Connecting an AI tool

Storefront MCP connects your store to an AI tool you already use, such as Claude, so you can ask questions about your store in plain language instead of looking things up page by page. Ask which domains expire this month, why an order failed, or how your store performed last month, and the AI tool answers from your live store data. It can also draft customer emails using that data, for you to review and send yourself.

Storefront MCP is optional, and it's read-only. Your AI tool can look at your store data but can't create, change or delete anything.

Before you begin

You need an account with an AI tool that supports MCP (Model Context Protocol), the open standard Storefront uses to share data with AI tools. Claude and ChatGPT both support it, and so do a growing number of other AI tools. Which plans can add their own MCP servers is up to each AI provider, so check your AI tool's documentation for "MCP", "connectors" or "custom integrations" if you're not sure.

Your AI tool account is yours, separate from Storefront. Any subscription or usage costs for the AI tool are billed by the AI provider, not by Storefront.

You also need your Storefront Manager login. You use it once, to approve the connection.

What your AI tool can see

Once connected, your AI tool can read the same store data you see in Storefront Manager:

Data	Includes
Customers	Name, email, account status, the date the account was created, and the full customer record
Domains	Domain name, TLD, owning customer, expiry date, auto-renew status, domain status, the full domain record including nameservers, and your domain imports
Orders	Order type (registration, transfer or renewal), status, domain, amount and date, plus each order's line items, payments, refunds and taxes
Products and subscriptions	Your recurring-billing products and categories, and each subscription's customer, plan, status (active, past due or cancelled), next billing date, amount and currency
Store performance	Your dashboard summary (total orders, customers, domains and earnings) and an income statement for any date range
Reports	KPI, financial, tax and TLD reports, by day, month or year
Pricing	TLD pricing, add-on pricing including privacy protection, default markup, rounding rules, currencies and the full list of TLDs
Tax rules	Your tax rules and their tax IDs
Store settings	Branding, website content, default nameservers, DNS templates, custom code, and the name of your connected Stripe account
Email and notifications	Your email sending domains and their DNS authentication status, and your webhook and email notification settings
Search	Search across customers, orders and domains at once, and your recent searches in Storefront Manager

Your AI tool only ever sees your own store. Storefront checks every request against the account that approved the connection, so the AI tool can't reach another reseller's data, however a question is worded.

Your AI tool can see which Stripe account is connected, but nothing held in Stripe itself, such as transactions or payouts. Payment, refund and subscription details come from Storefront's own records.

Your AI tool can't take actions in your store. If you ask it to renew a domain, refund an order or change a setting, it can tell you where to do that in Storefront Manager, but you make the change yourself.

Connecting your AI tool

Connecting takes two parts: copying the server address from Storefront Manager, then approving the connection when your AI tool asks for it.

Copy the MCP server URL

In Storefront Manager, go to Settings → Developer Settings → Storefront MCP.
Under MCP Server URL, click Copy.

Connection Status shows Not yet connected until you finish the steps below.

Add the URL to your AI tool

In your AI tool, open the settings where you add MCP servers. Different tools name this differently, for example connectors, integrations or MCP servers.
Add a new server and paste the URL you copied. Give it a name you'll recognize, such as "Storefront".
Start the connection. Your AI tool opens a Storefront page in your browser.

For help with these steps in your AI tool, see its own documentation:

Claude: Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP
ChatGPT: Developer mode and MCP apps in ChatGPT

Approve the connection

If you're not already logged in to Storefront Manager, log in with your usual OpenSRS credentials.
Storefront shows which AI tool is asking for access and what it will be able to do. Check that Logged in as shows the account for the store you want to connect. If it doesn't, click Switch accounts and log in with the right one.
Click Allow Access.

Storefront confirms that it's connected and sends you back to your AI tool. If you're not sent back automatically, use the return link on the page.

Back in Storefront Manager, the Storefront MCP page now shows Connected, with the date of the last connection.

You don't need to create or store an API key. Storefront and your AI tool handle sign-in behind the scenes, and the connection stays in place until you disconnect it.

Using your AI tool with Storefront

Ask questions the way you'd ask a colleague who has your store open in front of them. For example:

"Which of my domains expire in the next 30 days, and which of those have auto-renew turned off?"
"Why did the most recent transfer order for example.com fail?"
"List the subscriptions that are past due, with the customer's name and amount owed."
"How much did I earn last month, and how does that compare with the month before?"
"Draft a renewal reminder for the customer who owns example.com."

Your AI tool decides when to look up store data, so you don't need to tell it which data to use. It works from the data as it is at the moment of the request.

To get better answers about how Storefront works, and drafts that sound like your store, set up an AI workspace with Storefront's documentation and our instructions template. See MCP setup guide.

Your data and your AI provider

When your AI tool looks up your store data, that data passes through your AI provider's systems so the AI can use it in its answer. This can include customer records and financial information, such as your earnings and reports. The AI provider's own terms and privacy policy apply to how it handles that data. Review them before you connect, particularly if you've promised your customers to keep their information within certain systems.

Storefront records which kinds of data your AI tool requested and when, so we can keep the service running reliably. Storefront doesn't receive or store your questions or the AI tool's answers.

Disconnecting your AI tool

Disconnect when you stop using the AI tool, change AI providers, or want to cut off access immediately for any reason.

Go to Settings → Developer Settings → Storefront MCP.
Next to Disconnect AI Tool, click Disconnect AI Tool.
Confirm by clicking Disconnect AI Tool again.

Access ends straight away. Your AI tool can no longer read any of your store data, and Connection Status goes back to Not yet connected. Earlier conversations in your AI tool aren't affected, so anything the AI already showed you stays in those conversations.

The Storefront server may still be listed in your AI tool's settings. Remove it there too if you don't plan to reconnect. To reconnect later, start the connection again from your AI tool and approve it.

Troubleshooting

I added the URL to my AI tool, but Storefront still says Not yet connected.
The connection isn't finished until you click Allow Access on the Storefront approval page. Start the connection again from your AI tool's settings and complete the approval. If your browser blocks pop-ups, allow them for your AI tool, since that's how it opens the Storefront page.

The connection failed when I approved it.
Try connecting again from your AI tool. If it fails a second time, remove the Storefront server from your AI tool, add it again with a freshly copied URL from Settings → Developer Settings → Storefront MCP, and approve it. Contact support if it still fails.

My AI tool is showing data from the wrong store.
The connection was approved while you were logged in to a different Storefront Manager account. Disconnect it from the Storefront MCP page of the store it's connected to, then connect again, and use Switch accounts on the approval page to pick the right account.

My AI tool says it can't make a change I asked for.
Storefront MCP is read-only, so your AI tool can't make changes in your store. Make the change in Storefront Manager. Your AI tool can tell you where to find the setting.

My AI tool's answer doesn't match what I see in Storefront Manager.
Ask the AI tool to look up the data again, or to show you which records it used. AI tools sometimes answer from earlier in the conversation, or from general knowledge, instead of fetching fresh data. Storefront Manager is always the authority on your store.

My AI tool says it has hit a rate limit.
Storefront limits how many data requests one store can make in a short period. Wait a few minutes and ask again. Questions that cover a narrower set of records, such as one month or one customer, use fewer requests.

I disconnected, but Storefront still appears in my AI tool.
Disconnecting in Storefront Manager ends the AI tool's access, but your AI tool doesn't remove the server from its own settings. Remove it in your AI tool.