Requirements & Notes

One Apple ID per container

Bind one Apple ID per container. Multiple Apple IDs in the same container are not supported; use separate containers for separate accounts. Keep each Apple ID’s App Store region aligned with the container’s egress IP when possible.

Linux host memory and swap

The first Apple ID login may need more memory than a small VPS provides.

If host RAM is below 1 GB, add about 2 GB swap:

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
swapon --show && free -h

The first login can take a while on swap; Apple may ask for email/SMS 2FA — wait for it and avoid clicking repeatedly.

Datacenter or cloud egress IPs are sometimes soft-rejected by Apple (often HTTP 301 without Location). See Apple ID login troubleshooting.

Rate limiting

All /v1/ HTTP APIs are limited to 100 requests per minute per IP. WebSocket download progress is not under /v1/ and is unaffected.

Data layout

Persistent data lives in the /app/data volume: downloaded ipa files, users.db, and ipatool config under .ipatool.