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AI assistants such as Claude can work with your store’s Depict data through Depict’s MCP server (MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the standard these assistants use to connect to other services). A connected assistant can answer questions about your collections, analytics, search and recommendations, and, if you allow it, make changes such as publishing a collection version or editing Boost & Bury rules. Each assistant connects to one store. You approve every connection in the Shopify admin, choose whether it may make changes, and can revoke it at any time.

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Limits and behavior

  • AI assistants are turned on per store by Depict. When they are on, the AI assistants card appears in Settings → Connections.
  • Every connection can read. Making changes needs two things: you allowed Make changes on your behalf when you approved the connection, and Depict has turned on changes through assistants for your store.
  • Changes an assistant makes are attributed to the person who approved the connection.
  • A connection lasts 30 days from when it was approved. After that the assistant has to connect again, and you approve it again.

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Requirements

  • AI assistants turned on for your store. If the AI assistants card is missing from Settings → Connections, contact us.
  • Access to the Depict: Search & Merchandising app in your store’s Shopify admin. The approval screen opens there, so you need to be able to sign in to the store.
  • An assistant that supports remote MCP servers with OAuth sign-in. The steps below cover the ones Depict has verified.

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Your endpoint URL

Every store has its own endpoint URL:
You don’t need to build it yourself. Open Settings → Connections in the Depict: Search & Merchandising app and find the AI assistants card:
  • Your MCP endpoint shows the URL with a Copy button.
  • Claude Code shows the full Claude Code command with the URL filled in, also with a Copy button.
  • Connected assistants lists the assistants connected to the store.
Use the URL exactly as copied. The store_id part is what ties the connection to your store; without it, the assistant can’t connect.

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Connecting an assistant

Whichever assistant you use, connecting works the same way: you give it the endpoint URL, it opens the approval screen in your Shopify admin, you allow it, and it is connected.

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Claude.ai and the Claude desktop app

Claude.ai and the Claude desktop app share connectors: a connector added in one is available in the other.
1

Add a custom connector

In Claude, go to Customize → Connectors, click +, then Add custom connector. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an organization owner adds it instead, under Organization settings → Connectors (Add → Custom → Web).
2

Enter the endpoint

Give the connector a name, for example Depict, and paste your endpoint URL. Leave the OAuth client ID and secret empty. If the dialog asks how Claude should identify itself, choose Register automatically. Then click Add.
3

Connect

Click Connect on the new connector. Your browser opens the approval screen in your Shopify admin; see The approval screen.
4

Turn it on in a chat

In a chat, open the + menu, then Connectors, and make sure the Depict connector is on.
The steps follow Anthropic’s custom connector guide, which has the current menu names if they change.

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Claude Code

1

Add the server

Copy the command from the Claude Code row of the AI assistants card and run it in your terminal. It looks like this:
Keep the quotes: without them, some shells treat the ? in the URL as a wildcard.
2

Sign in

Start Claude Code, run /mcp, select depict and choose to authenticate. Your browser opens the approval screen in your Shopify admin.
3

Allow

Approve the connection (see below). The browser returns to Claude Code, which lists the Depict tools.

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The approval screen

When an assistant connects, your browser opens the Depict: Search & Merchandising app’s Settings → Connections page inside the Shopify admin, with the connection request at the top of the AI assistants card. If you’re not signed in to the Shopify admin, sign in first; the request waits for 10 minutes. The request reads [name] wants to connect to [store], followed by where approving sends you. Read both before you allow it. The name is what the assistant calls itself. Any program can register under any name, so the name alone doesn’t tell you who is asking. Where approving sends you is the part you can check. When you click Allow, your browser is sent back to the assistant with a one-time code that completes the connection. The screen says where that is: For a website or an app link, the screen adds Only allow if you started this from [name] yourself. If you didn’t just start connecting an assistant, click Cancel: someone may be trying to get access to your store through a link they sent you. Choose what it may do:
  • Read your store’s Depict data (collections, products, analytics) is required and always checked.
  • Make changes on your behalf (publish curation changes, edit rules) is unchecked. Check it only if you want the assistant to make changes. It takes effect only when Depict has turned on changes through assistants for your store.
Then:
  • Allow connects the assistant, and your browser returns to it. If you already had a connection from the same assistant to this store, the new one replaces it. Other people’s connections are not affected.
  • Cancel declines. Nothing is granted. An assistant on your own computer is told straight away; for a website or an app link, nothing is sent back, and the assistant stops waiting on its own.

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What an assistant can do

An assistant connected to Depict gets three tools:
  • overview: a one-page explanation of how Depict models your store (collections and versions, publishing, Boost & Bury, A/B tests, content cards, search, recommendations, analytics). The assistant is asked to read it before its first search.
  • search: looks through the description of the Search & Merchandising API to find the operation that answers a question.
  • execute: runs a short program that calls those operations for your store.
So an assistant can, for example, report which collections earned the most last week, explain why a product sits where it does, compare A/B test results, or, with changes allowed, schedule a collection version or update Boost & Bury rules. It works through the same API as the Depict: Search & Merchandising app and sees the same data. Some things are not available to assistants at all, including billing and subscriptions, Instagram, connecting or disconnecting stores in a multi-store group, deleting collection versions and deleting A/B tests.
Whether an assistant asks you before it runs a tool is decided by the assistant and its settings, not by Depict. Reading and making changes both go through the same execute tool, so allowing that tool without asking also allows changes on a connection that may make them. If you want to review every change, don’t choose “always allow” for it, or connect with read access only.

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Revoking access

Every connection is listed under Connected assistants in the AI assistants card, with its name, where it connected from, its access (Read or Read and write) and the date it was connected. Click Revoke on a row to disconnect it. The assistant’s next request is refused, and it has to connect again, with a new approval, to get access back. Revoking one connection doesn’t affect the others. Each install of an assistant can register separately, so the same assistant may appear more than once, for example Claude Code on two computers.

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Troubleshooting

The AI assistants card is missing, or the assistant reports AI assistants are not enabled for this store. AI assistants are off for the store. Contact us to turn them on. If they are turned off later, connected assistants stop working until they are turned on again. This connection request has expired or was already used; connect again from your assistant. A request is valid for 10 minutes and can be answered once. Start connecting again from the assistant. This connection request belongs to another store. The request is for a different store than the one you are approving it in. Approve it in the Shopify admin of the store whose endpoint URL the assistant uses. The assistant reports This connection belongs to another Depict store. The URL the assistant uses names a different store from the one the connection was approved for, for example after the URL was edited. Remove the server or connector from the assistant and add it again with the URL copied from that store’s Settings → Connections. This request names no Depict store; open the endpoint URL from your Depict settings page. The URL is missing its store_id. Copy it again from the AI assistants card. The assistant says writes are not enabled for this connection. Either the connection was approved without Make changes on your behalf, or changes through assistants are not turned on for the store. Connect again and check the box, or contact us to turn changes on. The assistant stopped working after about a month. The connection expired after 30 days. Connect again from the assistant.