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Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

2 posts · Jun 2025 – Jan 2026

What this trail covers

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. UCP UI extends UCP to enable AI agents to interact with merchants through a user interface. This post details the protocol's escrow architecture, operators, and payment operations (authorize, capture, charge, void, reclaim, refund) to enable sophisticated, multi-step payment flows onchain, preserving crypto's advantages for real-world commerce.

All Shopify trails
  1. Building the Universal Commerce Protocol (2026) - ShopifyThis post introduces the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard co-developed with Google for AI agents to transact with merchants. It details UCP's layered architecture (Shopping Service, Capabilities, Extensions), discovery and negotiation mechanisms, and how it handles transaction states like `incomplete`, `requires_escalation`, and `ready_for_complete`. It also describes the Embedded Checkout Protocol (ECP) for seamless handoffs and dynamic, two-sided negotiation of payment handlers. The protocol emphasizes namespace binding for security and extensibility, allowing domain-specific extensions without central approval.
  2. MCP UI: Breaking the text wall with interactive components (2025) - ShopifyThis post introduces MCP UI, an extension to the Model Context Protocol (MCP) that allows AI agents to return interactive UI components alongside data. It details three delivery methods for these components: inline HTML, remote resources, and Remote DOM. The post explains the intent-based message system used for communication between UI components and agents, preserving agent control. It also covers adaptive styling for UI components to match host environments. The MCP UI protocol is open-source and extensible, built on top of the MCP embedded resources spec.
  3. Introducing the commerce payments protocol (2025) - ShopifyThis post introduces the Commerce Payments Protocol, a new standard for decentralized payments designed for real-world commerce. It details the protocol's escrow architecture, the role of operators in facilitating transactions, and the six core payment operations (authorize, capture, charge, void, reclaim, refund). The protocol aims to bridge the gap between peer-to-peer crypto transfers and the complexities of commercial purchases, enabling features like delayed settlement and partial captures. The implementation leverages Base and integrates with ERC-3009 for payer pre-approvals.