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 onboar

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](references/build from scratch.md) Make an existing screen better [references/improve a screen.md](references/improve a screen.md) Flow & element research; general research method [references/research methods.md](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: 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.

appllama-usage