app-store-preflight-skills: Catch App Store Rejection Risks Before You Submit

App Review rejection emails cite guideline numbers: 2.3.1 for mentioning Android in your metadata, 5.1.1 for a missing privacy manifest, 4.0 for asking a Sign in with Apple user for their name. app-store-preflight-skills turns those recurring rejection patterns into a scan your agent runs before you submit.

Why This Skill Matters

The 1,360-star skill scans your Xcode project, source code, metadata, and configuration files against a documented rule set. references/guidelines/ carries what the README describes as a complete index of all 100+ Apple Review Guidelines plus 10 app-type checklists — one each for universal submissions, subscriptions and in-app purchases, social/UGC apps, kids, health and fitness, games, macOS, AI apps, crypto and finance, and VPN.

The rule set itself is 13 rules across five categories, each mapped to a guideline number: six metadata rules (incomplete review notes, competitor terms, Apple trademark misuse, China-storefront AI references, device frames in preview videos, missing ToS/EULA and privacy policy links), two subscription rules, two privacy rules, two design rules, and one entitlements rule. Because every rule is a small markdown file with a guideline number, severity, and resolution steps, you can read exactly what the agent will check — and extend it.

Installation

npx skills add truongduy2611/app-store-preflight-skills

For metadata checks, the skill integrates with the asc CLI (brew install asc) and can pull your App Store Connect metadata directly. The README notes that its path examples assume the canonical JSON layout written by asc metadata pull — if you start from fastlane metadata, adapt the paths or pull the canonical layout first.

Real Workflow: Pre-Submit Audit of a Subscription App

1. Open the project in your AI coding tool and name the app type so the matching checklist loads:

Use the app-store-preflight skill. This is a subscription app with in-app purchases.
Audit the project and metadata at ./metadata before I submit.

2. The skill identifies the app type and loads the subscription_iap checklist, then pulls metadata if needed:

asc metadata pull --app "<APP_ID>" --version "<VERSION>" --dir ./metadata

3. It scans the project against the rules in references/rules/ — for a subscription app that includes missing Terms of Service and Privacy Policy links (3.1.2), monthly pricing displayed more prominently than the billed amount (3.1.2), and privacy checks such as a missing PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy (5.1.1).

4. Findings come back with severity, affected files, and resolution steps, so you can fix in priority order instead of decoding a rejection email after the fact.

5. Apply the fixes you accept, then have it re-run the affected checks to validate — the workflow's final step is autofix plus validation, not just a one-shot report.

Tips

• Extend the rule set by dropping a markdown file into the right references/rules/ subdirectory — the README's template is a title, guideline number, severity (REJECTION or WARNING), category, what to check, how to detect, resolution, and an example rejection.
• Run it before every submission, not just the first: rules such as unused entitlements (2.4.5(i)) creep in during normal development.
• The README points to rudrankriyam/app-store-connect-cli-skills as a companion for metadata sync, ASO audits, and release flows.

When Not to Use This

A clean preflight report is not an approval guarantee — App Review is a human process with discretion, and no rule set covers every reviewer judgment. Treat this as a pre-flight that removes the known, mechanical rejection causes. And if all you need is metadata sync without the scanning, the asc CLI alone does that with less setup.

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