart internally, so multi-keyword tools take time by design
(`keyword_matrix` with 10 keywords ≈ 30s) and report progress while they run. Slow and
reliable beats fast and rate-limited.
- Search responses cap at 200 results, so "unranked" means "not in the top 200."
- Rankings vary by storefront; every tool takes an ISO-2 `country`.
- Not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.
## Roadmap
- Google Play module (via community scraper libraries, off by default)
- `chart_movers`: top-charts diffing from chart snapshots
- Keyword suggestion probes from search autocomplete
- Hosted streamable-HTTP transport
## Development
```bash
npm install
npm run build
npm test # unit tests (no network)
npm run smoke # boots the server and runs one live search
```
PRs welcome — especially additional storefront quirks, new market-level tools, and
Google Play groundwork.
## Support
Built this in the open. If it saved you time, a one-off tip keeps it maintained:
[](https://buy.polar.sh/polar_cl_v4ZIuYffdbN9E9iVLmlHh1W5sxAmxvqNVqIn81048FX)
## License
MIT
---
<sub><b>Keywords:</b> App Store market intelligence · ASO tools · app store competitor analysis · share of search · app rank tracking · App Store API (no key) · mobile app market research · MCP app-store data for AI agents.</sub>
