Settings

Connect accounts, manage storage, and adjust app-wide behavior.

Connect the Parts You Need

Settings controls account connections and preferences shared across Kickstart. Your app's name, description, launch date, and other project details live in Basic Information.

You don't need to set up everything in one go. Start with the services behind the features you want to use:

1. Add App Store Connect credentials for store editing, reviews, TestFlight, and app reports.
2. Add your vendor number if you want sales and subscription reporting.
3. Link each project to its app in Basic Information.
4. Add Apple Ads credentials when you want advertising reports, or GitHub credentials when you want to publish a website there.

That distinction between account access and the project link is handy when you're troubleshooting. Kickstart needs permission to use the account, and it also needs to know which app belongs to the project you're working on.

General

General contains everyday preferences and maintenance tools.

Keyword Data

Choose how Keywords gets its information. Both modes require an active Kickstart Pro subscription.

Local-only fetches public App Store searches directly from your Mac. It doesn't include search popularity or live difficulty. Server-backed uses Kickstart's servers for popularity, difficulty, ranking, and historical information where available. The keywords you research are sent to the servers in that mode.

Kickstart asks for this choice when you first open Keyword Tracker or Keyword Explorer. Search Suggestions can be browsed before you choose, without popularity scores. Change the mode here whenever you need to; the choice applies across projects on this installation. The privacy policy has more detail.

Apple Intelligence

Choose the local model or Private Cloud Compute where it's supported by your system. Kickstart can fall back to the local model when cloud capacity isn't available.

This choice is completely separate from Keyword Data. Changing the model used for writing and other AI features doesn't change where keyword research is fetched.

Notifications

Turn on Daily sales report for a notification summarizing yesterday's App Store earnings. It needs App Store Connect credentials, your vendor number, and notification permission.

If permission was denied, turn on notifications for Kickstart in System Settings. Sales reports also take a while to show up, so the notification depends on Apple's reporting rather than a live sales feed.

Tasks

Coming Up controls how far ahead the upcoming task list looks. Choose a shorter window if you want to focus on what's right in front of you, or a longer one when you're planning around a release.

It just changes what you see in that section, rather than rescheduling the tasks.

TestFlight

Hide tester email addresses keeps those addresses out of TestFlight feedback views and exports. It's useful when you're going through feedback on a shared screen or handing an export to someone who doesn't need the testers' contact details.

Caches

Cache controls let you clear downloaded information such as App Store Connect, Apple Ads, competitor, exchange-rate, and screenshot data so it can be fetched again.

Use this when you're chasing down stale information, especially after making changes outside Kickstart. Clearing a cache doesn't fix account permissions, and the next load may take longer while the data is fetched again.

You can also remove downloaded narration models. Bundled voice previews stick around, but generating narration will need the required models again.

Support

Temporary diagnostic logging helps collect information when you're trying to reproduce a problem. It runs for ten minutes and writes private files on your Mac.

Start logging, reproduce the issue, then reveal the log and choose whether to share it. Turning logging on doesn't send the files to support automatically.

What's New

Kickstart shows release notes after updates. You can reopen them at any time from Help > What's New.

MCP

Advanced users can copy the configuration for Kickstart's bundled MCP helper. This lets a compatible AI assistant work with Kickstart projects through the local helper.

Follow the linked MCP documentation for setup and available tools. Copying the configuration is just the first step; you'll still add it to whichever assistant you want to use.

Kickstart Pro

This tab shows whether your subscription is active and which plan the app currently recognizes. Upgrade and subscription-management options are also available from the relevant Pro features and Apple's subscription interface.

If a feature is locked unexpectedly, check the status here before fiddling with account credentials that serve a different purpose.

App Store

The App Store tab contains App Store Connect API credentials, the vendor number used for sales reports, and Apple Ads credentials.

App Store Connect API

Apple provides three pieces of information for the connection. Kickstart walks you through entering them:

• P8 key file: The private key downloaded when you create an API key. Kickstart uses it to sign requests to Apple.
• Key ID: Identifies that particular API key.
• Issuer ID: Identifies the App Store Connect account or team the key belongs to.

These values work together. If access fails, double-check that they came from the same key and account, then check the key's permissions.

Why Kickstart Recommends an Admin Key

Kickstart covers several kinds of App Store Connect work: reading and editing metadata, replying to reviews, working with TestFlight, accessing reports, and managing features such as custom product pages.

An Admin key gives you the access needed across those workflows. A narrower key may work for some tasks and fail for others, even though the connection itself is valid.

You're welcome to use a lower-permission key if it covers what you need. If one feature fails while others work, its required access is worth a look.

Credentials are stored in Kickstart's encrypted vault on your Mac and can sync through your iCloud account. Kickstart uses them to talk directly to Apple's APIs; they aren't sent to Kickstart's website or to us. You can revoke the key in App Store Connect if you no longer want to use it.

Vendor Number

The vendor number is separate from your API key identifiers. Add it for sales and financial reports, including revenue analysis and daily sales notifications.

Apple Ads

Add your Apple Ads API credentials and pick the ad account you want to report on. These are separate from App Store Connect credentials.

If you have access to several accounts, check the selection before hunting for a campaign that seems to be missing.

GitHub

Add a Personal Access Token when you want the Website Editor to publish through GitHub Pages. Kickstart stores the token securely, and you can clear it when you no longer need the connection.

You don't need GitHub credentials just to design a site or export its files. Set up publishing when you're ready to use that destination, then check the site's deployment settings before pushing an update.