Context
Shopify's Fall 2026 Edition introduces a merchant-facing Catalog eligibility view and Knowledge base for non-product store facts accessible to AI shopping agents via Storefront MCP.
What changed
Shopify added eligibility diagnostics and a merchant-controlled, reference-aware fact layer for returns, shipping, policies, contact and other store information. Storefront scans can suggest facts, while merchants manage publication; admin-linked facts have different initial publishing behavior.
Why it matters
Product discovery agents can use structured, merchant-governed business facts rather than infer all store details from unstructured pages. Eligibility, accessible facts and downstream selection are distinct stages of agentic commerce visibility.
Visibility OS interpretation
Visibility OS interpretation: this is a first-party AI discovery data governance mechanism, not evidence that facts are necessarily retrieved, cited, ranked more highly or converted into purchases. It complements Shopify's developer-facing Shop.dev and checkout expansion.
What remains uncertain
Which agents actually retrieve these facts in production, how frequently are updates reflected, and whether reference URLs become visible citations remain unverified.
Evidence claims
Shopify announced a merchant-admin Catalog eligibility view and a Knowledge base in Sales channels > Agentic for publishing non-product store information used by AI shopping agents.
Shopify documents that published Knowledge base facts are accessible through Storefront MCP; storefront-scanned facts are unpublished until merchants publish them, while applicable Shopify-admin-derived facts can be published when created.
Shopify's Knowledge base lets merchants publish or unpublish individual information fields and attach reference URLs that are available to AI agents alongside the corresponding facts.
Related historical records
Shopify opens structured catalog discovery and checkout to shopping agents
This record related to the linked event.