Connecting an AI assistant to your store

AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor can connect to your store, read your products, orders and customers, and make the changes you allow. You decide what each assistant may do, and you can cut one off at any time. You manage this under Settings, then AI Assistants.

Considerations

• AI Assistants is being rolled out store by store. If the card is missing, or connecting says your store is not in the AI assistant beta yet, ask Orbit support to add it.
• A connected assistant acts as your store, not as a limited staff login. What it changes is a real change to your live store, and Orbit cannot undo it.
• You need the Update store settings permission to connect, edit or revoke an assistant. Store Owners have it. Without it you can read the page but get no buttons.
• Adding your own connector is a paid feature in both Claude and ChatGPT. If you cannot find it, check your plan.
• Read the data terms at the top of the page before you connect. They cover marketplace orders from Amazon and eBay, and your duties under UK GDPR.

Open the AI Assistants page

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Settings.
2. Under Team & Access, click AI Assistants. A store with nothing connected reads No AI assistants connected.

Each connection is one row: the assistant's name, a badge for each permission level it holds, how many permissions it has, then Last used or Never used, Connected, Expires if it has an end date, and the data terms version it was approved under.

What each permission level means

Permissions come in three levels. You turn a level on or off, then tick or untick single permissions inside it.

• Read only: look at your store data. Nothing can be changed.
• Safe changes: create and edit drafts. Nothing a shopper can see, and you can undo it.
• Live and permanent changes: change what shoppers see, or delete things. Includes prices, publishing and deletion.

Every permission has a plain description beside it, such as "Buy and cancel shipping labels, which charges your shipping account real money". Read those before you tick them.

Warning: An assistant acts on what it reads. Product descriptions, order notes and customer messages are all text that can steer it, so give change permissions only to assistants you trust.

Connect an assistant

A connection starts in the assistant, not in Orbit. You paste Orbit's address into it, and it sends you back to approve what it may do.

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Settings, then AI Assistants.
2. Under Connect an assistant, copy the address under Orbit's address for AI assistants. If one is already connected, the panel reads Connect another assistant.
3. Open your assistant's settings and look for Connectors. It may be called Integrations or Apps.
4. Choose the option to add your own, then paste the address where it asks for a web address.
5. Save it. Your assistant opens Orbit so you can sign in and finish.
6. On the Orbit approval screen, read the data terms, turn on the levels you are happy with, and untick anything the assistant does not need.
7. Approve the connection. It appears on the AI Assistants page.

The panel repeats these steps under In Claude and In ChatGPT. An assistant that cannot connect over the web has its own section, My assistant cannot connect with a web address, with settings to paste into its configuration file. That route is not open to everyone yet: Orbit creates two access keys by hand, and the panel gives an email address.

Check what an assistant has done

1. On the AI Assistants page, click See what it changed under the connection's row.
2. Click Hide what it changed to close it. One list is open at a time.

Connections you have revoked stay on the list with a Revoked badge, so you can still read what they did.

Change what an assistant can do

1. On the AI Assistants page, click the sliders icon on the connection's row. Its label is Edit permissions.
2. Turn a level off to remove every permission under it, or untick single permissions inside a level.
3. Click Save permissions. The change applies within 5 seconds. Anything the assistant is already running finishes under the permissions it had.

You can also grant a permission the assistant never asked for, so widening its access needs no reconnection. If Permissions Orbit no longer offers appears, saving removes old permissions that Orbit no longer lists.

Revoke an assistant's access

1. On the AI Assistants page, click the red bin icon on the connection's row. Its label is Revoke access.
2. Read the warning, then click Revoke access again.

The assistant loses access within 5 seconds, and anything it is in the middle of fails. Revoke as soon as you stop using an assistant, or if you think the connection has leaked.

Warning: Revoking cannot be undone. To use that assistant again you have to connect and approve it from scratch. It stops future access, but cannot pull back anything the assistant already received.

Related guides

• Creating and managing API keys
• Getting started with the Orbit API
• Setting what a team member can do
• Securing your account and checking the activity log
• AI assistants (MCP) on the Orbit developer portal