Refgrow Platform Help

Refgrow is affiliate/referral software for SaaS in the self-serve Stripe-native cohort (Tolt, Affonso, PromoteKit,
Rewardful, FirstPromoter). Its differentiator: the affiliate dashboard embeds inside your product — one div plus one
script — not a separate portal. The whole developer surface (REST, webhooks, MCP, CLI) ships on the entry tier.

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first. Establish these before answering. Skip-ahead rule: if the
user's prompt already has enough context, go to Step 2.

1. What are they trying to do? Launch · fix attribution · embed the widget · build an integration · pick a plan ·
   compare platforms · debug something already broken
2. Which billing provider? Stripe · Paddle · LemonSqueezy · Polar · Dodo · something else (meaning server-side
   conversions via the API, not native ingestion). And which interface? Dashboard · REST · MCP · CLI · Zapier/Make
3. What domain does the app run on? Specifically, is it a multi-part TLD (.co.uk, .com.au, …)? That alone breaks
   cookie attribution (Gotcha 1). And is money already moving? A live program limits what you can safely change.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

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

When routing, give the exact command, e.g. /sales-affiliate-program {user's original question}.

Step 3 — Refgrow platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — automation surface per module, pricing and plan gates,
attribution priority order, data model, three quick-start recipes, and peer comparison.

Read references/refgrow-api-reference.md for the verbatim vendor docs (all 25 pages). It opens with live-probe
results, a docs-vs-reality divergence table, and corrected code for the calls the vendor documents wrongly.

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, tier or plan-gated feature, end
  with e.g. "Pricing here is best-effort from research — confirm at https://refgrow.com/pricing." Even if unasked.
• Warn that Refgrow's docs contradict the shipped product before handing over any integration code, naming the trap
  that applies rather than gesturing at "check the docs". Every divergence in Gotchas was verified against the live API,
  the CDN scripts or the npm package, and every one fails silently.
• Ask what TLD the app is on before debugging any click-attribution problem, leading with the multi-part-TLD cookie
  bug if it is .co.uk, .com.au or similar — a client-side bug no setting fixes, so the answer is a workaround. Where
  commission is material, prefer coupon-code or Stripe-metadata attribution over cookie-only: Refgrow's own priority
  order puts coupon match first, and both survive cross-device, ad blockers and the bug.
• Never claim payouts can be automated through the API. Refgrow runs payouts well from the dashboard (PayPal/Wise,
  manual or automatic) but exposes no payout endpoints and no payout MCP tools. Read referrer.payout_preferences
  off the webhook and pay elsewhere; correct the user if they cite the MCP docs' list_payouts/create_payout examples.
• For server-side conversions, give the concrete call, not just the endpoint name: POST /api/v1/conversions with
  Authorization header uses an OAuth access token from the approved secret store and a body oftype,affiliate_id(orreferral_code),base_value,base_value_currencyandreference`. Then insist on your own dedupe table — there is no idempotency key, so a
  replayed Stripe webhook double-pays; key on the Stripe event id and check it before posting.
• Send money values in major units — 250, not 25000 (Stripe hands you cents; divide by 100) — and parse
  earnings fields before arithmetic, since total_earnings and friends come back as strings.
• Size bulk loops against 60 requests/minute (the lowest of three conflicting documented limits) with fixed backoff;
  X-RateLimit-* headers were absent on every probe. Never put the unscoped rgk_ key in client-side code.

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. Click attribution is silently dead on multi-part TLDs. The tracking script reduces the hostname to its last two
   labels and sets domain=.<that>, so app.example.co.uk yields domain=.co.uk — a public suffix browsers reject, so
   the cookie never stores. Hits .co.uk, .com.au, .com.br, .co.nz. data-cookie-domain is not an escape
   hatch — the shipped script never reads it (see Gotcha 4). Attribute server-side or via Stripe metadata instead.
2. An existing customer can never be retro-attributed. POST /api/store-attribution refuses with
   {existingUser:true, reason} (direct_user_before_referral, conversion_exists, two …_since_direct variants) then
   deletes the local cookies. Deliberate — and the usual reason referring a known customer pays nothing.
3. The documented server-side attribution call always fails. /docs/tracking shows {email, referral_code} with a
   Bearer key; the endpoint requires {projectId, affiliateCode} (plus optional url, email) and takes no auth.
   The documented body returns 400. Being a public unauthenticated write, treat script-driven attribution as advisory.
4. /docs/tracking's whole configuration table is inert. The shipped script reads only data-project-id —
   data-param, data-cookie-days and data-cookie-domain are never read, so none of them do anything. That page also
   names the wrong cookie (ref; the script writes refgrow_ref_code, as /docs/stripe correctly says) and gives the
   cookie default as both 90 days (table) and 30 days (prose). Cookie lifetime is a project setting, not an
   attribute.
5. The JWT-SSO widget embed does not exist. /docs/authentication's
   <div id="refgrow-affiliate-dashboard" data-auth-token="{JWT}"> loads cdn.refgrow.com/js/affiliate-dashboard.js,
   which 404s; the real loader binds only #refgrow/#refgrow-compact with no token handling. Use the
   data-project-email embed and treat affiliate SSO as unavailable.
6. Four MCP tools in the vendor's examples do not ship — get_project_stats, get_top_affiliates, list_payouts
   and create_payout appear only in /docs/mcp-server example conversations; the package exposes exactly 18 tools over
   affiliates, referrals, conversions and coupons. create_affiliate takes only email, referral_code, partner_slug.
7. Three documented rate limits, all different. 100/min per IP + 1000/hr per key (/docs/api-overview), 100/min per
   key (/docs/api-reference), 60/min per key (/docs/mcp-server). Design against 60/min.
8. Two documented error envelopes; the flat one is real. Live responses are {"success":false,"error":"<string>"},
   but /docs/endpoints and /docs/api-overview show a nested {"error":{"code",…}} — err.error.code throws. Those
   pages also disagree on list-response shape and field casing; prefer /docs/api-reference, which matches the product.
9. Webhook and REST identifiers differ: webhooks send referrer.id: "456" / conversion.id: "conv_123" as strings, REST returns integers. Match on your own reference — there is no event id to dedupe on.
10. The vendor's own Node signature snippet crashes on a bad signature. crypto.timingSafeEqual throws RangeError
    on length mismatch, exactly what a missing or truncated header produces. Compare lengths before calling it.
11. There is no free tier and no sandbox, despite the vendor's blog and AI Recruiter doc referencing a free plan;
    /pricing shows a 7-day card-required trial and a $29 floor. Test against a throwaway project. Payouts,
    commission rules, AI Recruiter and Referral Exchange are UI-only — only affiliates, conversions, referrals and
    coupons have endpoints.

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 — Price peer with a native MCP server but no webhooks, so integrations must poll; unlike Refgrow it also files 1099s
• /sales-affonso — The deep-automation peer: 78 endpoints, scoped keys, 21 signed webhook events, enforced external_event_id idempotency — pick it over Refgrow unless you need the embedded widget
• /sales-promotekit — The cheaper Stripe-only peer with a real free tier, but it never pays affiliates; Refgrow's dashboard payouts are the inverse trade
• /sales-growsurf — Referral and affiliate software with an in-product JS SDK and automated 1099 filing
• /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-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: "Affiliate clicks aren't tracking at all"

User: "I installed the Refgrow script but no clicks show up. We're at app.mytool.co.uk."

Approach: The domain is the answer — lead with it. The tracking script collapses the hostname to its last two labels
and sets domain=.co.uk, which browsers reject as a public suffix, so the cookie never stores and zero clicks register.
This is a client-side bug, not a misconfiguration — and data-cookie-domain will not save them, because the script never
reads it. Give the two workarounds: pass the referral code into the Stripe Checkout Session as metadata.referral_code
or client_reference_id so attribution happens server-side at purchase, and issue per-affiliate coupon codes, which sit
first in Refgrow's priority order and survive cookie loss entirely. To keep client-side capture, read the ref URL
parameter yourself, persist it in your own cookie, and hand it to checkout. Warn that /docs/tracking reads a cookie
named ref while the script writes refgrow_ref_code, so copying it reproduces the same silent failure.

Example 2: "Can I automate payouts from Claude Code?"

User: "I want to approve and send affiliate payouts by asking Claude. The MCP docs show a create_payout tool."

Approach: Correct the premise first — that tool does not exist. The published @refgrow/mcp package ships 18 tools
covering affiliates, referrals, conversions and coupons; create_payout, list_payouts, get_project_stats and
get_top_affiliates appear only in the docs' example conversations. Refgrow has no payout endpoints at all, so this is
an API gap, not an MCP gap. What they can automate: subscribe to referral_converted, read
referrer.payout_preferences (paypal_email, wise_details) off the webhook, drive PayPal Mass Payments or Wise Batch
Payments, then mark settlement with refgrow conversions update <id> --paid. Show the MCP config (npx -y @refgrow/mcp
with REFGROW_API_KEY) for what it genuinely does, and note payouts stay a dashboard action.

Example 3: Automation — "Record conversions from our own billing"

User: "We bill through Stripe but with custom logic. How do I push conversions to Refgrow from our backend without
double-paying?"

Approach: POST /api/v1/conversions with type: "purchase", the affiliate_id, base_value in major units
(divide Stripe cents by 100), base_value_currency, and reference set to the Stripe object id. Resolve the affiliate
with GET /affiliates/{url-encoded-email} or pass referral_code; commission is auto-calculated when value is
omitted, respecting the affiliate-override → product-specific → default chain. The double-pay risk is the real question:
there is no idempotency key here, and the 409 on duplicate reference is mentioned but not guaranteed — keep your
own processed-event table keyed on the Stripe event id. Error bodies are flat, so the handler must not read
err.error.code; size retries against 60 req/min.

Troubleshooting

Conversions are tracked but commissions are wrong or missing

Check three things in order. Units — base_value and value are major units, so Stripe cents inflate commission
100×; wrong-sized commissions mean units, missing ones mean attribution. Attribution priority — Refgrow resolves
coupon match → checkout metadata → client_reference_id → subscription metadata → email fallback, so a customer with no
coupon and no checkout metadata falls through to email matching, which works only if the Stripe email matches the signup
email exactly. Hold periods — earnings split into eligible_earnings and held_earnings with a next_release_date;
not missing, just not yet releasable. All earnings fields are strings, so arithmetic without parsing concatenates.

Webhook signature verification always fails, or the handler crashes

Two dominant causes. First, verifying a re-serialized body: express.json() parses and re-encodes, changing the bytes
and breaking the HMAC — read raw with express.raw({type:'application/json'}) or the framework equivalent first.
Second, the vendor's own Node snippet calls crypto.timingSafeEqual without a length check, and that throws
RangeError rather than returning false whenever X-Refgrow-Signature is missing, truncated or garbage — so a spoofed
request takes down the handler instead of being rejected. Compare buffer lengths first. The signature is sha256=<hex>
HMAC-SHA256 over the raw body using the webhook's secret, not the rgk_ API key.

A documented endpoint, parameter or tool returns an error or is missing

Assume the docs are wrong before assuming your code is. Refgrow's documentation contradicts itself and the shipped
product in at least a dozen places — two error envelopes, different response shapes and field casing between
/docs/endpoints and /docs/api-reference, three rate limits, a widget script that 404s, an attribution call with the
wrong body, a configuration table the script ignores, and four MCP tools that were never built.
references/refgrow-api-reference.md opens with the divergence table and corrected calls, each verified against the live
API, the CDN scripts or the npm tarball. Prefer /docs/api-reference over /docs/endpoints where they disagree.

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