RevenueCat

Runs on: your browser (RevenueCat and App Store Connect), then your app and your server.

RevenueCat sits between your app and Apple’s in-app purchase system. The app asks RevenueCat what to show and who has paid. RevenueCat validates purchases with Apple, tracks renewals and cancellations, and can tell your server with webhooks. You do not need to parse Apple receipts. You need it only if the app sells subscriptions or other in-app purchases.

Before you start you need, in App Store Connect (app-store-connect-setup.md):

• the app record (step 2),
• the Paid Apps Agreement (step 3). RevenueCat cannot sell anything without it,
• the Issuer ID of your App Store Connect API key (app-store-connect-api-key.md).

What it costs

Free up to 2,500 USD of monthly tracked revenue. Above that, 1% of tracked revenue. Checked 2026-09-28 at https://www.revenuecat.com/pricing/.

Use RevenueCat’s own Claude Code plugin

RevenueCat publishes an official plugin with an MCP server and skills for the React Native SDK, offerings and paywalls. Use it for the SDK setup, products, entitlements, offerings and paywall work:

claude plugins marketplace add RevenueCat/ai-toolkit
claude plugins install revenuecat

It signs in with OAuth in your browser, so it needs no API key. Source: https://github.com/RevenueCat/ai-toolkit. MCP docs: https://www.revenuecat.com/docs/tools/mcp

The plugin is for Claude Code. In another coding agent, you can connect the MCP server directly. See the MCP docs above.

onebox does not repeat that work. This guide covers the account and the Apple side.

Steps

1. Make an account at https://app.revenuecat.com and create a project for your app.
2. Create the subscription products in App Store Connect first, with the ship-ios:appstore-connect skill (subs-create) or in the web UI. Pick product IDs you will keep forever, for example com.example.myapp.pro.yearly.
3. Make an In-App Purchase key in App Store Connect: Users and Access, Integrations, then In-App Purchase. Generate a key and download the .p8 file (once only). RevenueCat needs it to record StoreKit 2 purchases; without it, purchases can fail to record. Note its Key ID.
4. Add the App Store app to the RevenueCat project: bundle ID, the In-App Purchase key file and its Key ID, and the Issuer ID (the same one as your App Store Connect API key). RevenueCat can also take an App Store Connect API key to import your products.
5. Set up products, an entitlement and an offering in RevenueCat (or let the RevenueCat plugin do it). The product IDs must match App Store Connect exactly.
6. Copy the public SDK key for the App Store app (it starts with appl_) from the project’s API keys page. It ships inside the app, so it is not a secret. Put it in eas.json env for each build profile, for example EXPO_PUBLIC_REVENUECAT_IOS_KEY.
7. Make a sandbox tester in App Store Connect (Users and Access, Sandbox), and test a purchase, a restore and a cancellation on a real device before you submit.

Where the values go

• Public SDK key (appl_...): in the app, via eas.json env. Never the secret key.
• Secret key (sk_...): only on your server, and only if your server calls the RevenueCat REST API or you use the MCP server without OAuth. Create it on the project’s API keys page (+ New secret API key). Store it in your secrets tool and reference it in ~/.config/onebox/config.json:

  { "revenuecat": { "apiKeyRef": "REVENUECAT_API_KEY" } }

  RevenueCat has two REST API versions, and a secret key is made for one of them. A v2 key does not work on v1 endpoints (for example GET /v1/subscribers/{id}), and the reverse. Make the version your code calls.
• Webhook secret: you choose it in RevenueCat’s webhook settings, and your server checks it in the Authorization header. Store it with your secrets tool too.

Check it works

• In the app, Purchases.getOfferings() returns your offering with prices. Empty offerings mean: wrong or missing SDK key, product IDs that do not match, or no active Paid Apps Agreement.
• A sandbox purchase shows up in the RevenueCat dashboard under the customer with your user ID. That needs Purchases.logIn(<your user id>) after sign-in.
• The ship-ios:app-store-ready skill’s Payments section has no BLOCKED items.

Common errors

• The paywall shows no prices and no buy button, and nothing errors. Offerings came back empty. See “Check it works”.
• Purchases do not reach your server. The app never called Purchases.logIn, so purchases sit on an anonymous RevenueCat ID your server cannot match. Or the webhook checks a header RevenueCat does not send.
• A secret key (sk_) in the app bundle. Anyone can read it from the binary and change any customer. Remove it and rotate it now.
• After a restore on a new phone, the subscription is on an empty account. Call Purchases.logIn again whenever the signed-in user changes, and offer sign-in at the paywall so the account and the subscription stay together.
• App Review cannot reach the paid features. Reviewers buy in the sandbox. Make sure sandbox purchases work, and explain in the review notes.

Wrong or out of date? Fix it on GitHub.