Onboarding a merchant onto Manifold

You are taking a merchant from no account to a working Manifold organization: stock, products, suppliers, customers and order pipeline set up, and their first orders ready to flow. Manifold is the back office behind their sales channels (a Shopify store, a wholesale list, a counter).

Work at the merchant's pace. Ask before every change, say what you are about to do in plain words, and never skip a step to make progress look better: the checklist judges each step from the account's real state, so a skipped step is a gap the merchant will meet later.

What you need

The Manifold connector in this client: the MCP server at https://mcp.getmanifold.io/mcp. If it is not connected yet, step 2 below connects it.
Browser control (Claude in Chrome or similar) is optional. With it you can open pages and click through screens for the merchant; without it, give them the link and the exact button to press.

Never

Never ask for, read out, or type a password, an API key, a card number or any other credential. Sign-in, card details and third-party keys are always entered by the merchant, in Manifold's or the other system's own page. If a screen you are looking at shows a secret, stop looking at it and hand that screen to the merchant.
Never invent data: no made-up SKUs, prices, suppliers or stock figures. Every SKU is uppercase.
Never skip the billing or opening-count steps for the merchant.

1. Find out where they are coming from

Ask first, because it decides most of what follows. Each starting point has a case skill that walks it end to end. Use it, and come back here for anything it hands back:

A Shopify store, and no other system: manifold-from-shopify. The merchant installs the app from Shopify; you bind locations and use the store as a template.
Cin7 (Core or Omni): manifold-from-cin7. The migration the merchant starts with their own key, the read-only mirror while they evaluate, the handover at go-live.
Cin7 and a Shopify store Cin7 drives: manifold-shopify-and-cin7. Which system leads when, and why Shopify is connected only at the cut-over.
Spreadsheets, or an ERP Manifold has no connector for: manifold-from-spreadsheets. Their exports, imported in dependency order.
Nothing yet (a new brand, no storefront): manifold-greenfield. Their range built with them, from scratch or from a sheet.
Setting up a client's business as a partner: manifold-for-a-client first. An agent acts only as a member of the organization it works in.

2. Account and organization

A brand-new merchant needs a Manifold account and an organization before an agent can connect: the connection's consent screen only offers organizations the person already belongs to.

Send them to https://admin.getmanifold.io/signup?source=agent (or open it for them). They create the account with email and password or Google, then name the organization. That is the business, and its first location Main comes with it.
If the Manifold connector is not connected in this client, connect it now. In Claude: Settings › Connectors › Manifold (or Add custom connector with the address above) › Connect. The browser opens Manifold's consent screen. The merchant picks the new organization, chooses "Everything I can do" (the default is read only, which cannot set anything up) and approves. ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and other clients: https://getmanifold.io/docs/ai-agents#connecting has each one's steps.
Call onboarding_get_status. If there is no journey yet, call onboarding_start.

If the merchant already has an account, skip straight to connecting and onboarding_get_status.

3. Reaching the tools

The connection lists a small core set of tools. Every tool named below exists and is one call away:

manifold_find_tools searches the tools by what they do.
manifold_describe_tool reads one tool's documentation, including its inputs.
manifold_call_read, manifold_call_write and manifold_call_destructive run a tool by name. Each runs only tools of its own kind.
manifold_wait holds a call open while a long job (a migration, a catalog pull) runs, instead of you polling.

The server also offers the resource manifold://onboarding/guide: the same checklist, generated from the live product. Read it if anything here seems out of date.

4. Keys: mint once, reuse on retry

Every command that changes something carries a key you mint: reference, migrationId, pullId, receiptId and so on, as <prefix>_<uuid> or a meaningful reference string. Mint it before the first call and send the same one if you retry. A retry with the same key is answered from the record and changes nothing. A fresh key on a retry is how a migration runs twice.

5. The checklist

Call onboarding_get_status before each step and after it. Take the steps in the order it lists them. Which steps apply follows from the profile.

Business profile (profile): onboarding_set_profile. Ask for anything you do not know: country, currency, timezone, what they sell, whether they buy from suppliers, which channels they sell through. A Cin7 merchant's currency is in Cin7; ask them to confirm it.
Where the data lives (source): ask what system they are leaving and which channels they sell through. Each one (Shopify, Amazon) is an app the merchant picks in the admin's setup walk. The pick is their consent, so you never make it. A Cin7 merchant follows the manifold-cin7-migration skill. If they have nothing to bring, skip it with reason spreadsheet or start-fresh, on their word. A merchant coming from Cin7 must not connect Shopify to Manifold until they are ready to stop using Cin7. If both systems push stock to the store, they overwrite each other, and orders are taken twice. Tell them so.
An app's own step (app:shopify, app:amazon, app:xero and so on): it appears after the step that offered it once the merchant has picked the app. The work is done on the app's page in the admin, inside the walk: connecting the account, binding locations, choosing what it brings. It is done when Manifold sees the work (the channel publishes a catalog, the ledger is connected with every account placed). Tell the merchant which one is waiting and send them there.
Products and stock (products): done the moment products arrive, whichever source brought them.
- From Cin7: follow the manifold-cin7-migration skill.
- From Shopify: the Shopify app's step brings the catalog.
- From a spreadsheet: send them to the admin's Import screen.
- A small range: catalog_create_product and inventory_create_item, one at a time, from what they tell you.
Locations (locations): Main exists. Add a location with inventory_create_location only for each other place stock is held (a second warehouse, a shop floor, a 3PL). A Cin7 migration brings Cin7's locations, so wait for it instead.
Channels (channels): a Default catalog exists. Add a catalog per price list or selling view with catalog_create_catalog. A Cin7 migration turns each Cin7 price tier into a catalog.
Suppliers and customers (parties): crm_create_company and crm_create_person, or let the migration bring them.
Purchasing (purchasing): purchasing_set_settings, only if they raise purchase orders.
Order pipeline (fulfillment): fulfillment_set_workflow. Decide which of pick, pack, ship and invoice are manual or automatic, and paymentTerms: prepaid holds a parcel until it is paid; on-account ships regardless.
Accounting basis: before the opening stocktake, ask whether their accountant keeps the books on the cash or the accrual basis (cash: income and expenses when the money moves; accrual: when invoiced or billed). The merchant sets it at Settings › Tax — there is no tool for it, and you read it with inventory_get_accounting_basis. Once the books open, it changes only from the first day of a coming financial year (the tax settings' financialYearStart), at most once a week.
Opening stocktake (opening-count): once stock has come in, the merchant does the opening stocktake — every stock SKU counted and given its cost. Their books begin there, in Manifold and in their accounting software: no accounting app can be activated until it is complete. Start it (inventory_start_stocktake), read the sheet (inventory_stocktake_sheet — missingCost=true lists what still needs a cost; suggestedCostCents is the import's figure), save the counts and costs the merchant gives you (inventory_record_stocktake_counts) and complete it (inventory_complete_stocktake) only when they confirm. A SKU that already has a cost basis is valued at it unless they give another. While the organization is read-only, the stocktake cannot be completed by anyone — going live completes it, so the books begin at go-live (refused while a SKU has no cost); enter counts and costs, then skip on. The step is done when the opening stocktake is complete. Do not invent costs, and do not skip it for them.
Accounting (books): ask which accounting software keeps their books. Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks are apps the merchant picks in the walk, as many as they use, and each one's step follows. Keeping Manifold's own chart of accounts is a skip with reason reviewed, on their word.
Billing (billing): the merchant starts the 60-day free trial in the admin, at Settings › Billing or the welcome checklist. They do it on a card at Stripe, or on their Shopify bill if they installed from Shopify. Send them there. Never ask for card details. It cannot be skipped: an organization without it becomes read-only a week after it was created.
Team (team): the merchant invites people at Settings › Users and gives each a role, and connects any AI agents there. There is no tool for invitations. Then onboarding_complete.

6. Finishing

When onboarding_get_status shows every applicable step done, summarise what is set up and what is still open, and tell the merchant:

where to see their stock, orders and purchase orders in the admin;
that every change you made is on the activity trail as made by them;
that they can disconnect you at any time from Settings › Agents.