ChatGPT

Setup guide

Connect Mercopilot to ChatGPT

Add Mercopilot to ChatGPT once, and you can ask it about your Shopify store — what's selling, where you're losing sales, what to fix — in any conversation. No dashboard, no exports, nothing to install.

  • About 3 minutes
  • Two ways in
  • No API key needed

Before you start

  • A Mercopilot account with your Shopify store connected. One subscription covers everything on this page — there is no upgrade or add-on that unlocks the connector. Connect your store first
  • A ChatGPT account that can install plugins. The directory is visible on every plan, but whether Connect works for you depends on your plan and your region — and on Business, Enterprise, and Edu, on an admin allowing the app for the workspace. That is all OpenAI's side, not ours.
  • Only if you fall back to the custom connector route: a plan that includes developer mode — Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu.

Pick a route — any one of them on its own is enough.

Route A

From the plugin directory

ChatGPT handles the plumbing on this route. There's no URL to copy and no setting to turn on first — you find Mercopilot, click Connect, and sign in.

  1. Find Mercopilot in the directory

    In ChatGPT on the web or in the desktop app, click Plugins in the sidebar, or open Settings → Plugins. Search for Mercopilot.

    OpenAI folded the old app directory into the plugin directory in July 2026, so a plugin can bundle several pieces. Ours is a single app — if your build still calls this section Apps & Connectors, that's the same place.

  2. Open the listing and click Connect

    The listing spells out what Mercopilot can see and do before you commit to anything. Read it, then click Connect.

    If Connect is greyed out, the block is on ChatGPT's side rather than ours — see the notes below.

  3. Sign in and approve

    A Mercopilot window opens. Sign in with your passkey or Google, pick the store you want ChatGPT to work on, and click Authorize.

    You can withdraw that approval at any time from your account page, and disconnect from ChatGPT's side under Settings → Apps & Connectors.

  4. Use it in a chat

    Type @Mercopilot in the message box, or click + and choose More.

    That's the whole difference from the other route: there's no per-conversation toggle to remember. Once it's connected it's available in any chat.

Route B

As a custom connector

The long way round, and worth taking only if the directory route is closed to you. It reaches the same Mercopilot by the same protocol — you just wire it up by hand.

The address you'll need

ChatGPT asks for one thing when you create a connector: the MCP server URL. This is it — the same for every store, and the only thing you have to paste.

MCP server URL
https://api.mercopilot.com/mcp

There's no API key to generate. ChatGPT signs in to Mercopilot the same way you do, and you approve the connection in your browser.

  1. Turn on developer mode

    Custom connectors live behind a setting that's off by default. Click your profile picture, then Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced, and switch Developer mode on.

    ChatGPT warns you that custom connectors run third-party code on your behalf. That's expected — it's the same warning for every connector, ours included.

    Older versions of ChatGPT label this section Connectors rather than Apps & Connectors. If there's no Advanced section at all, you're on a plan that doesn't include custom connectors — see the note above.

  2. Create the connector

    Back in Apps & Connectors, a Create button has appeared. Click it and fill in three fields:

    Name
    Mercopilot
    Description
    Optional — "Analyzes my Shopify store" does the job.
    MCP server URL
    https://api.mercopilot.com/mcp
    MCP server URL
    https://api.mercopilot.com/mcp

    Set authentication to OAuth and click Create. Don't tick No authentication — the connection will be refused, because Mercopilot has to know whose store it's looking at.

  3. Sign in and approve

    A Mercopilot window opens. Sign in with your passkey or Google, pick the store you want ChatGPT to work on, and click Authorize.

    You can withdraw that approval at any time from your account page.

  4. Check the tools it found

    ChatGPT lists what the connector can do. You should see nine tools — the same nine on the home page, from shops_list through actions_execute. Leave them all enabled unless you have a reason not to; the read-only ones are what answer most questions, and the one that changes anything asks you first.

    Seeing none is the sign the URL is wrong — check it ends in /mcp.

  5. Switch it on in a chat

    This is the step people miss. Creating the connector isn't enough — it has to be added to each conversation. Start a new chat, click + in the message box, choose More → Developer mode, and tick Mercopilot.

    The message box picks up a coloured border to show a developer-mode connector is live, and ChatGPT turns memory off for that chat so the connector can't see anything from your other conversations.

Try it

Ask in plain English, but say the name — an @Mercopilot at the front is the surest way to point it at us:

  • “Using Mercopilot, how is my store doing this month?”

  • “Ask Mercopilot where I am losing money.”

  • “Use Mercopilot to tell me what to do next to grow revenue.”

  • “With Mercopilot, which slow sellers should I discount and by how much?”

ChatGPT shows you the tool it wants to run and the values it's passing before it runs it. Anything that changes your store — a price, a title, stock, a discount — needs your confirmation. See the full loop

If something goes wrong

The Connect button is greyed out
ChatGPT greys it out for one of three reasons: your region, your plan, or a workspace policy. On Business, Enterprise, and Edu an admin controls this under Workspace settings — apps are on by default for Business and off by default for Enterprise and Edu, so on those two somebody has to switch it on. None of this is something we can unblock from our side; the custom connector route below is the way round it.
You can't find Mercopilot in the directory
Search the exact name rather than browsing. The directory only features a subset of listings on its main pages, so plenty of perfectly live plugins never show up by scrolling. If the search still comes back empty, the listing is not available to you yet — take the custom connector route below instead. It reaches exactly the same Mercopilot, and it works today.
It is connected but ChatGPT ignores it
Name it in the prompt — @Mercopilot at the front is the reliable way. On the custom connector route there is a second thing to check: it has to be added to that specific conversation through + → More → Developer mode, and a chat without it added looks identical to one with it.
There's no Advanced section in your connector settings
Developer mode isn't on your plan. It needs Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, or Edu — and on the team plans an admin has to allow it for the workspace first.
Creating the connector fails, or no tools are listed
Almost always the URL. It has to be the full address ending in /mcp, over https, with no trailing slash. Paste it again from the block above rather than retyping it.
It asks you to sign in again
Access expires periodically, and signing out of Mercopilot everywhere ends it immediately. Open the connector in settings and reconnect — you keep all your settings.
It replies that there are no stores on your account
The connection worked but there is nothing behind it yet. Connect Shopify from your dashboard, then ask again — no need to redo any of the steps above.
Deep research can't see it
That's expected. Deep research only uses connectors that expose search and fetch tools, and Mercopilot exposes neither — it answers questions about your store rather than returning documents. Use it in a normal chat.

Where to next

Quick startTake the quick start Shopify plus Claude, the short versionShopifySet up Shopify Connect your store — start hereClaudeSet up Claude Directory, custom connector, or Claude Code Everything you can ask All nine tools, and the question each one answers

Still stuck? Email [email protected] and we'll walk you through it.

Stop asking “how many orders did I get?” Start asking what to fix first

Connect Shopify and see where the money is going — the best seller about to run out, the stock that has stopped moving, the listings costing you the sale. Every fix comes with what it's worth, and getting it done is one word away.

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