Comment by vladeta

Great question! Let me clarify the difference between Shopify's MCP endpoints and UCP: Shopify MCP vs UCP are solving different problems:

Shopify MCP (what you linked): - Shopify's proprietary API for AI agents to talk to Shopify stores - Requires Shopify authentication/approval - Only works with Shopify stores - Agent → Shopify API → Store

UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol): - Open standard by Google + Shopify + 25+ partners - Works across ALL ecommerce platforms (WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, custom stores, etc.) - No approval needed - it's an open protocol - Agent → UCP endpoint → Any store

Think of it this way: MCP is like building an app that only works with iOS. UCP is like building for the open web.

What our checker does: It validates if ANY store (not just Shopify) has UCP implemented correctly. So an AI agent can discover and interact with that store without needing platform-specific integrations. For example:

A WooCommerce store with UCP - can be discovered by AI agents A custom-built store with UCP - can be discovered by AI agents A Shopify store without UCP - is only accessible through Shopify's MCP (if approved)

The bet is that AI agents won't want to integrate with 50 different platform APIs. They'll want one standard (UCP) that works everywhere - just like they use robots.txt instead of platform-specific crawling rules.

Does that help clarify?