To ship iOS or macOS apps you need membership in the Apple Developer Program and access to App Store Connect. You then create an App Store Connect API key and store it in the Application Platform.
Apple Developer Program
- Open developer.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID.
- Choose Account / Enroll and complete registration for the Apple Developer Program (annual fee; see Apple’s current documentation).
- After approval you get access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles (Developer portal) and App Store Connect at appstoreconnect.apple.com.
App Store Connect
- In App Store Connect you manage apps, metadata, builds, and users with roles (Admin, App Manager, Developer, and more).
- For CI/CD you typically use a named API key (
.p8file). It does not replace your Apple ID password; it enables machine-to-machine API access.
Team and role notes
- Team: Organizations often share one team; the Developer Team ID is in the Developer portal under Membership or account settings.
- Least privilege: Create API keys only with the permissions you need (for example App Manager for uploads and metadata).
Next step
When the account is ready, set up the API key: App Store credentials.