App Store Metadata Checklist for AI Coding Agents

The fast answer: prepare five input packets

An AI coding agent can draft useful App Store metadata only when it receives a bounded set of current facts. A repository scan is a good starting point, but source code does not explain every audience choice, legal right, or release promise.

Prepare the five packets below before drafting. If one is incomplete, mark it as unresolved. A visible blocker is safer than polished copy built on a guess.

1. Build a source map before a word map

Start by recording where each statement came from. This makes the final copy reviewable and gives the agent a clear stop condition when sources disagree.

2. Product identity and release checklist

The agent may find version numbers, bundle settings, and permission strings in a repository. It cannot infer a marketing audience, category strategy, trademark clearance, or the final availability plan from those files alone.

• Target platform and the exact app version this metadata describes.
• App name and subtitle candidates, including trademark and naming review.
• Primary category and any secondary category decision.
• Business model: free, paid, subscription, in-app purchase, or a combination.
• Supported devices, operating-system floor, account requirements, and regional availability.
• What changed in this version and whether review notes must explain a gated or non-obvious flow.

3. Verified feature and claim checklist

A strong listing describes what a person can do and why it matters. It does not turn an internal roadmap into a shipped capability. Apple’s review guidance requires metadata to accurately reflect the app, so the release build—not a planning document—is the final product truth.

• List three to five user outcomes that can be reproduced in the target build.
• For each outcome, attach one proof source: a tested flow, screenshot, specification, or support page.
• Record important limits such as manual steps, account requirements, network dependence, quotas, or unavailable regions.
• Separate current features from roadmap ideas and experiments.
• Remove superlatives, performance claims, medical or financial implications, and competitor comparisons unless the owner has appropriate evidence and rights.

4. Privacy, support, and rights checklist

Do not ask an agent to invent privacy answers from SDK names or permission files. Those are investigation leads, not a complete disclosure. When privacy, rights, or regulated claims remain uncertain, stop the metadata draft at that field.

• Public privacy-policy URL and a plain-language description of current data behavior.
• Public support URL or contact path that matches the app and publisher.
• Account deletion path when accounts can be created.
• Permissions used by the shipping build and the user-facing reason for each one.
• Rights for names, screenshots, testimonials, third-party marks, media, and generated content.
• Any age, health, finance, children, or user-generated-content considerations that require specialist review.

5. Convert the evidence into a field packet

Give the agent one row per App Store field. Include the purpose, source facts, prohibited claims, owner decision, and output status. The structure below is deliberately plain so it can live in a release document, issue, or agent prompt.

A safe prompt contract for the drafting agent

This contract makes the agent useful without pretending it is the product owner or App Review. The owner still approves every claim, URL, right, privacy statement, and final submission.

• Use only the supplied evidence and current official platform sources.
• Do not infer features, privacy practices, performance, rights, pricing, compatibility, or review outcomes.
• Return a source map and a BLOCKED list before polished copy.
• Keep platform facts separate from recommendations.
• Flag contradictions and ask one precise question per missing owner decision.
• Produce field-length checks only against current official limits verified for this release.

Final human review before App Store Connect

The result should be a small auditable release artifact: what was verified, what the owner decided, what the agent drafted, and what remains blocked. That is more reusable than a long prompt with no evidence trail.

• Re-run the core flows in the exact build being submitted.
• Check that the name, subtitle, description, screenshots, privacy answers, support pages, and review notes describe the same version.
• Re-open Apple’s current product-page and review guidance instead of relying on an old checklist.
• Have the accountable owner approve claims, rights, localization, and unresolved-risk decisions.
• Save the final field pack with the build/version and the evidence date so the next release can diff it.