Update apple-appstore-reviewer for Guidelines 1.2, 4.3(b), and 4.5.3 🤖🤖🤖

[jimmystridh]

Pull Request Checklist

• I have read and followed the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines.
• I have read and followed the Guidance for submissions involving paid services.
• My contribution adds a new instruction, prompt, agent, skill, workflow, or canvas extension file in the correct directory. (Not applicable: this updates an existing skill.)
• The file follows the required naming convention.
• The content is clearly structured and follows the example format.
• I have tested my instructions, prompt, agent, skill, workflow, or canvas extension with GitHub Copilot.
• I have run npm start and verified that generated documentation is current.
• I am targeting the main branch for this pull request.

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Description

Updates the existing apple-appstore-reviewer skill for Apple's June 8, 2026 changes to App Review Guidelines 1.2, 4.3(b), and 4.5.3.

This is deliberately a focused update. It preserves the existing review workflow, report structure, severity model, examples, and general payment, login, and privacy guidance while adding conditional checks for:

• effective removal of violating user-generated content under Guideline 1.2, with compliance-improvement plans assessed only when Apple has identified a violation;
• meaningful differentiation under Guideline 4.3(b) when the shipped experience, listing, or an Apple-identified established category makes the rule relevant, including evidence-bounded continued-distribution risk for live apps; and
• spam, phishing, or unsolicited customer messaging through Live Activities and other Apple services under Guideline 4.5.3, based on actual triggers and content rather than framework use alone.

The evidence guidance now marks an applicable question Unverified only when the needed artifact is outside scope. A common app purpose, sparse description, or missing marketplace comparison is not treated as evidence that an app is indistinguishable.

This updates one existing skill and adds no bundled assets. Generated documentation is unchanged in the final diff.

Official sources

• June 8, 2026 App Review Guidelines update
• Guideline 1.2 — User-Generated Content
• Guideline 4.3 — Spam
• Guideline 4.5.3 — Apple Sites and Services

Validation

• npm run skill:validate — all 414 skills passed
• Skill Creator quick validation — passed
• npx --yes @microsoft/vally-cli lint skills/apple-appstore-reviewer --verbose — passed
• npm run plugin:validate — all 97 plugins and the external catalog passed
• npm start — passed; generated documentation is current
• GitHub Copilot CLI behavioral tests — applicable UGC and Live Activity risks were found, while an ordinary calculator produced no forced 1.2, 4.3(b), or 4.5.3 finding
• git diff --check — passed
• bash eng/fix-line-endings.sh — invoked; changed Markdown files were independently confirmed to contain no CR characters

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Type of Contribution

• New instruction file.
• New prompt file.
• New agent file.
• New plugin.
• New skill file.
• New agentic workflow.
• New canvas extension.
• Update to existing instruction, prompt, agent, plugin, skill, workflow, or canvas extension.
• Other (please specify):

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Additional Notes

The final change is 20 additions and 6 deletions in skills/apple-appstore-reviewer/SKILL.md relative to main.

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By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution abides by the Code of Conduct and will be licensed under the MIT License.

[Copilot]

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[github-actions]

🔒 PR Risk Scan Results

Scanned 1 changed file(s).

Severity	Count
🔴 High	0
🟠 Medium	0
ℹ️ Info	0

✅ No matching risk patterns were detected in changed files.

This is an automated soft-gate report. Findings indicate review targets and do not block merge by themselves.

[github-actions]

🔍 Vally Lint Results

✅ All checks passed

Scope	Checked
Skills	1
Agents	0
Total	1

Severity	Count
❌ Errors	0
⚠️ Warnings	0
ℹ️ Advisories	0

Summary

Level	Finding
ℹ️	✅ apple-appstore-reviewer (2/2 checks passed)
ℹ️	✓ [spec-compliance] All 1 skill(s) are spec-compliant.
ℹ️	✓ spec-compliance: All spec checks passed.
ℹ️	✓ [valid-refs] All file references across 1 skill(s) are valid.
ℹ️	✓ valid-refs: All file references resolve to existing files within the skill directory.
ℹ️	1 skill(s) linted, 1 passed

Full linter output

### Linting skills/apple-appstore-reviewer
✅ apple-appstore-reviewer (2/2 checks passed)
    ✓ [spec-compliance] All 1 skill(s) are spec-compliant.
        ✓ spec-compliance: All spec checks passed.
    ✓ [valid-refs] All file references across 1 skill(s) are valid.
        ✓ valid-refs: All file references resolve to existing files within the skill directory.

1 skill(s) linted, 1 passed

[Copilot]

Review details

• Files reviewed: 1/1 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced