Creator & Affiliates

Astral includes an authenticated creator and affiliate program separate from public Explore profiles. Access is account-specific and can require onboarding, an agreement, and payout setup.

Entry and onboarding

Open Affiliates from the app menu. Accounts without a completed affiliate record are routed through creator onboarding. The flow can collect program information, survey responses, agreement acceptance, content details, and payout onboarding.

Marketing-team members are redirected to Astral Analytics → Affiliate when that destination is configured for the release. Other affiliate accounts continue in the trading-app portal described below. Analytics is a separate application with its own access and guidance; this guide does not establish availability of its role-specific controls.

Approved affiliate records can require Stripe Connect setup before commissions are payable. Payout identity, tax, bank, and verification requirements are handled through the presented onboarding flow.

Affiliate dashboard

Depending on role and program access, the dashboard can include:

• referral link and code,
• attributed users and conversion activity,
• earned and paid commission summaries,
• monthly charts and payment records,
• leaderboard,
• partner guide and approved media,
• contract download,
• team or sub-affiliate management.

First month and "How did you hear about Astral?"

Every new customer's first month is $9 (then $30/month) on web checkout, without a code. Checkout no longer has a creator code field, so share your referral link.

Your link attributes visitors to you. After a first payment, customers are asked how they heard about Astral. Customers who arrived without a referral link can pick a creator's Instagram photo and @handle from a list. A pick attributes the customer to that creator's affiliate account, including their first $9 payment, which the referral link would otherwise have covered. If a link already attributed the customer, that attribution stays; their answer is recorded separately and never moves credit. You can't credit yourself.

The list shows connected Instagram accounts that the Astral team has assigned to your affiliate account in Astral Analytics, with each account's current profile photo. Several accounts can credit one affiliate account. Accounts without an assignment, and inactive creators, are hidden. Changes can take up to an hour to appear. Ask the Astral team to add or remove an account.

Your program manager can also arrange additional code aliases for your existing affiliate account. Assigned aliases are case-insensitive and credit the same account and commission history as your original code, including in a referral link. Your original referral link keeps working; the dashboard continues to show that original code. Aliases require a release before they become available, and cannot be added or edited in the dashboard.

Referral and disclosure rules

Use only the referral URL assigned to your account. Attribution, qualifying transactions, commission rate, holdbacks, reversals, payout timing, and termination are governed by the current agreement and dashboard—not by a cached documentation value.

Creators are responsible for clear sponsorship and affiliate disclosures and must not present Astral as guaranteeing results or providing personalized investment advice.

Creator profile versus affiliate account

An Explore public profile represents published product activity. An affiliate account represents a commercial referral relationship. Creating a public profile does not enroll you in the program, and completing affiliate onboarding does not automatically publish strategies or indicators.

Keep the two identities consistent enough that a reader can understand who is making a recommendation, but do not expose payout, tax, team, or agreement data through the public profile.

Attribution lifecycle

Referral reporting can move through several stages: a visitor uses an attributed link (or later names you in the post-purchase question), creates an eligible account, completes a qualifying event, passes any hold or review period, and becomes payable under the agreement. A click, signup, displayed conversion, earned amount, and paid amount are not equivalent states.

Reversals, refunds, duplicate attribution, ineligible traffic, or agreement violations can change an earlier estimate. Use the dashboard’s current status and payment history when reconciling a payout.

Content and disclosure checklist

Before publishing affiliate content:

• Use the assigned referral link without obscuring the destination.
• Place a clear affiliate or sponsorship disclosure near the recommendation.
• Describe Astral as research and workflow software, not a broker or adviser.
• Do not promise profitability, approval, availability, or a specific future feature.
• Distinguish backtest, paper, and live-account examples.
• Use current approved logos and media from the dashboard where required.
• Preserve records needed under your agreement and applicable rules.

Payout onboarding

Stripe Connect can request identity, business, tax, and banking information. Complete that process only through the presented Stripe/Astral flow. Program access can exist before payout setup is complete, but payable commissions can remain blocked until required verification succeeds.

Astral support or a program manager should not request your password, one-time authentication code, or complete bank credentials in an ordinary message.

Teams and sub-affiliates

Where enabled, team and sub-affiliate areas show scoped performance or management information. Access depends on role. Do not assume that every affiliate can invite members, change rates, or view another participant’s full account data.

For attribution disputes, provide the non-sensitive referral code, approximate date, and dashboard state. Do not send a referred user’s private billing information.