What AI agents can do on a Shopify storefront

Most of what merchants read about AI shopping is about Shopify Catalog, the shared index that AI channels query. There is a second path that doesn’t go through the catalog at all. An agent can visit your storefront and use tools your store exposes to it. Shopify documents that path as WebMCP, and says it is live now.

This post lists the tools, says where their data comes from, and covers what the docs say you can and can’t control.

What WebMCP is

Shopify’s documentation calls WebMCP “a proposed web standard,” and links to Chrome’s explanation of it (Shopify WebMCP reference). The idea is that a web page can offer named tools to an AI agent running in the browser, so the agent calls “search the store” instead of guessing where the search box is.

Shopify’s page says the tools are “live today, but agent support for WebMCP is currently limited to Chromium-based browsers.” So the tools exist on the storefront, and how many shoppers reach them through an agent is a separate question. The docs don’t say.

The storefront tools

Shopify’s reference lists ten tools. Here they are, grouped the way the page groups them, with Shopify’s own descriptions.

• Finding products. search_catalog searches “the store’s products, collections, articles, and pages” and returns matching products with prices. browse_store lists collections or the products in one. get_product returns “full details for a product, including variants, prices, and which option combinations are in stock.” show_variant takes the shopper to a product page with a specific variant selected.
• The cart. get_cart reads line items and totals. update_cart adds items, changes quantities or removes them. cancel_cart empties it.
• Getting out. proceed_to_checkout takes the shopper to checkout after verifying the cart isn’t empty. manage_orders takes them to their order history page.
• Store questions. search_shop_policies_and_faqs answers questions “about the store’s policies and services, such as returns, shipping, and hours.”

Most of these move the shopper or read something. Only the cart tools change state, and the docs describe those as the same storefront actions apps already use.

A separate set of tools appears once a buyer is in checkout: get_checkout, update_checkout, complete_checkout and navigate_to_storefront. Shopify describes complete_checkout as placing the order “or open a configured review step” (Checkout WebMCP). We cover that half in Agents can check out on Shopify now. Who checks what they read first?

Where the data comes from

This is the difference that matters for anyone worried about accuracy. Shopify’s page says catalog tools “read product, collection, and search data through the Storefront API.” Store information comes from “the store’s own content.”

That is your live storefront data, not a summary of it. The get_product tool returns what your store has, including which variants are in stock.

Compare that with the channels we usually write about. ChatGPT, Copilot and similar agents read Shopify Catalog, which Shopify describes as a structured source of product information gathered from eligible products (what Shopify Catalog is). Shopify’s developer docs mark several catalog fields, including the description and top features, as generated or enriched by Shopify (Global Catalog docs). We walk through those fields in What Shopify’s AI adds to your listings.

So there are two different sources an agent might use for the same product:

• The catalog path. A Shopify-processed record, some of it inferred.
• The storefront path. Your own store data, read through the Storefront API.

An agent that uses the storefront tools is working from your words. An agent that queries the catalog may be working from Shopify’s version of them. The docs we read don’t say which of the two a given agent will use, or whether a single agent uses both.

What you control

Shopify’s tool reference says the tools are deployed on “every Liquid storefront, and on storefronts built with the Hydrogen developer preview,” and that “You don’t need to install or configure anything.” The page lists no merchant setting, opt-out or toggle for the storefront tools.

For checkout, the picture is a little different. Shopify says merchants determine which checkouts support the tools through store configuration, and that checkouts can be excluded based on payment requirements, buyer type or store settings.

We didn’t find a published way to switch off the storefront tools. If that matters to you, Shopify Support is the place to ask, and it’s worth asking in writing.

What you do control is what those tools read. The product data, variants, policies and FAQ content on your store are the inputs, so accurate copy matters on both paths. Our guide on writing descriptions for AI agents applies to either. If you’re unsure how your other AI channels are set up, Shopify agentic storefronts: a settings guide covers the switches that do exist.

What this doesn’t tell us

The docs describe the tools. They don’t describe how often agents use them, how agents choose between the storefront and the catalog, or how an agent turns a tool result into an answer for a shopper. For the catalog side of that question, see How AI shopping agents choose which products to show. For the storefront side, there isn’t a published answer yet.

There is more like this in our explainers.

Common questions

Do I need to install anything to get these tools?

No. Shopify says you don’t need to install or configure anything, and that the tools are on every Liquid storefront.

Are these the same thing as Shopify Catalog?

No. The storefront tools read your store’s data through the Storefront API. Shopify Catalog is a separate, Shopify-built index of products from many stores.

Does Hearsay check what these tools return?

No. Hearsay reads what Shopify’s catalog tells AI agents and compares each claim with your own copy (FAQ). The storefront tools read your own store data, so a claim that comes from the catalog and not from you won’t appear on this path. We can’t see how any agent combines the two.