Connect Your Shopify Store

This guide walks you through creating a Shopify Private App so StoreBrief can read your store data and perform operations (with your approval).

Time to complete: ~5 minutes

When to use Shopify Direct

Use this connection method if:

You want to get started immediately without adding another tool
You don't use Kleio or Triple Whale
You want a free data connection (no monthly cost)

Note: Shopify Direct gives StoreBrief access to orders, products, inventory, and customers. For richer analytics (ad spend, MER, LTV, cohort analysis), use Kleio instead.

Step 1: Create a Custom App in Shopify

Log into your Shopify Admin
Go to Settings (bottom-left corner)
Click Apps and sales channels
Click Develop apps (top-right)
If prompted, click Allow custom app development
Click Create an app
Name it "StoreBrief" and click Create app

Step 2: Configure API permissions

Click Configure Admin API scopes
Search for and enable each of these scopes:

Read-only (for analytics and intelligence):

read_products - product catalog data
read_orders - order history and revenue
read_inventory - stock levels
read_customers - customer data for segmentation
read_analytics - sessions, conversion rate, traffic data

Read + Write (for store operations):

write_products - create product drafts
write_inventory - inventory adjustments
read_price_rules + write_price_rules - discount code management
read_discounts + write_discounts - automatic discount management

Click Save

Why write permissions? StoreBrief uses write access for operations like creating product drafts, adjusting inventory, and managing discounts. All write actions use a double-confirmation protocol - StoreBrief shows you what it plans to do and waits for your explicit approval before executing.

Step 3: Install the app and copy your token

Click Install app (top-right)
Confirm the installation
You'll see your Admin API access token - copy it immediately

Important: Shopify only shows this token once. If you lose it, you'll need to uninstall and reinstall the app to generate a new one.

Step 4: Add credentials to your environment

Create a .env file in your StoreBrief project folder (or add to your existing one):

SHOPIFY_STORE_URL=your-store.myshopify.com
SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN=shpat_xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Replace your-store with your actual Shopify store name (the part before .myshopify.com).

Step 5: Tell StoreBrief to connect

In your AI client (Claude Code, OpenClaw, Cursor, or Windsurf), tell StoreBrief:

Connect to my Shopify store. Credentials are configured.

StoreBrief will verify the connection and confirm which API scopes are available.

Verify it's working

Ask StoreBrief:

Check my connections

You should see:

Shopify API: Connected ✓

Then try:

How many orders did I get yesterday?

If you get a number back, you're all set.

Limitations of Shopify Direct

Without Kleio or Triple Whale, StoreBrief won't have:

Ad spend data (can't calculate MER automatically)
Attribution data
Detailed session/traffic breakdowns
LTV or cohort analysis

Workaround: You can provide ad spend manually:

Run my daily brief. Ad spend yesterday was $620 across Meta and Google.

For the full analytics experience, consider adding Kleio ($29/mo).

Security notes

Your access token stays in your local .env file - it's never sent to DTCskills
StoreBrief runs locally in your AI client, not on our servers
All write operations require your explicit approval before executing
You can revoke the token anytime by uninstalling the app in Shopify