Shopify Moves AI Agent Knowledge Base Into Merchant Admin

Shopify has replaced its standalone Knowledge Base app with a Merchant Admin knowledge base for AI shopping agents, and the old app will no longer be available after January 15, 2027, according to Shopify's October 26 Changelog. Merchants with more than 1,000 facts in the old app did not have their facts transferred and must re-enter the facts they want to keep before that date, while smaller merchants' facts were transferred and published automatically. The new knowledge base caps entries at 1,000 facts, is organized into ten categories, and each store's published knowledge base is publicly available through the Storefront MCP to AI apps such as the Shop app and third-party platforms.

Shopify has replaced its standalone Knowledge Base app with the now included Merchant Admin knowledge base for AI shopping agents. According to Shopify’s October 26 Changelog https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/knowledge-base-is-now-available-in-your-admin , the previous App will no longer be available after January 15, 2027. Shopify’s Help Center https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-sales-channels/agentic-storefronts/knowledge-base states that the Merchant Admin knowledge base Sales channels Agentic Knowledge base is used to hold all non product related information an AI agent may need in order to answer customer inquiries regarding a specific store e.g., Return Policy, Shipping Times, Brand Values . Some of this data including Store Policies and Contact Info are automatically published when created. What Merchants Manage In The Admin The knowledge base categorizes information about stores into ten categories including returns/warranty, payment options, delivery/fulfillment and second hand purchases . The “Additional Facts” category includes any additional information provided by merchants. All of the other categories include information obtained from either a storefront scan, a Shopify admin setting or manual input. Shopify performs regular storefront scans, which may reveal new information and provide it back to merchants as potential updates for approval/rejection. However, there are some cases when storefront changes are missed during scanning, and a merchant can request a rescan of their store but this could potentially take up to 48 hours. According to Shopify, each store’s published knowledge base is “publicly available through the Storefront MCP” and therefore can be accessed by AI apps such as the Shop app and third party platforms. A custom storefront or one using the Agentic plan can only add additional facts to their knowledge base. A password protected storefront cannot be scanned therefore its knowledge base will display only admin data. What’s Published By Default Information developed through a storefront scan will remain unpublished until the merchant decides to publish those items. Shopify’s changelog states nothing that has been written by the company reaches an AI agent prior to being published, and it also provides information regarding the fact that if a store was not currently using the application, then no action is necessary. A further explanation is also provided within the Help Center indicating that facts associated with the admin are published when Shopify creates them. Merchants are able to publish/unpublish all items at one time, a complete category or a specific field. What App Users Must Do Before January 15 Merchants that have more than 1,000 facts in the Knowledge Base app did not have their facts transferred into the new database. The company is stating that these larger retailers must enter the facts they wish to retain on their own before Jan. 15, 2027. In addition, the company stated that it had sent email notifications directly to these merchants. For smaller retailers, all facts entered/edited by merchants in the app were transferred automatically to the new database and published, and require no action by the merchant. According to the Help Center, there is a maximum number of facts that can be held within the new page equaling 1,000 facts both generated facts and facts written by merchants . Conversely, the changelog refers to this limitation as 1,000 additional facts. The app’s metrics page https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/knowledge-base/understanding-faq-metrics includes a query log of customer queries submitted to AI-based shopping assistants, details on which agent responded to each customer’s question and whether or not the agent was able to answer it. The company’s Managing agentic storefronts https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-sales-channels/agentic-storefronts/agentic-home webpage lists sales, orders, sessions and conversions by AI channel; additionally, a product search preview is available. However, neither this page nor the new Knowledge Base Help Page list a record of customer questions about the store. Why This Matters Admin defaults to publish the store’s policies and contact details for agents to use when they need to find that out on their own using the Storefront MCP prior to anyone looking at this new page. The Help page https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/knowledge-base for the older version of the app states that it enhances the accuracy of AI generated responses regarding the specific store; however, it does not impact how many times the store will be shown in an AI Platform result. Bill Hunt tested 122 Shopify stores in August and September for an SEJ article published Oct. 14 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/your-store-is-agent-ready-by-default-we-tested-122-shopify-stores/591767/ . Of the 88 stores whose policy tool he queried, two returned a usable answer about canceling an order. Because there isn’t a dedicated knowledge base category for cancellations, you can add any terms missing from a store’s policies as an additional fact. Hunt also recommends testing the policy tool with questions from buyers, a check that doesn’t rely on the old app’s query log. Looking Ahead Shopify’s developer resources indicate that the Storefront MCP tool which is used for policies/FAQs has been marked as deprecated https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/storefront-mcp , although still functional. They direct developers to Ask MCP https://shopify.dev/docs/agents/ask . The ask business tool provides answers to a buyer’s question based on a store’s knowledge base and policies. Shopify describes Ask in their documentation as a “draft” capability of the Ask MCP and notes the potential variability in availability of this feature across different stores. Featured Image: Samuel Boivin/Shutterstock