# AffiliateRail documentation

> Affiliate program software for SaaS. These docs cover the dashboard, the tracking script, the partner portal, the REST API and the MCP server. Base URL: https://docs.affiliaterail.com

To set up or run a merchant's program, connect https://mcp.affiliaterail.com/mcp (sign in, no key) and call setup_guide first.

- [API reference (interactive)](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/reference)
- [OpenAPI 3.1 document](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/openapi.json)
- [Full API contract as text](https://api.affiliaterail.com/llms-full.txt)

Every page below links to its markdown. Append `.md` to any docs URL for the same thing. Every page in one file: https://docs.affiliaterail.com/llms-full.txt

## Pages

- [AffiliateRail documentation](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/index.md): Run an affiliate program for your SaaS: the dashboard, the tracking script, the partner portal, the REST API and the MCP server.
- [Typed clients and LLM access](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/clients.md): Generate a typed client from the OpenAPI document, and point models at the contract as plain text.
- [API overview](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api.md): A REST API over every object in your program, with an interactive reference generated from the API itself.
- [Money in the API](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/money.md): Integer minor units with a currency in hand, everywhere, enforced by a test that walks every endpoint.
- [Rate limits, errors and versioning](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/rate-limits.md): The operational contract: limits and their headers, idempotent retries, the error catalogue, and how the API versions.
- [Webhooks](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/webhooks.md): Signed HTTP delivery for every event in your program, with verification, retries and partner postbacks.
- [Activity and For You](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/activity.md): One page that says what your team did, and a tab with only what involves you.
- [RecruitAffiliates.ai Partners](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/affiliate-program.md): How our own affiliate program for RecruitAffiliates.ai tracks a referred founder and pays its partner 40% of every payment.
- [The RecruitAffiliates.ai API](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/api.md): Use RecruitAffiliates.ai from your own code: keys, test mode, errors, retries, paging, rate limits and every endpoint.
- [Billing](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/billing.md): Pay for RecruitAffiliates.ai, update your card, recover a failed payment, pause a monthly plan, cancel, or ask for the 30-day refund.
- [More than one brand](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/brands.md): Run RecruitAffiliates.ai for up to five products on Grow: add a brand, switch between brands, and see what each brand keeps apart and what it shares.
- [Bring your current affiliates](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/bring-your-affiliates.md): Upload the people who already promote you, so RecruitAffiliates.ai never emails them and looks for more like your best ones.
- [Campaigns](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/campaigns.md): Send one approved set of emails to many saved affiliates from your own mailbox, and see who's in, who's left out and why, before anything goes.
- [Celebrations](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/celebrations.md): The moments RecruitAffiliates.ai marks with a short line and a small movement, and how to keep the words but stop the movement.
- [Clients](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/clients.md): Share a shortlist, the pipeline or a progress report with a client. They need no account, and the link closes when you say.
- [Competitors](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/competitors.md): The three tiers RecruitAffiliates.ai searches around (Direct, Adjacent, Platforms), why affiliate networks aren't on the list, and how to add or remove one.
- [Connect Airtable](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-airtable.md): Send your affiliates to an Airtable table you pick, one record each, with their stage.
- [Connect Attio](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-attio.md): Send your affiliates to Attio as people, or to a list, with their stage.
- [Connect Awin](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-awin.md): Read the publishers in your Awin program and its Publisher Directory.
- [Connect Dub](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-dub.md): Paste your Dub key so a deal you agree can add the affiliate to Dub in one press.
- [Connect FirstPromoter](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-firstpromoter.md): Paste your FirstPromoter key so a deal you agree can add the affiliate to FirstPromoter in one press.
- [Connect GoAffPro](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-goaffpro.md): Paste your GoAffPro access token so we keep the affiliates you already have out of every email.
- [Connect HubSpot](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-hubspot.md): Send your affiliates to HubSpot as contacts, matched by email, with their stage.
- [Connect impact.com](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-impact.md): Read the publishers in your impact.com program and find new ones to recruit.
- [Connect Notion](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-notion.md): Send your affiliates to a Notion database, one row each, with their stage.
- [Connect Partnerize](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-partnerize.md): Read the partners on your Partnerize network and add them to Saved.
- [Connect PartnerStack](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-partnerstack.md): Paste your PartnerStack key so a deal you agree can add the affiliate to PartnerStack in one press.
- [Connect Pipedrive](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-pipedrive.md): Send your affiliates to Pipedrive as people, matched by email, with their stage.
- [Connect Refersion](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-refersion.md): Paste your Refersion Client ID and Client Secret so we keep the affiliates you already have out of every email.
- [Connect Rewardful](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-rewardful.md): Paste your Rewardful key so a deal you agree can add the affiliate to Rewardful in one press.
- [Connect Salesforce](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-salesforce.md): Send your affiliates to Salesforce as leads or contacts, matched by email.
- [Connect Tolt](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-tolt.md): Paste your Tolt key so a deal you agree can add the affiliate to Tolt in one press.
- [Connect UpPromote](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-uppromote.md): Paste your UpPromote API key so we keep the affiliates you already have out of every email.
- [Connect Webgains](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/connect-webgains.md): Read Webgains Publisher Search and add the publishers to Saved.
- [Email lookups and finding emails](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/credits.md): What a RecruitAffiliates.ai email lookup is, what uses one, when you get it back, and how email finding, Find new and Add your own work.
- [Your customers as affiliates](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/customers.md): Upload your customer list, and RecruitAffiliates.ai ranks it and puts your best customers at the top of Discover, marked as your customer.
- [Delete your account](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/delete-organisation.md): How the owner deletes a RecruitAffiliates.ai account, how the two weeks to undo work, and what stays if you also use AffiliateRail.
- [Discover and Saved](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/discover.md): How to read a match, go through your new matches, and work your shortlist, and what costs an email lookup and what doesn't.
- [How RecruitAffiliates.ai finds websites](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/discovery.md): What a search searches for, what it leaves out and why, how the two numbers on a website row are made, how podcasts are found, and when the next search runs.
- [RecruitAffiliates.ai notifications and emails](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/emails.md): Which RecruitAffiliates.ai updates appear in the app, which ones arrive by email, and how delivery preferences work.
- [Find emails and export a group](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/find-emails-and-export.md): Find every missing email in a list or segment in one go, see the most it can cost first, and download any group as a CSV or Excel file.
- [The free preview](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/free-preview.md): Type your website on recruitaffiliates.ai and see ten affiliates in under a minute, with no account. What it shows, where the list comes from and what moves into your account when you sign up.
- [Getting started with RecruitAffiliates.ai](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/getting-started.md): The setup steps that start your first search, and the brand settings that change any of it later.
- [Goals](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/goals.md): Set one number for your team to aim for, like 5 new partners this month, and see how close you are on Today and Results.
- [The deal and the hand-off](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/handoff.md): How a deal in RecruitAffiliates.ai becomes a partner and a commission rule in your AffiliateRail program, in one press.
- [How scoring works](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/how-scoring-works.md): The four parts of the fit score, the points each one is worth, and the rules we keep. The same page is at recruitaffiliates.ai/how-we-score.
- [RecruitAffiliates.ai](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder.md): Find affiliates, agree their terms and move accepted partners into AffiliateRail.
- [Instagram discovery](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/instagram.md): How RecruitAffiliates.ai finds Instagram and TikTok creators for your product, the two tiers, the proof behind each one, and what it never shows.
- [Integrations](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/integrations.md): Connect the tool where you track affiliates, send affiliates to a sheet, your CRM or your cold-email tool, and get Slack alerts, all from one tab.
- [Lanes](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/lanes.md): Add your own columns inside a pipeline stage on the Grow plan, and what happens to the cards in them.
- [Lists and segments](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/lists.md): Group your saved affiliates by hand with lists, or keep a set of filters that fills itself with a segment, then open, email or export the group.
- [Mailroom](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/mailroom.md): Every reply from every mailbox in one list: filter it, see who needs an answer, snooze what can wait, and reply from the right mailbox.
- [The Make app](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/make-app.md): Run a Make scenario the moment a creator replies, and act on prospects from any scenario.
- [Use RecruitAffiliates.ai from your AI assistant](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/mcp.md): Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP client, then set up, search, shortlist, find emails and offer terms by asking.
- [The n8n node](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/n8n-node.md): Start an n8n workflow the moment a creator replies, and act on prospects from any workflow.
- [Numbers](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/numbers.md): Every number you see in more than one place, what it counts, and the window it covers.
- [Your offer](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/offer.md): What the offer holds, how it compares with your competitors' own program pages and with what programs of your kind usually pay, and what we do with a page we can't read.
- [The Outreach screen](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/outreach-screen.md): Everyone you're emailing on one screen, one row per person: who waits for your yes, who's being emailed, who replied and who went quiet.
- [Outreach and your mailbox](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/outreach.md): Connect your own mailbox, write an email from your offer, approve it, and see what RecruitAffiliates.ai sends, when it stops, and what it keeps.
- [Partner gap](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/partner-gap.md): A table of who your competitors work with, by kind of partner, next to who you work with.
- [People](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/people.md): One list of everyone we found for you and everyone you've emailed, with a tab for where each person is: New, Saved, Contacted, Replied and Joined.
- [Use it on your phone](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/phone.md): RecruitAffiliates.ai fits a phone screen, and you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app.
- [Pipeline and Keep](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/pipeline.md): Move affiliates through outreach, understand the board numbers, undo a move safely, and nudge an activated affiliate who has gone quiet.
- [Your program page](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/program-page.md): Switch on a public page for your affiliate program so creators can read your offer and apply. Each application waits in Found for your yes or no.
- [Follow-up reminders](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/reminders.md): When a follow-up date you set on a card comes round, we tell you in the bell, in one morning email and in Slack if you've connected it.
- [Report a problem](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/report-a-problem.md): Something broke? Press Report a problem and we'll see the page, the error and your account without you describing them.
- [Results](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/results.md): Is your affiliate program working, and where? One page, counted in replies and partners.
- [Rules](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/rules.md): Let the board do the routine steps for you: when a reply, a move, a quiet card, a sign-up or a follow-up date happens, a rule moves, assigns, follows up, tags or tells someone. A rule never sends an email.
- [Saved replies](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/saved-replies.md): Write the answers you give all week once, then drop one into the Mailroom's reply box, change what you like and press Send.
- [Search with ⌘K](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/search.md): Jump to any affiliate, campaign, page or setting from one box. Press ⌘K, Ctrl+K or / on any page.
- [Account security](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/security.md): Change your RecruitAffiliates.ai password or email, turn on two-factor, see where you're signed in, and sign out everywhere, all from Settings.
- [Send to Clay](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/send-to-clay.md): Send affiliates from a list, a segment or a selection into a Clay table, one row each.
- [Send to Google Sheets](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/send-to-google-sheets.md): Send a list or a segment to a Google Sheet, one row per affiliate, and keep it up to date if you like.
- [Send to Instantly](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/send-to-instantly.md): Find affiliates here and add them to a Instantly campaign you pick. Instantly sends the emails.
- [Send to lemlist](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/send-to-lemlist.md): Find affiliates here and add them to a lemlist campaign you pick. lemlist sends the emails.
- [Send to Smartlead](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/send-to-smartlead.md): Find affiliates here and add them to a Smartlead campaign you pick. Smartlead sends the emails.
- [Slack alerts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/slack-alerts.md): Get a Slack message when someone replies, a partner goes active, and once a week.
- [Your team](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/team.md): Invite teammates to RecruitAffiliates.ai, see how many seats your plan has, pick a role for each person, give affiliates to teammates, and talk about them in notes with @mentions.
- [Testimonials](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/testimonials.md): Why RecruitAffiliates.ai asks how it went after the first person says yes, what happens to what you write, and how to take it back off our website.
- [Webhooks](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/webhooks.md): Get a signed message at your own URL, or in Slack, the moment something happens in RecruitAffiliates.ai.
- [The weekly batch](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/weekly-batch.md): Each week the best new matches wait in one place with their emails written. You approve them from your phone in a few minutes, and nothing sends until you do.
- [YouTube discovery](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/youtube.md): How RecruitAffiliates.ai finds YouTube channels for your product, what the two numbers on each row mean, and which channels it leaves out and why.
- [The Zapier app](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/zapier-app.md): Start a Zap the moment a creator replies, and act on prospects from any Zap, without writing code.
- [Set up with your AI agent](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started/ai-assistant.md): Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or Codex, ask it to set up your affiliate program, and it works through setup with you.
- [Authentication](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started/authentication.md): API keys, scopes, live and test mode, and how AI agents connect over MCP without one.
- [Concepts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started/concepts.md): The objects an affiliate program is made of, and the lifecycle a referral moves through.
- [Getting started](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started.md): What AffiliateRail is, how the pieces fit together, and the fastest route to a working program.
- [Verifying your install](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started/install-verification.md): What installed means, how the live verifier proves it with a real click, and what each timeout diagnostic is telling you.
- [Quickstart](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/getting-started/quickstart.md): The eight steps on Getting started, in the app's order, from an empty account to a test sale.
- [Account security](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/account-security.md): Two-factor, backup codes, the devices signed in as you, and the way back if you lose your phone.
- [Ad blockers and your tracker domain](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/ad-blockers.md): What ad blockers do to affiliate tracking, why a first-party tracker host answers most of it, and what nothing can fix.
- [Attribution and tracking](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/attribution.md): How the script tracks referrals, proving your install, the four attribution paths, and fixing unattributed sales.
- [Your plan and billing](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/billing.md): Plans, monthly or yearly, VAT, cards, invoices and cancelling, all from inside your account.
- [Emails we send](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/emails-we-send.md): Every email AffiliateRail sends you and your partners, which of them you can turn off, and which will always arrive.
- [Imports](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/imports.md): Bring partners, customers and transaction history with you, with a dry run first and a rollback if you change your mind.
- [Platform guides](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides.md): Task-by-task guides to the dashboard: settings, commission rules, attribution, payouts, the portal, messaging, imports and safeguards.
- [Links and domains](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/links-and-domains.md): Partner links, short-link domains, the portal on your own domain, and a first-party tracker host.
- [Messaging](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/messaging.md): Automated emails, campaigns, sequences, in-portal announcements, resources, and sending from your own domain.
- [When Stripe won't let you connect](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/own-stripe-account.md): Stripe refuses two kinds of account on the Connect screen: your own, and one another platform already controls. Here is why, and the two steps that work instead.
- [Connecting Paddle](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/paddle.md): Attribute sales from your Paddle checkout: the API key, the notification destination, the field that carries the click id, and what to check when a sale doesn't appear.
- [The partner portal](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/partner-portal.md): What partners see, how they sign in, applications and review, branding, and per-group signup links.
- [Partners](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/partners.md): The partner list, the three-step funnel above it, the never-promoted filter, and the nudge email.
- [Payout methods](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/payout-methods.md): Which methods pay themselves and which you pay by hand, why that split exists, and how the Payoneer batch file is used.
- [PayPal payouts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/payouts-paypal.md): Create a PayPal Business account, switch on Payouts, and connect the Client ID and Secret.
- [Wise payouts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/payouts-wise.md): Open a Wise Business account, create a full-access API token, and connect it with your profile ID.
- [Payouts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/payouts.md): Payouts from your own account: eligibility, batching, PayPal and Wise, the manual methods, and tax forms.
- [Privacy and your data](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/privacy-and-data.md): Who controls what, the DPA accepted at signup, how long each record is kept, and how a partner or customer exercises their rights.
- [Program setup](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/program-setup.md): The getting started checklist, the settings page, groups and tags, and customer auto-enrolment.
- [Commission rules](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/rules.md): Multi-branch commission rules: how rules are judged, the six templates, conditions, priority, approval, and the preview.
- [Safeguards and risk](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/safeguards.md): Referral safeguards on every plan, and hourly fraud monitoring on Scale.
- [Security](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/security.md): What we do to protect your data, what we don't do, and how to report a vulnerability.
- [The Stripe App](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/stripe-app.md): Install AffiliateRail from the Stripe App Marketplace: what it can read, what it shows on a customer, and how it differs from connecting Stripe the older way.
- [US year end and 1099 reporting](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/us-tax-year.md): Who you paid, how much, and by which payout method, for the US tax year. Why we do not tell you which form to file.
- [Zapier](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/guides/zapier.md): Connect your program to about eight thousand other tools, with no code and no webhook handler to host.
- [MCP overview](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp.md): Connect your AI agent, ask it to set up your affiliate program, then run the program from there.
- [Sample prompts](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/prompts.md): Prompts that map cleanly onto the server's tools, from daily questions to a Monday-morning briefing.
- [Recipes](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/recipes.md): The question-to-tools sequences: what to ask, which tools answer it, and how the answer is read.
- [Security](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/security.md): How the MCP connection is secured: OAuth with PKCE, scoped keys, short-lived tokens, and the boundaries that never move.
- [Connect your assistant or editor](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/setup.md): Add the AffiliateRail MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or VS Code, then ask it to set up your program.
- [The AffiliateRail skill](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/skill.md): A Claude skill for running an affiliate program: expert answers on its own, live answers about your program when connected.
- [Tool reference](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/mcp/tools.md): Every tool and resource the MCP server exposes, with inputs, defaults and what comes back.
- [Server-side attribution](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/attribution.md): Attribute sales without Stripe Checkout: read the referral cookie and pass one metadata field.
- [Next.js](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/attribution/nextjs.md): Attribute a Stripe customer from a server action with the App Router.
- [Node](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/attribution/node.md): Read the referral cookie and attribute a Stripe customer from any Node handler.
- [Python](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/api/attribution/python.md): Attribute a Stripe customer from Flask, Django or FastAPI.
- [No-code recipes](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/recipes.md): Connect RecruitAffiliates.ai to Zapier, Make or n8n with the API, step by step, with the exact request settings.
- [Make: send saved affiliates to your CRM](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/recipes/make.md): Every morning, Make picks up the affiliates you saved in RecruitAffiliates.ai and adds each one to your CRM.
- [n8n: save your top 10 and collect their emails](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/recipes/n8n.md): An n8n workflow that saves your 10 best matches, finds each one's email and adds them to a Google Sheet.
- [Zapier: start a search from a Google Sheet](https://docs.affiliaterail.com/finder/recipes/zapier.md): Add a competitor's website to a sheet and RecruitAffiliates.ai starts a search for their affiliates.