Shopify Moves Its AI Knowledge Base Into Merchant Admin: What to Check

Shopify has moved its knowledge base for AI shopping agents into Merchant Admin. The standalone Knowledge Base app is being retired, and will no longer be available after January 15, 2027. For many merchants, existing information has already moved. But the new setup makes it important to check what agents can see and whether it answers real buyer questions.

The knowledge base is not a product catalogue. It holds store information that an AI agent may need to answer customer questions, such as return policies, shipping times and brand values. Shopify says the published information can be accessed by AI apps through the Storefront MCP, including the Shop app and third-party platforms. Search Engine Journal’s report explains the change and its limitations.

What has changed in Shopify

The knowledge base now sits in Merchant Admin under Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base. Shopify says it replaces the standalone app. Merchants who were not using the old app do not need to take action just because of the change.

The page groups information into ten categories. These include returns and warranty, payment options, delivery and fulfillment, and second-hand purchases. There is also an “Additional Facts” category for information merchants provide themselves. Other categories can draw on a storefront scan, an admin setting or manual input.

Some information, including store policies and contact details, is published automatically when created. Information found through storefront scans stays unpublished until the merchant approves it. Merchants can publish or unpublish everything, a whole category or a single field. That distinction matters: the information an agent can access depends not only on what Shopify has found, but also on what is published.

Shopify scans storefronts regularly and may suggest updates for approval. A scan can miss a change, however. Merchants can request a rescan, but Shopify says it could take up to 48 hours. A password-protected storefront cannot be scanned, so its knowledge base displays only admin data. Custom storefronts and stores using the Agentic plan can add additional facts only.

Check whether your information moved

Shopify says merchant-entered or edited facts from the old app were transferred automatically for smaller retailers, and those facts were published. The company says merchants in that group do not need to take action. But it is still sensible to review the new page, especially if you have changed policies or store details since the information was entered.

There is an important exception. Merchants with more than 1,000 facts in the old app did not have their facts transferred. Shopify says these retailers must enter the facts they want to keep into the new database before January 15, 2027. The company says it sent email notifications directly to those merchants.

The new page has a maximum of 1,000 facts, including generated facts and merchant-written facts. Shopify’s changelog describes the limit as 1,000 additional facts, while its Help Center describes it as a maximum for the knowledge base. If you have many entries, check Shopify’s current instructions and prioritise the details buyers need most.

Start with the basics: returns, warranties, payment options, delivery, fulfillment, contact details and store policies. Check that each answer matches your current terms. Look for missing details, unclear wording and old information. Then review publication status so you know which facts are available to agents.

Test answers, not just entries

A knowledge base can contain correct information and still fail to answer a buyer’s question. The categories do not include a dedicated cancellation section. If your policies do not clearly explain how cancellations work, you can add the missing terms as an additional fact.

Testing is useful because the old app’s metrics page included a query log, but the new Knowledge Base page does not list customer questions about the store. The old metrics page showed queries submitted to AI shopping assistants, which agent responded and whether it answered. Shopify’s page for managing agentic storefronts lists sales, orders, sessions and conversions by AI channel, and offers a product search preview. Those features do not replace a record of questions about store policies.

Bill Hunt tested 122 Shopify stores in August and September for a Search Engine Journal article published October 14. Of the 88 stores whose policy tool he queried, two returned a usable answer about cancelling an order. That finding is a reason to test your own store’s answers; it is not evidence that every Shopify store has the same problem.

Try realistic buyer questions about delivery times, returns, payment methods and cancellations. Check whether the answer is accurate, complete and consistent with your published policies. Hunt recommends testing the policy tool with buyer questions, a check that does not depend on the old app’s query log. If you are building customer-facing conversational AI, this is also a useful reminder to test how it handles everyday questions and gaps in the source information.

What the change does not tell you

Shopify says the knowledge base can help an AI agent answer inquiries about a specific store. The Help Center for the older app says it enhances the accuracy of AI-generated responses about that store. It does not affect how many times the store appears in an AI platform result. So, do not treat a filled-in knowledge base as a promise of visibility or sales.

There is also a developer change to keep in mind. Shopify’s developer resources mark the Storefront MCP tool used for policies and FAQs as deprecated, though it remains functional. The resources direct developers to Ask MCP. Its ask_business tool provides answers to buyer questions based on a store’s knowledge base and policies. Shopify describes Ask as a draft capability and notes that availability may vary across stores.

For merchants, the practical point is to keep store information accurate and easy to verify. The knowledge base is one way agents may access it, but Shopify’s documentation describes changeable tools and variable feature availability. If your business also maintains its own site or customer support flows, keep those answers aligned with your Shopify policies. A website review can help you identify outdated or inconsistent information across customer-facing pages.

What to do next

Use this checklist to prepare:

1. Open Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base in Merchant Admin and review the categories and facts shown there.
2. Confirm whether you had more than 1,000 facts in the old app. If so, identify what you need to re-enter before January 15, 2027, and check any Shopify email about the migration.
3. Verify policies, contact details, delivery information and other buyer-facing facts against your current terms. Add important details that are missing, including cancellation information where needed.
4. Check publication status. Remember that facts found through a storefront scan remain unpublished until you approve them, while some admin information is published automatically.
5. Test the policy tool with questions buyers might ask. Correct vague answers and add missing facts, then test again.
6. If your storefront is password-protected or custom, account for the limits Shopify describes: it may not be scanned, or it may only allow additional facts to be added.

The move puts the knowledge base inside the merchant admin, but it does not remove the need for careful review. Treat it as a set of answers to maintain and test, not a box to tick once. For broader ecommerce support, keep the same policy details consistent wherever customers and AI tools may encounter them.