In short:
ak-referral-program-buildinghelps you design a program where existing customers invite friends to your product: a reward structure based on real money, a platform or a custom build, tracking and fraud controls, then metrics by customer cohort. Commission programs for partners belong to affiliate marketing, not this skill. It stops at a plan and drafts, and it promises no growth numbers before you test.
Disclosure: I maintain AgentKit and have an affiliate relationship with it: the AgentKit link in this post is an affiliate link; buying through it gets you 30% off.
Summary
Use it when you want current customers to refer friends with both sides rewarded, or when you want to evaluate a referral program that is already running. You do not need it when the people being rewarded are partners, KOLs or review sites earning commission: that is affiliate marketing.
flowchart LR
A["SaaS or digital product"] --> B["ak-referral-program-building"]
B --> C["Reward structure, platform, tracking, fraud controls"]
B --> D["Program emails, metrics to track"]
C --> E["You review, approve, then run a pilot"]
D --> F["Report in assets/reports/performance/"]
G["Partner commissions"] -.-> H["Affiliate marketing, out of scope"]Four things to get right so the program does not lose money:
| Point | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Customers refer customers | Who does this program reward? | A customer using the app sends an invite link, their friend signs up and pays, and both get credit. If the people rewarded are partners, KOLs or review sites earning commission, that is affiliate marketing, not this skill's job. |
| Rewards come from real money | What is the most a valid referral is worth paying for? | Before settling on "you get X, your friend gets Y", write down the contribution margin, the value of one qualified referral, the refund risk and the payback period. A two-sided reward only pays off when the extra referrals cover the doubled reward cost, and you only know that by measuring. |
| Rules settled before launch | Which referrals count, who gets credit, when is the reward paid? | Spell out which event makes a referral valid (for example a first payment), how a referral is attributed to the referrer, how duplicates are removed, how self-referral is blocked, and the reward cap per person. Rewards are paid after the qualifying event, with a delay, not at sign-up. |
| Measure by cohort, not by feel | How do you know the program actually makes money? | Define participation rate, conversion rate of qualified referrals, fully loaded CAC, LTV by customer cohort and contribution profit, all over a stated time window. Compare against a similar group that did not come through referrals, and test the invite and the reward against a baseline. |
The rules should be simple enough to explain in 2-3 bullet points. Anything longer is too complex.
Sample prompt for a new program:
/ak-referral-program-building Design a refer-a-friend program
for <app name>, a SaaS plan at <price>/month.
Numbers: <x>% margin, customers stay <number> months on average,
refunds allowed within <number> days, target payback in <number> months.
Done when: there is a reward structure, qualifying conditions, a reward cap
and a pilot plan with a small group of customers.This skill has no flags. Type the product or program type right after the skill name.
Below is the detailed version: the flow, 6 situations with prompts (new program, buy a platform or build your own, referral tracking, fraud prevention, program emails, measuring a running program), how to call the command, the change history by ak release and common pitfalls. The detailed version and the interactive page are for subscribers. Your agent can also search them through the portal's MCP.
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Use this piece in your agent
Get an API keyCopy the text below and paste it into Claude Code, Codex or whichever agent you use. The agent reads the piece and checks it against the repo you have open.
Read "ak-referral-program-building: design a customer referral program" on modernEngineer and apply it to this repo.
1. Call the content_get tool of the modernengineer MCP server with locale "en", slug "ak-referral-program-building". If the modernengineer MCP server is not connected, stop and walk me through connecting it from https://modernengineer.dev/en/mcp.
2. Summarize the main steps of the piece and point out which apply to this repo.
3. Propose concrete changes and ask me before editing any file.Connect MCP in Claude Code (once)
claude mcp add --transport http modernengineer \
https://api.modernengineer.dev/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer <API key>"Reading the full piece over MCP needs an API key from a subscriber account or one that bought this guide. Without access, the agent only gets the opening.
- Version
- v1.0.0
- Updated
- 22/10/2026
- Licence
- All rights reserved
- Slug
- ak-referral-program-building
