name: appllama-usage
description: Use the Appllama MCP (mcp.appllama.io) well — research real top-grossing mobile apps, their screens, flows, and UI elements, then build from what you learn. Load when the Appllama MCP is connected and the task involves building a mobile app or screen, researching app design patterns, studying onboarding/paywall/feature flows, improving an existing screen, or whenever an appllama_* / search_apps / list_app_screens tool is available. Covers the tool map, pagination, expiring media, and the full build-from-research playbooks.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Appllama (appllama.io)
  version: 1.1.0

Appllama Usage Skill

Appllama is the design library of top-grossing mobile apps — their real screens, flows, and UI patterns, with revenue and download context. The MCP puts that library in an agent's hands: not just a research tool, a builder's tool. You study what already wins, then you build something better.

Pair this skill with appllama-app-design-skill for every design/implementation step — this skill tells you what to study; that one tells you how to build.

Ground rules (read first)

1. Start with get_credits — it's free. It tells you the balance, limits, and reset date. Pro includes 1,500 credits a month (they reset in full on the 1st, UTC); every other call spends 1 credit.
2. Go deep. Design language lives in the whole journey, not a sample — walk every screen of the apps that matter for the task, images included. That is exactly what the library is for. The one thing that's against the terms is harvesting: sweeping the catalog to extract the dataset itself rather than to answer a real task. That isn't research, and it's detected server-side.
3. Media URLs expire in ~1 hour. Download/view what you study promptly. If links died mid-task, re-request that page for fresh ones — screen ids are durable, links are not.
4. Ignore the watermark. Every Appllama image and video carries a small Appllama watermark in the top-left corner. It is provenance, not part of the screen — don't let it skew your read of that corner (status bar, back button, title), and never reproduce it in anything you build.
5. Pagination is sequential. Every list response carries next_cursor; pass it back to continue. You cannot jump to page N — and a cursor only works for the same query that minted it. If a cursor errors, drop it and restart from page one.
6. If you hit a rate limit, wait it out. The per-minute and per-day limits sit far above real research; on the rare hit, wait the stated time — don't retry-hammer.
7. Errors are instructions. Tool errors are written to be acted on (expired cursor → restart; out of credits → tell the user their credits reset on the 1st and they can request more in Settings → Usage).

Tool map

Tool	What it gives you	Typical use
get_credits	Balance, limits, reset date. Free.	Session start
search_apps	10 apps/page: name, revenue, downloads, rating, launch date, screens count, flow list with screen counts. Natural-language query + filters (revenue/downloads/rating/launch date/price/onboarding steps) + sort + board_id	Find the top apps for a category or need
get_app	One app in full: ratings breakdown, category rank, IAP pricing, top countries, flows	Decide if an app deserves a deep study
list_app_screens	10 screens/page in journey order (welcome → onboarding → paywall → product), each with media URL, flow, UI elements, colors. Filter by flow or section	Walk an app screen by screen
search_screens	Screens across the whole library. mode="keyword" matches screen names + filters (flow, screen_type, element, app_id); mode="semantic" searches by meaning/visual language	Gather design references for one screen type
get_screen	One screen in full + up to 5 visually similar screens from other apps. Accepts screen_ref = app_id/screen_id (what appllama.io's "Copy Screen ID" produces)	The user pasted a screen ref; or drill into one reference
list_flows	The flow taxonomy with screen/app counts	Discover what flows exist for a category
get_flow_apps	Apps containing a flow, top revenue first	Find the best examples of one flow
list_ui_elements	~38 UI-element families with counts (one call)	Vocabulary for element-level research
get_element_screens	Screens featuring an element family	Study how winners build one component
list_my_boards	The member's own appllama.io boards (screens / apps / flows)	Find their curation first
get_board	A board's full contents: screens with media, app profiles, or (app, flow) pairs	When the member curated a board for the task, START from it

The screen_ref handshake: members can click "Copy Screen ID" on any screen at appllama.io and paste it to you. It looks like 1393061654/spl_9i075 — feed it straight to get_screen(screen_ref=...) and you're looking at exactly the screen they mean, plus its closest siblings across the library.

The playbooks

Scenario	Reference
Build an app from scratch (e.g. "build me a habit tracker")	references/build-from-scratch.md
Make an existing screen better	references/improve-a-screen.md
Flow & element research; general research method	references/research-methods.md

Both build playbooks end the same way: the simulator loop from appllama-app-design-skill, repeated until you cannot find a flaw. Research without that loop is decoration.

Local reference boards

When you pull screens for study, save them into a local working structure — links expire in about an hour, but your notes and downloads don't:

research/
  <category>/
    apps.md            # the shortlist: metrics, flows, verdicts
    <app-name>/
      screens.md       # per-screen notes: id, name, flow, elements, colors
      img/             # downloaded screens, in journey order
    patterns.md        # cross-app synthesis: the category's design language

Download the screens as you study them — synthesis happens with the images side by side, not from metadata. Notes and screen IDs are durable; re-fetch a fresh link from the ID if you ever need the pixels again.