# Commerce Agents: Reference blueprint for building shopping and merchant agents

> Source: <https://github.com/anthropics/commerce-agents>
> Published: 2026-09-02 19:56:29+00:00

Two commerce agents built on Claude: a **shopping agent** a business embeds in its app for
customers, and a **merchant agent** its staff use to run the back office. Each is defined
once (prompt, skills, tool contracts, gates) and runs on the Messages API, the Claude Agent
SDK, and Managed Agents; four runnable verticals show both over the same libraries.

Note

Every company, brand, product, and person here is fictional; the only company is ACME.
Nothing places an order, charges a card, or changes a live listing: `checkout`

renders
the cart for the host to complete, and every merchant write is staged until a person
approves it. Business rules, authorization, and compliance are the deployment's.

Python 3.11+ and Node 22. Clone, install, add a key, run a vertical:

```
git clone https://github.com/anthropics/commerce-agents.git && cd commerce-agents
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt       # the seven packages and their pinned dependencies
cp .env.example .env                  # add ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
(cd examples && npm ci)               # the eight web apps share one workspace
python scripts/run_demo.py retail     # API :8000 + storefront :3000
```

`--merchant`

starts the portal instead of the storefront and `--all`

starts both. The
verticals are `retail`

(:3000, portal :3100), `travel`

(:3001, :3101), `telecom`

(:3002,
:3102), and `entertainment`

(:3003, :3103); each README lists prompts to try on both surfaces.

The Claude Code plugin scaffolds an agent on these packages against your systems, or reviews one you have. With the repo cloned as above (the plugin reads it as the reference):

```
claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/commerce-agents
claude plugin install commerce-builder@claude-commerce-agents
claude
/scaffold-commerce-agent a shopping assistant for our store
```

The command asks about your stack, plays the plan back, and builds the project; `/add-commerce-flow`

and `/author-commerce-evals`

continue from there, and `/review-commerce-agent`

starts from an agent
that already exists ([ plugins/commerce-builder/](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/plugins/commerce-builder)). Each command also
runs when a request matches its description, so naming it is optional.

The **shopping agent** searches, compares, plans, fills the cart, answers order and policy
questions, and remembers what a customer tells it. Its five flows are the skills in
[ shopping-agent/skills/](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/shopping-agent/skills); a deployment implements

[over its catalog, cart, order, and policy systems.](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/shopping-agent/core/shopping_agent/backend.py)

`StorefrontBackend`

The **merchant agent** explains performance, maintains listings, acts on inventory and order
alerts, prices and promotes, and drafts campaigns; every write is a staged change the host's
approval surface applies. Its five flows are the skills in [ merchant-agent/skills/](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/merchant-agent/skills);
a deployment implements

[over its analytics, catalog, inventory, pricing, and campaign systems.](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/merchant-agent/core/merchant_agent/backend.py)

`MerchantBackend`

| Directory | Contents | pip package, `import` name |
|---|---|---|
`commerce-common/` |

`commerce-common`

, `commerce_common`

`shopping-agent/core/`

`StorefrontBackend`

, prompt, tool contracts, gates, executor`shopping-agent-core`

, `shopping_agent`

`shopping-agent/runtime-messages-api/`

`ShoppingAgent`

, the turn loop on the Messages API`shopping-agent-runtime`

, `shopping_agent_runtime`

`shopping-agent/runtime-agent-sdk/`

`shopping-agent-sdk`

, `shopping_agent_sdk`

`shopping-agent/managed-agents/`

`merchant-agent/core/`

`MerchantBackend`

, prompt, tool contracts, change guardrails, gates, executor`merchant-agent-core`

, `merchant_agent`

`merchant-agent/runtime-messages-api/`

`MerchantAgent`

and the analysis delegate on the Messages API`merchant-agent-runtime`

, `merchant_agent_runtime`

`merchant-agent/runtime-agent-sdk/`

`merchant-agent-sdk`

, `merchant_agent_sdk`

`merchant-agent/managed-agents/`

`examples/`

`demo_common/`

), shared web code (`web-shared/`

)`plugins/commerce-builder/`

`docs/`

`safety.md`

(enforced rules), `backends.md`

(mapping your systems), `deployment.md`

(other platforms)`tests/`

`tests/`

`scripts/`

`install.sh`

, `run_demo.py`

, `smoke_chat.py`

, `screenshot_tour.py`

, `check.py`

, `deploy_managed_agent.sh`

, `verify_all.py`

**Messages API.** The reference loop; the examples are host applications around it:

``` python
from pathlib import Path

from shopping_agent import ShoppingAgentConfig
from shopping_agent_runtime import ShoppingAgent

agent = ShoppingAgent(backend=your_backend, skills_dir=Path("shopping-agent/skills"),
                      config=ShoppingAgentConfig(brand_name="Your Store"))
async for event in agent.stream_turn(messages, session, state):
    ...   # text_delta, tool_call, ui, cart_update (change_update on the merchant side), turn_complete
await agent.update_memory(messages, session)   # memory extraction; this path only
```

The example hosts take the session id in an `X-Session-Id`

header.

**Agent SDK.** The same prompt, skills, and tools, with the SDK running the loop; the host
prefetches grounding reads, and nothing runs after the turn:

```
python shopping-agent/runtime-agent-sdk/main.py --once "a two-person tent under $250"
python merchant-agent/runtime-agent-sdk/main.py          # approves staged changes with y/N
```

**Managed Agents.** A hosted agent over the same skills and contracts, calling your MCP server:

```
scripts/deploy_managed_agent.sh shopping-agent/managed-agents/shopping-agent   # or merchant-agent/...; --live deploys
```

Fencing, provenance gates, caps, memory validation, and the merchant approval gate run
inside the tool call and hold on all three paths; grounding, the analysis budgets, and memory
extraction are runtime features. [ docs/safety.md](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/docs/safety.md) lists each rule with its
module and paths, and what a deployment adds first; the examples have no authentication and
the MCP servers bind to loopback.

| Example | Storefront | Portal |
|---|---|---|
`examples/retail/` |

[ACME Travel](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/examples/travel)`examples/travel/`

`present_itinerary`

extension[ACME Mobile](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/examples/telecom)`examples/telecom/`

[ACME Tickets](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/examples/entertainment)`examples/entertainment/`

Each example's README has a `Try`

section: the turns `scripts/smoke_chat.py`

runs, and single
prompts with what a good answer does.

```
ruff check . && ruff format --check . && pytest && python scripts/check.py
python scripts/verify_all.py                        # the line above plus deploy dry runs and web builds
python scripts/smoke_chat.py --vertical travel      # one live conversation; needs a key
```

`requirements-dev.txt`

adds pytest and ruff. CI installs from it on two Python versions,
builds the eight web apps, and checks that the package names stay unregistered on the
public index (the pin files install them from their directories, never from the index). To confirm caching, read
`cache_read_input_tokens`

from `turn_complete`

, or the line each model call logs on its
runtime's logger: zero on a second turn means the prefix changed.

The runtimes take any `anthropic`

client as `client=`

and the SDK runtimes take the platform
from the CLI environment; [ docs/deployment.md](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/docs/deployment.md) covers GCP Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, and gateways.

None ship; both agents reach your systems through the backend interfaces. Where an official connector is the source of record, it is the integration target: analytics warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Amplitude), finance (Stripe, Square, PayPal, QuickBooks), delivery (Slack, Google Drive, Gmail). A commerce platform's own MCP server for catalog, cart, or checkout is called from a backend method server-side; on Managed Agents the manifest mounts it beside the role's server, and the provenance gates stay in front of every write.

**Backend methods.** Each one calls your service server-side with the credential your host holds for the session; the model reads only the result. A flow whose steps have a fixed order enforces that order in the backend.**Read the backend guide.** walks through identity and credentials, ordered flows, checkout, products with options, and figures your platform cannot supply.`docs/backends.md`

**The same interface covers other business shapes.** On a marketplace, seller is a search dimension and the merchant agent acts for the operator the session names. With account or contract pricing, the price quoted is the session account's. With no checkout of your own, turn the cart off or hand it to a quote, a purchase order, or a hosted checkout URL.**Checkout hands off.** The checkout card links to your own checkout route, or to the platform's hosted checkout URL (one per seller on a marketplace). The backend returns the URL and the host renders it; the model never sees it.**Start small.** A shopping pilot implements search and product details and stubs the rest; a stubbed method returns an unavailable result and changes no prompt bytes. A merchant pilot implements the eight read methods and has the writes refuse; digests and metrics then run with no write path.**Switch off what you do not have.** A system the business lacks entirely (no cart on a referral surface, no order tracking) is an`enable_*`

switch turned off, which removes its tools, prompt lines, and grounding rule on every path; park the flows that need it under`skills/_staged/`

. The merchant config has the same switches for listing edits, inventory, pricing, and campaigns.**Add your own.** A flow is a directory with a`SKILL.md`

under either`skills/`

. Domain UI is a`PresentationExtension`

(the verticals ship seven).`brand_name`

,`assistant_name`

, and`brand_voice`

on either config set the identity.

Copyright 2026 Anthropic PBC. Licensed under the [Apache License 2.0](/anthropics/commerce-agents/blob/main/LICENSE).
This is a reference implementation; it is not maintained and does not accept contributions.