Catalog Operations

The Catalog service is the store workspace for products, carts, orders, inventory health, and catalog integrations. It complements the Catalog REST API and Catalog Webhooks with operator-facing controls.

Dashboard Areas

Area	What it provides
Overview	Product totals, active products, inventory units, catalog value, stock health, data quality, and reporting signals.
Products	Create, edit, review, select, and delete store products.
Carts	Review active and archived carts, mutate open cart items or bundles, and inspect checkout state.
Orders	Review and operate orders associated with the store.
Cart Settings / Order Settings	Set store-level lifecycle, archive, idempotency, export, retention, and webhook policies.
Integrations	Configure REST, UCP, webhooks, and extensions for catalog data movement.

Cart item and bundle mutations require an idempotency key and return the refreshed cart. Archive is irreversible; archived carts are read-only and excluded from the default list. Configure cart and order settings before enabling automation, and verify enforcement in staging. See the Catalog REST API and Catalog Webhooks.

Product Readiness

Products should have stable identifiers and enough data for discovery and transaction flows. Prioritize:

• Name, SKU, status, price, and currency.
• Inventory quantity and stock state.
• Product URL and primary image.
• Optional ordered image gallery.
• Description, category, attributes, and variants.
• External identifiers used by the merchant's source system.

The overview highlights missing fields, low stock, out-of-stock products, and publication status. Resolve these issues before exposing the catalog to agents or customer channels.

Common Workflows

Launch a pilot catalog

1. Create or synchronize a small product set.
2. Confirm identifiers, price, currency, and inventory.
3. Open the Catalog Overview and review data quality.
4. Test product search through REST, MCP, or the selected channel.
5. Create a cart and complete the expected order handoff.
6. Expand the catalog only after reconciliation succeeds.

Maintain inventory health

1. Monitor low-stock and out-of-stock counts.
2. Confirm which system is authoritative for quantity.
3. Use REST or inbound webhooks for updates.
4. Verify that failed updates do not silently overwrite newer data.
5. Reconcile inventory after bulk imports or incident recovery.

Connect a source platform

Use the Integrations page to choose the correct contract:

Integration	Best fit
REST API	Scheduled sync, migration, or direct backend integration.
Inbound webhooks	Event-driven product updates from the source platform.
Outbound webhooks	Cart, checkout, order, and product event delivery to merchant systems.
UCP	Protocol-compatible catalog discovery and actions.
MCP	Controlled catalog tools for AI clients and agents.
Extension	Packaged adapter for a supported commerce system.

Usage Scenarios

• Synchronize products from a PIM or commerce backend.
• Expose a curated subset of products to an AI shopping assistant.
• Detect missing images or descriptions before campaign launch.
• Monitor low stock before enabling high-volume agent traffic.
• Reconcile carts and orders created through multiple channels.
• Move a pilot store from manual product entry to automated synchronization.

Safety Checks

• Do not use product names as stable identifiers.
• Do not let two systems write the same field without an ownership rule.
• Treat bulk deletion as a controlled operational action.
• Keep staging and production integrations separate.
• Test duplicate and out-of-order webhook delivery.
• Validate cart and order ownership before updating records.