TestFlight Uploads with Your App Store Connect API Key

How it works

1. 1. Create a team API key in App Store Connect

   Someone with the Admin role in App Store Connect creates the key. In Users and Access, they choose the Integrations tab, then App Store Connect API and Team Keys, and generate a key (Apple’s “Creating API Keys for App Store Connect API” page, checked 25 October 2026). VibeView needs the key to have the App Manager or Admin role. Note the key ID and the issuer ID, the ID shown above the keys table. Then download the .p8 file: Apple lets you download it once and keeps no copy. A team key reaches every app in your account, so one key covers all your iOS and Apple TV apps. Apple only accepts uploads for an app that already has a record in App Store Connect. If your app has none yet, create it once (Apps, then + and New App) with the bundle identifier your build is signed with.

2. 2. Add the key to VibeView

   An admin in your VibeView organization opens Builds, then the Stores tab, and chooses Add key under App Store Connect keys, or runs the command below. The .p8 is stored encrypted and can never be viewed or downloaded again. Adding a key under a name that already exists replaces it, which is how you rotate one.

   vibeview credentials asc-key add \
     --key-id <KEY_ID> \
     --issuer-id <ISSUER_ID> \
     --file AuthKey_<KEY_ID>.p8 \
     --name team

3. 3. Test the key and check the app

   Test connection on the key asks App Store Connect whether it accepts the key, and shows Apple’s answer. It changes nothing in App Store Connect, and developers and admins can run it. From the CLI (0.56.0 or later), the test command exits 1 when Apple refuses the key, so a setup script can stop there. Then submit --check confirms that Apple knows your app and lists its TestFlight groups.

   vibeview credentials asc-key test team
   vibeview submit --check --platform ios \
     --bundle-id com.example.app

4. 4. Send a build to your testers

   Choose Submit to TestFlight on a production build, or run vibeview submit. Pick your tester groups: internal groups are people on your App Store Connect team, and external groups are testers you invite by email. External groups need Beta App Review, Apple’s check of a build before external testers get it, so VibeView sends the build for it. They also need What to Test notes, up to 4,000 characters per language. Export compliance is Apple’s question about whether the app uses encryption beyond the exempt cases. VibeView answers it from your Info.plist when it sets ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption, otherwise from the answer you give once for the app. Each step shows on the build’s Store submissions card. When something needs you, the card says what and where. Once it is fixed, choose Check again (VibeView also re-checks on its own every 30 minutes when it can).

   vibeview submit --platform ios --latest \
     --group "QA team" \
     --what-to-test "Try the new checkout" \
     --wait-distribution

5. 5. Fill in TestFlight details without opening App Store Connect

   Under Builds, Stores, your app, TestFlight details sets what Apple needs before external testing. That covers the beta app description and feedback email in each language, and the marketing and privacy policy URLs (for Apple TV apps, the tvOS privacy policy text). It also covers the Beta App Review contact, with a sign-in account when reviewers must sign in. The password is sent to Apple and never kept by VibeView. TestFlight details also creates groups and adds external testers by email, up to 100 at a time. Adding internal testers and removing testers stay in App Store Connect. From the CLI (0.57.0 or later), testflight info lists what is still missing, each with the command that fixes it.

   vibeview testflight info

6. 6. Run it from CI

   A CI-only API token can submit with the key already saved on VibeView, follow submissions, run Check again and save the export compliance answer. It can’t add, remove or test keys, choose Stop following or change TestFlight details: those need a person or a full-access token. With --wait-distribution, the command exits with a code for each outcome, so a pipeline can tell a build that reached testers from one that needs your action.

Full setup instructions live in the documentation.

Keep reading

• Upload to TestFlight without a Mac
• GitHub Actions to TestFlight
• Fix Missing Compliance in TestFlight
• Build an Apple TV app without a Mac
• TestFlight external testing checklist
• Glossary: App Store Connect API key
• Glossary: Beta App Review
• Glossary: export compliance
• Migrate from fastlane pilot
• Migrate from EAS Submit
• Migrate from Codemagic publishing
• Apple: Creating API Keys for App Store Connect API