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Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

2
posts
2025–2026

Shopify has developed the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) as an open standard for AI agents to transact with merchants. UCP is designed with a layered architecture, separating core transaction primitives (Shopping Service) from major functional areas (Capabilities like Checkout, Orders, Catalog) and domain-specific augmentations (Extensions). It emphasizes discovery and negotiation of capabilities between agents and merchants, allowing for flexible and extensible interactions. MCP UI extends UCP by enabling AI agents to return interactive UI components alongside data, facilitating richer user experiences in commerce by handling complex UI elements like product selectors, bundle builders, and subscription options. This is achieved through various delivery methods including inline HTML, remote resources, and Remote DOM, with an intent-based message system to maintain agent control over user interactions.

2026

Building the Universal Commerce Protocol (2026) - Shopify

1/11/2026

This post introduces the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard co-developed with Google for AI agents to interact with merchants. It details UCP's layered architecture (Shopping Service, Capabilities, Extensions), its discovery and negotiation mechanisms based on merchant and agent profiles, and its approach to handling complex commerce scenarios like fulfillment and payments. The protocol supports graceful handoffs for transactions requiring human input via an Embedded Checkout Protocol (ECP) and emphasizes flexibility through domain-specific extensions and namespace ownership via reverse-domain naming. The post also highlights the payment negotiation process and the collaborative nature of the protocol's evolution.

2025

MCP UI: Breaking the text wall with interactive components (2025) - Shopify

8/5/2025

Introduced MCP UI as an extension to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to enable AI agents to return interactive UI components. Detailed three delivery methods for MCP UI: inline HTML, remote resources, and Remote DOM. Explained the intent-based message system for component-agent communication, listing example intents like `view_details`, `checkout`, `notify`, and `ui-size-change`. Discussed adaptive styling capabilities using CSS to match host environments. Highlighted the open-source nature of the MCP UI specification and implementation, built on the MCP embedded resources spec.