Connect Your Shopify Store to Claude

What you need

A Shopify store with admin access (any plan). Claude Desktop or Cowork installed on Windows or Mac. No coding experience needed.

How it works

Claude communicates with external services through MCP (Model Context Protocol). The Shopify MCP server is a small program that runs in the background on your computer. When Claude needs your store data, it asks the MCP server, which fetches from Shopify using your API token and passes it back. Your token stays on your computer, stored in a local config file.

Step 1: Install Node.js

Node.js is a free program that allows your computer to run the Shopify MCP server. Go to nodejs.org and download the LTS version labelled "Recommended For Most Users". Run the installer and click through the defaults.

Once installed, verify it worked. Open PowerShell: press the Windows key, type PowerShell, click Windows PowerShell. Then type this and press Enter:

node --version

You should see a version number like v22.3.0. Any version 18 or above is fine. If you see an error, close PowerShell, restart your computer, and try again.

Also confirm npm installed correctly (it comes bundled with Node):

npm --version

If both commands return numbers, you are ready to continue.

Step 2: Create a Shopify API token

In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Apps and sales channels. Click Develop apps. If this is your first time, click "Allow custom app development" first. Then click Create an app and name it Claude MCP.

Click Configure Admin API scopes. For read-only audit work, tick these:

read_products
read_orders
read_inventory
read_analytics
read_customers
read_shipping
read_price_rules

If you also want Claude to make changes (update descriptions, adjust prices), add the matching write_ scopes. You can always create a separate write-enabled token later.

Click Save, then Install app, then Reveal token once. The token starts with shpat_ and is about 60 characters long. Copy it now and save it somewhere safe. Shopify shows it once only.

Step 3: Open the Claude config file

Claude Desktop stores its settings in a file called claude_desktop_config.json. The quickest way to open it on Windows is through PowerShell.

Open PowerShell (Windows key → type PowerShell → Enter) and run this command exactly, then press Enter:

notepad $env:APPDATA\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Notepad will open. If it shows a blank file or asks whether to create it, click Yes. If the file already has content from a previous MCP setup, you will add to it rather than replace everything.

On a Mac, the config file is at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Open it with TextEdit or any text editor.

Step 4: Add the Shopify MCP config

Paste the JSON below into the config file. Replace shpat_your_token_here with your actual token and your-store.myshopify.com with your store's myshopify domain (not your custom domain).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "shopify": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "shopify-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN": "shpat_your_token_here",
        "MYSHOPIFY_DOMAIN": "your-store.myshopify.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

If the file already has other MCP servers configured, add the "shopify": { ... } block inside the existing "mcpServers": { } object. Do not duplicate the outer braces.

Save the file: File → Save or Ctrl+S.

Step 5: Restart Claude and test

Close Claude Desktop completely. On Windows, right-click the Claude icon in the taskbar and click Quit. Then reopen it. The MCP server starts automatically in the background when Claude loads.

To confirm the connection is working, start a new conversation and type:

List the first 5 products in my Shopify store with their titles and current prices.

Claude should return your actual product names and prices within a few seconds. If it does, the connection is live.

What the agent will actually do once connected

Before you connect a write-enabled token, here's the honest version of what happens. No skill in the pack acts on your store without showing you first, except for a small set of zero-judgement checks listed below.

Always: runs on its own, no asking

• Audits every product, image, link, and page for GMC compliance and AI-visibility issues
• Builds the full findings report (what's wrong, why it matters, the exact policy or signal it relates to)
• Re-checks a fix after you've approved it, to confirm it actually resolved the issue

Drafts and shows you: writes only after you say yes

• Product description rewrites, FAQPage and Organization schema, alt text generation
• Vendor field fills, return-policy structured data, metafield sets
• Broken internal link fixes (old collection/page handle → correct one)

These show up as a batch (10–20 items) with a before/after preview. Nothing writes until you confirm the batch.

Never touches, no exceptions

• Prices: never changed automatically, ever
• Legal/policy pages, business info, or anything needing real judgement calls
• Real names, team names, or anything flagged as a compliance risk that needs a human decision

If something goes wrong

"I don't have access to a Shopify store": The config file is not being read. Check it is saved at the correct path and that the JSON is valid (no missing commas, no curly quotes). Run notepad $env:APPDATA\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json in PowerShell to check.

Claude returns a Shopify error: The token is wrong or revoked. Return to your Shopify admin, go to the Claude MCP app, and reveal or regenerate the token. Update the config file and restart Claude.

Node command not found: Node.js is not installed or the install did not complete. Reinstall from nodejs.org, restart your computer, and try again.