How to create an App Store Connect API key for Helm
Helm uses the App Store Connect API to help you manage your app’s metadata and releases on the App Store. As the App Store Connect API requires all requests to be authenticated, you need to create an API key with the necessary permissions to be able to use Helm.
This guide will walk you through the steps to create an App Store Connect API key that you can use with Helm.
Creating an App Store Connect API key
There are two types of App Store Connect API keys you can create: Individual and Team keys:
- Individual keys are associated with your user in App Store Connect and have the same permissions as the user.
- Team keys are available team-wide in App Store Connect and can have different levels of permissions, depending on the role assigned to them upon creation.
As it stands, Helm only supports Team keys, but we are working on adding support for Individual keys in the future.
Creating a Team key
Follow these steps to create a team API key in App Store Connect:
- Go to App Store Connect and sign in.
- Go to the ‘Users & Access’ section.
- Select the ‘Integrations’ tab.
- Click the ’+’ button to create a new key.
- Give it a name and an ADMIN role and click the ‘Generate’ button. You must select the ADMIN role as it is the minimum level of access required for Helm to work correctly.
- The new key will now appear in the list. Click the ‘Download API Key’ button and hold on to it until the next section.
It is important to be aware that an API key can only be downloaded once, so make sure you store it in a safe location.
- Copy the key ID and your account’s issuer ID. You will need these values in the next section.
Importing the API key into Helm
You can import your API key into Helm in one of two ways: during the onboarding flow or in the app’s preferences once you have completed the onboarding.
Onboarding
When you first launch Helm, we will greet you with an onboarding flow that will ask you for all the necessary information to set up your account, including the API key you just created:
Preferences
If you have already gone through onboarding and you want to modify your existing API key or even add a new one for a different organisation, you can do so in the app’s preferences:
Create a Helm setup file
Unfortunately, App Store Connect API keys don’t allow for fine-grained permission tuning such as limiting the amount of apps whoever uses the key can access. To work around this limitation, we offer a unique way of setting up Helm called Setup Files.
Helm allows you to create as many setup files as you need from a given API key and assign them to different sets of apps based on your needs. These setup files can be exported at any time from the app’s preferences and shared securely with other people:
We strongly encourage you to create a setup file if you want to let other people you work with access the same app in Helm.
Importing a setup file
Similarly to the API key, you can import a setup file from both the onboarding flow and the app’s preferences window.
Onboarding
In the first step of the onboarding flow, you can click on the ‘No API Keys’ button to import an existing setup file:
Preferences
If you have already completed the onboarding flow and you would like to add a new setup file or modify an existing one, you can do so in the app’s preferences:
