Docs menu

AI agents

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or any Model Context Protocol client to Manifold, and ask it about your stock, orders and suppliers in your own words — or have it do the work: raise a purchase order, receive a delivery, ship a parcel. The agent acts as you, in the one organization you choose, with exactly your permissions.

What you need

  • A Manifold account in an organization whose subscription is active, on trial or still in setup. If it lapses, an agent can still read but cannot change anything.
  • At least one role in the organization. With none, the consent screen has nothing to grant and cannot be approved. Ask an owner or admin for a role.
  • A Claude or ChatGPT plan that can use connectors or apps, or any MCP client that supports Streamable HTTP and OAuth.

Connecting

The server's address is https://mcp.getmanifold.io/mcp.

Claude
Open Settings › Connectors, choose Add custom connector and paste the address, then Connect. If Manifold is listed in the connector directory, you can connect it from there instead.
ChatGPT
Open Settings › Apps, find Manifold or add it with the address above, and choose Connect.
Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport http manifold https://mcp.getmanifold.io/mcp, then /mcp to sign in.
Cursor
Add the server to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (or a project's .cursor/mcp.json): { "mcpServers": { "manifold": { "url": "https://mcp.getmanifold.io/mcp" } } }. Cursor offers Connect beside it in its MCP settings, which opens the sign-in.
Codex
codex mcp add manifold --url https://mcp.getmanifold.io/mcp, then codex mcp login manifold to sign in.
Any other client
Streamable HTTP at the address above. The client finds the sign-in on its own: the server answers an unsigned request with where to authorize (OAuth 2.1, with PKCE and dynamic client registration).

Setting a business up? Once connected, ask the agent to follow the skill for where you start from: Shopify, Cin7, both, spreadsheets, or nothing yet.

Signing in

Connecting opens Manifold's sign-in in your browser. Sign in as you normally would, then the consent screen names the agent asking and lets you choose which organization it may act in and what it may do there: read only (the default), everything you can do, or your own choice of what it may read or change in each part of the business. Approve, and you are returned to the agent. It never sees your password.

From then on, every change the agent makes is recorded as made by you, on the same activity trail as your own changes. Agents in the sidebar lists every agent you connected and what it may do. Choose Change to change that, or Disconnect to withdraw it; its access ends within 15 minutes.

What it can do

What you granted it, never more than your own roles allow. A picker's agent can pick and ship, but cannot see the ledger. An agent you connected read only changes nothing. If your roles shrink, so does what your agent may do.

Within that, it can work with:

  • stock levels by location, and transfers between them
  • products and catalogs
  • purchase orders and receiving
  • sales orders, quotes, payments and refunds
  • customers and suppliers
  • reports and valuation
  • Shopify sync status, imports and the setup checklist

The agent finds the right tool by what you ask, so you do not need to know the tool names. Before anything destructive, like a cancellation, a refund, erasing a person or deleting a record, it is asked to check with you first, and your client will usually ask you to approve it. If your connection drops mid-step, the agent can try again safely: nothing is done twice.

Example prompts

Stock
"How many of SKU TEE-BLK-M do we have on hand, and how much of it is already spoken for?" Answers on-hand, reserved and available stock for each location.
Buying
"What are we short of for open orders? Draft a purchase order to Acme Supplies for it." Lists the backordered SKUs and quantities, then raises a draft purchase order for you to check and authorise.
Receiving
"The Acme delivery for PO-1042 arrived complete at the Main warehouse. Receive it." Records the receipt, and the stock appears on each SKU at Main.
Orders
"Which orders are waiting on stock, and what are they short of?" Lists backordered orders with the lines and SKUs holding each one up.
Reporting
"What were our best sellers by margin over the last 30 days?" Runs a sales report and summarises it.
Lookups
Paste a link from the admin and ask "What's going on with this order?" The agent reads the order the link names.

Jobs only an agent can do today

These have no button in the admin yet. Ask an agent, naming the record:

Edit an authorised purchase order
"On PO-00042, change WIDGET-BLUE to 60 units and add 20 of WIDGET-RED at $4.10." Only lines nothing has arrived on can change. See Authorising.
Cancel an authorised purchase order
"Cancel PO-00042; the supplier can't supply it." Only while nothing has been received. See Cancelling an order.
Close a purchase order, or close it short
"Close PO-00042 short; the rest is not coming." See Closing.
Write off named serials or a batch
"Write off serials SN-1042 and SN-1043 of WIDGET-PRO at Main as damaged." See Recording a movement.
Send or receive part of a transfer
"Receive 8 of the 10 WIDGET-1 on the transfer from Main to Shop, docket D-1042." See Moving stock.
Change a placed order
"On SO-00042, make WIDGET-BLUE 4 units instead of 6 and add 2 of WIDGET-RED." See Changing an order.

The agent needs permission to change that area: an agent connected read only (the default) changes nothing. Every change it makes is recorded as made by you.

What it cannot do

  • Billing. Your subscription, card and invoices are managed by a person in Settings › Billing.
  • Connecting Shopify. You approve the app in your own Shopify admin. Once it is connected, the agent can read sync status and pull the catalog.
  • Passwords and keys. An agent never asks for a password, an API key or card details. A Cin7 migration is started in the admin, where you paste your Cin7 key; the agent can then follow it and apply it with you. The Cin7 migration skill has the agent do everything around that paste.
  • Inviting people, changing roles or ending access. These stay with an owner or admin in Settings › Users. See People and roles.
  • Changing its own access. Only you can widen what your agent may do. You, or an owner or admin, can narrow it or disconnect it on the Agents screen.
  • Going live, apps and mail. Going live, installing or removing apps, and setting up your mail sender stay with an owner or admin in the admin.
  • Changing imported areas while read-only. Products, stock, orders and the other areas fed by the system you imported from stay read-only until you go live. See Going live.
  • Uploading files. Product photos and attachments are added in the admin.
  • Acting outside your organization. One connection is one organization. To work in another, connect again and choose it.

Focus an agent on one area

By default an agent lists a few tools and searches the rest when it needs them, which keeps it quick. For a focused job, add a profile to the address and it lists that area up front: ?profile=warehouse (stock, picking and shipping), buying, selling, books, data, onboarding or full. Every tool stays reachable either way.

Privacy

Manifold does not send your data to any AI provider itself. An agent you connect receives what it asks for, as you, under the privacy policy of whoever runs that agent, such as Anthropic for Claude or OpenAI for ChatGPT. Manifold keeps the agent's client name, the organization you allowed it into, and when you connected or disconnected it. See section 7 of the privacy policy.

Support

Email hello@getmanifold.io with the agent you use and what you asked it. The activity trail on the record shows every change the agent made.

For developers