Shopify MCP — Universal, Read-Only

A single MCP server exposing 100% of the Shopify Admin GraphQL API read surface (version 2026-04) through 6 universal tools. Read-only is enforced at the query-parser level — mutations are rejected before they ever reach Shopify, not merely discouraged. Multi-store by design: one server instance can serve many shops.

Built and maintained by Scalably. Runs on the Model Context Protocol. License: MIT.

Why read-only at the parser level? Giving an AI agent write access to a live store is how you end up with a deleted product or a wrong-priced variant. This server enforces read-only by parsing every query and rejecting mutations before they leave the process — not by trusting the model to behave, and not by relying on Shopify-side scopes alone. It's the safety boundary an agent in production actually needs. (more on the pattern)

Quick start

pip install -r requirements.txt

# Single store (simplest)
export SHOPIFY_DOMAIN="my-store.myshopify.com"
export SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN="shpat_..."   # or SHOPIFY_CLIENT_ID + SHOPIFY_CLIENT_SECRET
python server.py

Then point any MCP client at the server. See Authentication below for multi-store and OAuth client-credentials setup.

---

Tools (6)

Tool	Description
shopify_list_stores	Lists configured stores. Agent calls first.
shopify_graphql_query	Arbitrary read-only GraphQL. Mutations rejected by the parser.
shopify_graphql_introspect	Schema introspection — full catalog or single type.
shopify_bulk_query	Launch async bulk export (JSONL).
shopify_bulk_poll	Poll bulk operation status + download URL.
shopify_shopifyql	ShopifyQL analytics (SQL-like; requires read_reports).

Every non-list tool takes an optional shop argument (alias or domain). Required when >1 store configured; auto-selected when exactly 1.

Coverage

100% of Admin GraphQL API read surface — any object, field, or connection accessible with the token's scopes is reachable via shopify_graphql_query. Anything large-scale (>10k records) should use shopify_bulk_query. Analytics goes through shopify_shopifyql.

Authentication

Multi-store (preferred for agency setups)

Set SHOPIFY_STORES to a JSON object mapping alias → store config:

{
  "main":   {"domain": "my-store.myshopify.com",        "client_id": "...", "client_secret": "..."},
  "outlet": {"domain": "my-store-outlet.myshopify.com", "client_id": "...", "client_secret": "..."},
  "legacy": {"domain": "legacy-store.myshopify.com",    "access_token": "shpat_..."}
}

• Each store can use EITHER client_id+client_secret (Dev Dashboard OAuth, 24h tokens auto-refreshed per store) OR access_token (legacy shpat_).
• Aliases: [a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{0,63}. Lowercase-normalized on load.
• Token cache is per-store-domain; one throttled store doesn't block others.

Single-store (backward-compat)

If SHOPIFY_STORES is unset, the MCP falls back to single-store env vars:

• SHOPIFY_DOMAIN or SHOPIFY_SHOP_DOMAIN — <shop>.myshopify.com
• Auth path A: SHOPIFY_CLIENT_ID + SHOPIFY_CLIENT_SECRET (Dev Dashboard)
• Auth path B: SHOPIFY_ACCESS_TOKEN (legacy shpat_)

The single store registers under alias default — callers can omit shop argument on tool calls.

Read-only enforcement

Every query is parsed with graphql-core before transmission. The parser rejects:

• subscription operations (not supported by Admin API anyway)
• Any top-level mutation EXCEPT bulkOperationCancel (cancels an in-flight bulk job, no shop-data write)
• Malformed GraphQL (syntax errors)
• Queries > 100KB

bulkOperationRunQuery is NOT in the generic parser allowlist. Legitimate bulk exports go through the dedicated shopify_bulk_query tool, which validates the inner query with _assert_read_only BEFORE wrapping it in the bulk mutation. Single source of truth — no reliance on Shopify-side validation.

Rate limiting

Per-store cost-based leaky bucket (Shopify's model). Each response includes extensions.cost.throttleStatus. On THROTTLED errors, the MCP sleeps ceil((requestedQueryCost - currentlyAvailable) / restoreRate) seconds (minimum 1s) and retries up to 3 times. Over limit → surfaced to caller.

Buckets are independent per store — throttle on store A doesn't affect store B.

Security hardening

• Shop domain validated against ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*\.myshopify\.com$ (no arbitrary hostnames — defeats SSRF).
• Alias pattern ^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9_-]{0,63}$.
• allow_redirects=False on both token exchange and GraphQL calls.
• X-Shopify-Access-Token, client_secret, and all token prefixes (shpua_, shpat_, shpss_, shpca_) redacted from logs and error messages.
• Input validation: GraphQL parsed, operation IDs regex-matched, type names validated, query-size ceiling 100KB.
• Per-store token cache in memory only; flushed on 401/ACCESS_DENIED with one retry.

Service name

shopify

API version

Default pin: 2026-04. Callers can override per-tool via api_version="YYYY-MM". Bump the module constant SHOPIFY_API_VERSION quarterly after smoke-testing new versions.

Scopes needed (read-only)

Minimum viable: read_products read_orders read_customers.

Recommended baseline: read_products read_orders read_customers read_inventory read_locations read_fulfillments read_discounts read_content read_themes read_files read_markets read_metaobjects read_metaobject_definitions read_reports read_translations read_locales read_shipping.

Add read_all_orders for >60-day order history. Enable Protected customer data access in Dev Dashboard → Configuration if the agent needs customer PII.

Privacy Policy

This connector runs locally, on your own machine, under your own Shopify credentials. It is a thin read-only bridge between your MCP client and Shopify's Admin API.

• Data collection: The connector collects no personal data and contains no telemetry, analytics, or external reporting. It does not phone home.
• Data usage: Shopify store data you query is returned to your local MCP client to fulfill your request, and is not used for any other purpose.
• Data storage: The connector stores nothing persistently. Access tokens are held in memory only for the life of the process and are never written to disk. The only network destination is Shopify's own API (*.myshopify.com), enforced by a domain allowlist.
• Third-party sharing: None. Data flows only between your machine and Shopify. No third party (including the connector's author) ever receives your data or credentials.
• Retention: No data is retained by the connector after the process exits.
• Secret handling: Access tokens, client secrets, and all Shopify token prefixes are redacted from logs and error messages.
• Contact: hello@scalably.io

The canonical hosted version of this policy: https://scalably.io/connector-privacy.html

Learn more

We write about building production MCP servers and AI agents at scalably.io/blog:

• How to build an MCP server in Python — the read-only enforcement pattern used here, from a server we run in production
• What is an MCP server? — the host/client/server model
• MCP Inspector: debug your MCP server — the silent failures to watch for

References

• Shopify Admin GraphQL API
• Client credentials grant
• Rate limits
• Bulk operations
• ShopifyQL