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Connect your WhatsApp agent

Your WhatsApp assistant can look up your products, check stock and take orders, using your own catalog. It takes about ten minutes. You need a Shopfront account and an assistant platform that supports MCP connections.

How it works, in one minute

  • Your products and stock live in Shopfront. Your assistant never keeps its own copy, so prices and stock are always right.
  • When a customer asks something in WhatsApp, the assistant asks Shopfront and answers with the real data.
  • When a customer orders in the chat, the order lands in your Shopfront Orders list like any other order.
  • When you mark an order as shipped, Shopfront tells the assistant, and the customer hears about it in WhatsApp.

  1. Step 1: Create a key in Shopfront

    Sign in, open WhatsApp assistant in the menu, and create a key. Tick "Let the assistant take orders" if customers should be able to order in the chat. Copy the key straight away. It is shown only once. If you lose it, replace it with a new one.

  2. Step 2: Give your assistant platform two settings

    In the Shopfront settings of your assistant platform, enter:

    Address
    http://localhost:3001/api/mcp
    Key
    The key you copied in step 1.

  3. Step 3: Let customers hear about their orders (optional)

    Back in Shopfront, on the same key, set "Send order updates to" to the address your assistant platform shows for Shopfront updates. It looks like https://your-assistant.example.com/api/webhooks/shopfront. Each update is signed, so the platform can check it really came from your shop.

  4. Step 4: Choose how the assistant should behave

    Open Assistant rules in Shopfront. Write how it should talk, when to offer a discount, what to do about returns. Your assistant reads this when a chat starts.

  5. Step 5: Test it

    Send your shop a WhatsApp message such as "Do you have blue shirts in medium?" The answer should match your catalog. Place a test order, then check that it appears under Orders and that stock went down.

Good to know

  • The 24 hour rule. WhatsApp lets a shop send normal messages only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that, only an approved template can be sent. You can choose a template for order updates on the key.
  • Cart reminders. If you switch them on, the assistant sends one friendly reminder to a customer who left items in a chat cart. Never to someone who has not chatted with you before.
  • Safety. The key only gives access to your own shop. Keys can expire, can be replaced with a one hour overlap, and show when they were last used. Never share a key in a message or a screenshot.
  • Address rules. On a live site both addresses must be public https addresses. Localhost and plain http addresses are refused.

If something does not work

The assistant says it cannot reach the shop
Check the address ends with /api/mcp, uses https, and that the key was copied completely.
The key stopped working
It may have expired or been replaced. Open WhatsApp assistant in Shopfront, check the key, and replace it if needed.
Customers do not get order updates
Check "Send order updates to" is set on the key, and that the key has "Let the assistant take orders" ticked. The WhatsApp assistant page shows the last delivery result.

Ready? Sign in or open a shop.