The AffiliateRail skill

The skill is a set of instructions and reference files that teaches Claude how to run a SaaS affiliate program well: commission design worked from your own margins, the terms to write before launch, recruiting and activation, fraud and the polite no, reading the numbers honestly, and the payout mechanics almost nobody writes down (tax forms, the reporting thresholds, VAT and partner invoices, clawbacks, why a 200 from a payout API is not a payment).

Download: affiliaterail-skill-latest.zip

The stable address always serves the current version; the versioned file beside it (currently affiliaterail-skill-v1.0.0.zip) never changes once published, so you can pin one if you prefer.

It has two modes, and picks one itself

• Not connected: a competent advisor. Ask it anything about running a program and it answers from its reference files, including the tax-form and payout material grounded in professional advice, with a standing note that it is general information rather than tax advice.
• Connected to AffiliateRail (via the MCP server): an operator. "Who went quiet?", "who should I pay this month?", "is my program healthy?" become live answers composed from the tools, and its hard rule is that it never states a number about your program that did not come from a tool call.

It detects the connection from the tools available in the conversation; you never have to tell it which mode it is in.

What it will not do

It never calls a write tool without showing you the server's confirmation card and getting your agreement first, and it cannot move money however hard it is asked: payouts are not on the MCP surface at all, because AffiliateRail never holds funds. The worst a connected assistant can do is approve a commission into your payable queue or send a campaign, and both require your explicit yes.

Installing

1. Download the zip above and unzip it; you get one folder, affiliaterail-affiliate-programs.
2. Claude Code: put the folder in .claude/skills/ in your project (or ~/.claude/skills/ for every project).
3. Claude apps and claude.ai: upload the zip under Settings, Capabilities, Skills, wherever your plan surfaces skill uploads.
4. Ask an affiliate question. The skill loads itself when the topic matches; there is nothing to invoke.

For live answers, also connect the MCP server. The skill works without it; it is simply better with it.

Updates

The version lives in the skill's own metadata and in the filename. Re-download affiliaterail-skill-latest.zip and replace the folder to update; nothing else to migrate. Changes ship with the product, because the skill's tool knowledge is pinned to the server in our test suite: if a tool changes, the skill and this page change in the same release.