Sonar ASO

Sonar — App Store Optimization

Sonar answers app-store questions with real data instead of guesses: how hard a keyword is to rank for, how much search demand it has, what an app's listing is missing, what users complain about in reviews, and roughly what an app earns.

Setup

All calls need an API key in the SONAR_API_KEY environment variable (format aso_...). Get one at https://trysonar.app/developers — new accounts include free credits, no subscription required.

Base URL: https://trysonar.app. Auth header on every request:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/..."

Responses are JSON envelopes: { "data": ... } on success, { "error": { "code", "message" } } on failure. Every response includes X-Credits-Cost and X-Credits-Remaining headers so you can track budget without extra calls.

Core endpoints

Keyword research (the flagship — difficulty 0-100, popularity 0-100, plus ~10 related keyword ideas; costs 10 credits):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/keywords/search?q=meditation%20app&store=ios&country=us"

Keyword metrics (difficulty + popularity for keywords you already have; 1 credit per keyword, bulk up to 25 with comma-separated q):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/keywords/metrics?q=habit%20tracker,sleep%20tracker&store=ios&country=us"

Autocomplete suggestions (what users actually type; 1 credit):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/keywords/suggestions?q=fitness&store=android&country=us"

App lookup (metadata, rating, reviews count, installs on Android; 1 credit). iOS id = numeric track ID, Android id = package name:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/lookup?store=android&id=com.spotify.music&country=us"

App search (store search results in ranking order; 1 credit):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/search?q=recipe%20app&store=ios&country=us&num=20"

ASO audit score (0-100 with itemized checks on title, subtitle, description, screenshots, ratings; 1 credit):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/aso-score?store=ios&id=389801252&country=us"

Extract keywords from a listing (what an app is optimizing for; 1 credit):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/extract-keywords?store=ios&id=389801252&country=us"

Reviews (recent reviews with scores; 1 credit):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/reviews?store=android&id=com.spotify.music&country=us&num=50"

Revenue estimate (monthly revenue + confidence grade and methodology; 1 credit per app, bulk up to 25 ids):

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $SONAR_API_KEY" \
  "https://trysonar.app/api/v1/apps/revenue?store=ios&ids=389801252&country=us"

Working style

• Prefer keywords/metrics (1 credit/keyword) over keywords/search (10 credits) when the user already knows which keywords to evaluate — keywords/search is for discovering NEW keyword ideas.
• Difficulty ≤30 with popularity ≥40 is the classic "opportunity keyword" zone for small apps.
• For competitor analysis: apps/search to find competitors → apps/extract-keywords on each → keywords/metrics on the union.
• Bulk endpoints (keywords/metrics, apps/revenue) accept up to 25 items per call — always batch instead of looping.
• Country codes are ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (us, gb, de, jp...). Metrics differ per country; ask the user which market they care about if unclear.

MCP alternative

If the agent host supports MCP, the same tools are available natively: npx -y @sonarapp/mcp (stdio) or hosted at https://trysonar.app/mcp (streamable HTTP, Authorization: Bearer aso_...). Docs: https://trysonar.app/docs/mcp

Full plan features

Subscribers (Full plan) also get org-scoped endpoints for persistent tracking — daily rank history, competitor keyword gap analysis, alerts, and a dashboard. See https://trysonar.app/docs/api for the complete reference.