PromoteKit Platform Help

PromoteKit is affiliate software built exclusively for Stripe-powered SaaS, at the budget end of the Stripe-native
cohort (Tolt, Affonso, Rewardful, FirstPromoter). It tracks referrals and computes commissions but stops short of the
back office: it does not move money and does not collect tax forms.

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

Establish these before answering. Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already contains enough context, go
straight to Step 2.

1. What are they trying to do? Launch · fix attribution · build an integration · choose a plan · compare · debug
2. Which plan? Free · Pro · Enterprise · not signed up. Decisive — API and webhooks are Pro-gated.
3. How is checkout built? No-code Payment Link/pricing table/buy button · own-backend Stripe Checkout · API
   subscription · Memberstack/Outseta/MemberSpace
4. Links, promo codes, or both? Cookie-based links and cookieless Stripe promo codes fail in different ways.
5. Is money already moving? A live program constrains what can safely change — commission edits are partner-visible.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the question is not actually PromoteKit-specific, route rather than answer:

When routing, give the exact command: "This is a program-strategy question — run:
/sales-affiliate-program {user's original question}"

Step 3 — PromoteKit platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — module-by-module automation surface, pricing and plan
gates, data model with JSON shapes, three quick-start recipes (Stripe checkout attribution, verified webhook listener,
payout-run ledger export), and integration patterns.

Read references/promotekit-api-reference.md for the verbatim vendor docs: all 15 endpoints with parameters and
response shapes, the 5 webhook events, Svix verification snippets, tracking-script setup, and live-probe results.

Answer from the relevant section only. Do not dump either file.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

You no longer need the reference files — focus on the user's specific situation.

• MANDATORY CLOSING LINE — never omit it. If your answer mentions any price, plan name, tier, or plan-gated
  feature, end with a sentence marking it best-effort and pointing at the live page, e.g. "Plan gates and pricing here
  are best-effort from research — confirm current tiers at https://promotekit.com/pricing." This applies even when the
  user never asked about pricing.
• Give the API base URL as https://www.promotekit.com/api/v1, and warn that api.promotekit.com is NOT the API —
  that subdomain serves the dashboard sign-up page and returns HTML, so a client pointed at it fails with a JSON parse
  error rather than a clean 401.
• Point at https://www.promotekit.com/docs for API and webhook docs, never docs.promotekit.com. The docs.
  subdomain is a stale mirror with no API page and no webhooks page. If the user says PromoteKit has no API — a claim
  several comparison articles still repeat — correct it: the API and webhooks are real and were verified live.
• State the plan gate and the auth scheme before writing any integration code. API access and webhooks require
  Pro — the free tier (3 referrals) has no programmatic surface to prototype against — and auth is
  `Authorization header uses an OAuth access token from the approved secret store with keys created in Dashboard Settings → API Keys.
• For any "not tracking" problem, check Stripe live mode first. Referrals track in live mode only — a test-mode
  checkout produces no referral and no commission, which looks identical to a broken integration. Tell them to validate
  with a small live charge they refund.
• Spell out the referral hand-off for any custom checkout: read window.promotekit_referral client-side (PHP:
  $_COOKIE['promotekit_referral']), send it to the server with the order, and set metadata.promotekit_referral on
  the Stripe session — a backend-created session cannot see the cookie. For subscriptions it must ALSO go in
  subscription_data.metadata, since session metadata never reaches the subscription recurring commissions match on.
• For webhook work, insist on raw-body Svix verification. Delivery is Svix, so the official svix libraries verify
  directly; express.json() re-serializes and breaks the HMAC (use express.raw). The whsec_ signing secret is a
  different credential from the API key.
• Say plainly that PromoteKit does not pay affiliates and collects no tax forms. No W-9/W-8, no 1099, and the
  payouts API is read-only — build the run by exporting GET /commissions?payout_status=not_paid and paying via
  PayPal Mass Payments or Wise Batch Payments. When comparing against Tolt, name this as the trade being made.
• Warn that there is no idempotency key on POST /referrals or POST /commissions. Tell them to check for an
  existing record before creating, and never to call POST /commissions for revenue Stripe already processed —
  PromoteKit creates those automatically and a second call double-pays.
• Say what PromoteKit cannot do: Stripe-only billing; no native CRM connector, MCP, SDK, CLI, or DELETE endpoint.

If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.

Gotchas

Best-effort from research (2026-07) — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration
gotchas that may be outdated.

1. api.promotekit.com is not the API. It serves the dashboard app (an HTML sign-up page). The base URL is
   https://www.promotekit.com/api/v1. A client aimed at the api. subdomain gets HTML and an unparseable-JSON error
   instead of a 401.
2. Two docs sites exist and the obvious one is stale. docs.promotekit.com has no API page and no webhooks page
   (its llms.txt lists 13 pages, none of them developer docs). Canonical docs: https://www.promotekit.com/docs.
   This is why published comparisons still claim PromoteKit has no API — it does.
3. API access and webhooks are both Pro-gated. Free (3 referrals) has no programmatic surface. Label this gate
   best-effort and link https://promotekit.com/pricing when stating it.
4. Nothing tracks in Stripe test mode. Referrals register in live mode only, so a correct integration looks broken
   during testing. Validate with a small live charge and refund it.
5. Checkout session metadata does not reach the subscription. For mode: "subscription", set promotekit_referral
   in subscription_data.metadata too, or recurring commissions never match.
6. The payouts API is read-only and there are no DELETE endpoints anywhere. No POST /payouts — the API cannot
   trigger payment. Removing a partner is PUT /affiliates/{id} with "banned": true.
7. No idempotency key on any write, unlike Affonso's required external_event_id — guard duplicates with a GET
   first. And POST /commissions is for non-Stripe revenue only: you supply commission_amount yourself (it does
   not apply the campaign rate), so calling it for a Stripe payment double-pays the affiliate.
8. Only 5 webhook events exist, all creation-side. No commission.paid, no ban event, no churn event — poll
   GET /commissions?payout_status=paid and GET /referrals?subscription_status=canceled.
9. Rate-limit headers are documented but not sent. 200 req/min is stated; no X-RateLimit-* or Retry-After appeared on live probes — back off on the 429 status alone.
10. Payout-run traps. Amounts are major units (commission_amount: 20 means 20% or $20, never 20 cents);
    currency is per-commission so never sum across mixed currencies; and payout_email can differ from the
    affiliate's login email, so paying the login address misroutes the money.

Related skills

• /sales-affiliate-program — Commission structures, partner recruitment, onboarding, fraud policy, and program strategy across every affiliate platform. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-affiliate-program -a claude-code
• /sales-tolt — The closest peer: flat-priced SaaS affiliate software that does handle auto-payouts, W-9/W-8 collection and 1099 filing, but ships no webhooks at all
• /sales-affonso — The automation-depth peer: 78 REST endpoints, 21 signed webhook events, an MCP server, and a required external_event_id that makes double-paying structurally impossible
• /sales-checkout — Optimize the checkout page affiliate traffic lands on
• /sales-funnel — Design the offer and funnel affiliates promote
• /sales-email-marketing — Build the affiliate onboarding and nurture sequences
• /sales-refgrow — Peer that embeds the affiliate dashboard inside your product and ingests Polar/Dodo as well as Stripe/Paddle, but runs payouts dashboard-only and ships docs that contradict the shipped product
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code

Examples

Example 1: "My affiliates send traffic and people buy, but no commissions show up"

User: "I built my own Stripe Checkout on the backend. Affiliate links get clicks, customers pay, PromoteKit shows
nothing."

Approach: A backend-created session never sees the browser cookie, so carry the referral manually — read
window.promotekit_referral client-side, POST it with the order, set metadata.promotekit_referral on the session,
and for mode: "subscription" put it in subscription_data.metadata too. First, though, ask whether they were in
Stripe test mode: referrals track in live mode only, producing exactly this symptom on a correct integration. Suggest
validating with a small live charge they refund.

Example 2: "Which is better for us, PromoteKit or Tolt?"

User: "We're a small SaaS on Stripe about to launch an affiliate program. Torn between the two."

Approach: Frame it as one trade, not a feature list. PromoteKit is cheaper (free to 3 referrals, then a flat fee
with no transaction fees) and has real webhooks, but it only tracks — it will not pay affiliates and collects no
W-9/W-8 or 1099s, so a monthly PayPal/Wise run stays on their desk. Tolt handles payouts and tax forms at a higher tier
but ships no webhooks, forcing polling. Ask how many affiliates they expect: under ~20, manual payouts are an hour
a month and PromoteKit wins; past that, the back office starts costing more than the price difference. Note the
API/webhooks Pro gate, and close by flagging pricing as best-effort against https://promotekit.com/pricing.

Example 3: Automation — "Push new commissions into our CRM"

User: "When an affiliate earns a commission I want it in HubSpot automatically."

Approach: Say first that there is no native HubSpot connector, and that webhooks require Pro. The route is
commission.created → verify → push via Zapier/Make/n8n or a listener. Delivery is Svix, so the official svix
library verifies directly — walk through raw-body verification (express.raw, not express.json()), noting the
whsec_ secret is a different credential from the API key. Have them ack within 15 seconds and dedupe on svix-id.
Then flag the gap that bites later: there is no commission.paid event, so payout state still has to be polled via
GET /commissions?payout_status=paid. Key CRM records on the affiliate's email, not the PromoteKit UUID.

Troubleshooting

Referrals never appear, or appear without commissions

Work through four causes in order. Stripe test mode — referrals track in live mode only, so a clean integration
shows nothing; confirm this before touching code. Missing metadata — a backend-created session must carry
metadata.promotekit_referral, plus subscription_data.metadata for subscriptions. Cookie loss — Safari ITP, ad
blockers, cross-device journeys and trials longer than the 60-day default all drop link-based attribution; fix with
cookieless promo codes (code_mode: "coupon") or capture the email early via window.promotekit.refer(email, stripeCustomerId). Script placement — it must load on the pages affiliates land on, and spans only one domain's
subdomains.

Webhook signature verification always fails

Almost always a re-serialized body: verify the raw bytes (request.data, express.raw({type: "application/json"})) before any JSON middleware parses them. Second most common is using the API key instead of the
whsec_ signing secret — different credentials, and the secret comes from the endpoint's own settings under Settings →
Webhooks. Confirm the endpoint is HTTPS. Because delivery is Svix, prefer the official svix library over hand-rolled
HMAC; if verification is hand-rolled, the signed payload is "{svix-id}.{svix-timestamp}.{body}" with the secret
base64-decoded first. Dedupe on svix-id, since retries replay the same message.

A payout ran but PromoteKit still shows the commissions unpaid

Expected: PromoteKit does not move money, and there is no POST /payouts to record one. The API is read-only for
payouts, so payout_status only flips when the payout is recorded in the dashboard after the PayPal Mass Payments or
Wise Batch Payments run. Nor is there a commission.paid webhook, so any pipeline tracking payment state must poll
GET /commissions?payout_status=paid. When building the run itself, group by payout_email (which can differ from the
login email), split by currency rather than summing across it, and skip banned affiliates, who are not eligible for
future payouts.

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