Blog · · 7 min
Connect Claude to Shopify: the three connections
Three connections share the name: Shopify's connector runs your admin, the Dev MCP teaches your AI the API, a sections MCP hands it the page.
By uxgen
Connecting Claude to Shopify means one of three things, and they do not overlap. The official Shopify connector gives Claude your admin: products, orders, inventory, discounts. The Shopify Dev MCP gives Claude Code the documentation and the GraphQL schema so the code it writes uses fields that exist. A sections MCP such as uxgen gives your AI the selling blocks of the page itself. The first is for running the shop, the second for writing code against it, the third for what the buyer sees.
The same three connections exist for ChatGPT, Cursor and Lovable; only the install step differs, and we keep it in one place at /docs#install. The rest of this page is what each connection can and cannot touch, verified on 13 September 2026 against the pages that publish them.
Which connection is which?
| Connection | Where it runs | What Claude gets | What it changes | What it never touches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Shopify connector (https://setup.shopify.com/mcp) | claude.ai, via the connector directory | 25 admin tools: product search and creation, orders, customers, inventory, discounts, collections, image uploads, raw GraphQL | Your store data | Your theme, your page layout |
Shopify Dev MCP (@shopify/dev-mcp) | Locally, inside Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI | Documentation search and API schema | The correctness of code the agent writes | Your store data (it is unauthenticated), your page |
Sections MCP (uxgen, https://www.uxgen.ai/mcp) | Remotely, inside Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT or Lovable | 172 store sections as HTML, an audit of your page, a locked grammar | What the buyer sees: bundle tiers, guarantee, comparison, cart drawer | Your Shopify key, your orders, your customers |
Read the last column first. The connector that can create a discount cannot add a quantity tier to your product page, and the server that hands you a quantity tier cannot read an order. That is the whole reason there are three.
What does the official Shopify connector do?
Shopify publishes it in Claude's connector directory under the line Build, manage, and analyze your Shopify store. You add it from claude.ai, sign in to your Shopify admin, choose the store, approve the permissions. From then on a sentence like show me yesterday's orders or create a 10% code for the newsletter runs through the connector's tools, 25 of them at the time of reading, including a raw GraphQL tool for anything the named ones do not cover.
It is an admin connection. It holds the permissions you approved, which for most roles means write access to products, discounts and inventory, so treat the chat that has it the way you would treat a logged-in admin tab. Anthropic's own note on the directory page says it plainly: only add connectors from developers you trust.
What it does not do is render anything. Ask it for a better product page and it will edit the product's description field, because that is the only surface of the page it can reach.
What does the Shopify Dev MCP do?
It stops your AI guessing. Shopify's Admin API schema is large and versioned; a model writing a mutation from memory reaches for a field that was renamed two versions ago. The Dev MCP runs on your machine, needs no authentication, and gives the agent documentation search and schema introspection instead of memory.
claude mcp add --transport stdio shopify-dev-mcp -- npx -y @shopify/dev-mcp@latestShopify documents the same server for Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI and Antigravity CLI. It is the right connection for anyone writing an app, a Shopify Function or theme code with an agent. It changes the quality of the code, not the page. We took it apart in Shopify MCP: which server builds the store?, including the one gate tool it exposes before anything else unlocks.
What does a sections MCP do?
It hands your AI the parts of the page that carry the sale, so the agent stops inventing them. uxgen is one: a remote MCP, nothing installed, one line for Claude Code and a JSON block for the others.
claude mcp add --transport http uxgen https://www.uxgen.ai/mcpOnce connected, the agent has 172 store sections it can request as HTML and port to Liquid, an audit that reads your existing page and names the mechanics it lacks with the anchor where each belongs, and one grammar so the added sections match the page they land on. It asks for no Shopify key, no Stripe key and no analytics access. It does not connect to your store at all; it connects to your AI, and your AI edits the theme. The improve-only path, where nothing on your page moves except what the audit named, is described at /docs#improve.
Which one do you want?
- You want to operate the shop in a chat. Orders, restocks, discount codes, a customer's history. The Shopify connector, and nothing else.
- You want an agent to write Shopify code that compiles. Apps, Functions, Liquid, GraphQL. The Dev MCP, locally.
- You want the product page to sell more of what it already sells. A bundle tier, a guarantee, a comparison, a cart drawer with a free-shipping line. A sections MCP, plus the theme open in your editor so the agent can write the section file.
- You want all three. They coexist. Claude Code can hold the Dev MCP and uxgen at once; the admin connector lives in claude.ai and never needs to see the code.
Before choosing 3, run the free audit at /audit: paste the store URL, and it returns the score, the mechanics that are missing and the prompt that tells your AI which ones to add. It is the same audit the MCP runs, and it costs nothing.
FAQ
How do I connect Claude to my Shopify store?
Three ways, for three jobs. For the admin (orders, products, discounts), add Shopify's official connector from Claude's connector directory and sign in to your store; it exposes 25 tools. For writing code, install the Shopify Dev MCP locally with claude mcp add --transport stdio shopify-dev-mcp -- npx -y @shopify/dev-mcp@latest. For the page itself, connect a sections MCP such as uxgen with claude mcp add --transport http uxgen https://www.uxgen.ai/mcp.
Can Claude edit my Shopify theme through the official connector?
No. The connector's tools are admin operations: products, orders, customers, inventory, discounts, collections, image uploads and GraphQL. It can change a product description because that is a data field. The theme's sections, templates and layout are files, and the connector does not read or write them.
Is the Shopify Dev MCP safe to install?
It runs locally, over stdio, and requires no authentication, so it holds no token to your store. It returns documentation and schema, not data. The community admin servers on GitHub are the ones that hold an Admin API token, and those deserve a read of the source and a scoped token before use.
Does uxgen need access to my Shopify account?
No. It never connects to your store and asks for no Shopify key, Stripe key or analytics access. Your AI calls it for sections and audits, receives HTML and a list of gaps, and writes the result into your theme itself. If you stop paying, the sections already in your theme stay there.