{
  "schemaVersion": "1.1",
  "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront",
  "url": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront",
  "title": "Merchant AI storefront architecture & behavior",
  "summary": "How Catalog's merchant storefronts expose product information, what agents can retrieve, and how that differs from this company reference.",
  "reviewedAt": "2026-09-06",
  "audience": "ai_agents",
  "topics": [
    "AI storefront",
    "product discovery",
    "merchant subdomain",
    "HTML",
    "JSON",
    "MCP",
    "A2A",
    "canonical URLs"
  ],
  "answers": [
    "What is an AI storefront?",
    "Does it replace the merchant website?",
    "How should an agent discover a merchant's endpoints?",
    "Is this company site a merchant catalog?"
  ],
  "relatedPages": [
    "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/integrations",
    "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/data-model",
    "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/agents",
    "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/measurement"
  ],
  "representations": {
    "html": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront",
    "markdown": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront.md",
    "json": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront.json"
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront#parallel-layer",
      "title": "A parallel product-information surface",
      "basis": "implementation_review",
      "sources": [
        "website",
        "enrichment"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "Catalog's merchant AI storefront presents selected product information in forms that agents can retrieve and interpret. It can operate on a brand subdomain alongside the existing consumer website. The consumer website remains the destination for the merchant's checkout, customer account, orders, and purchase-time terms unless a separately confirmed integration changes that arrangement.",
        "The product storefront implementation resolves the merchant for the requested hostname and serves information in that merchant's context. Correct configuration and published content are prerequisites. An arbitrary ai.brand-domain hostname does not become a Catalog storefront by naming convention alone, and a configured DNS record does not prove that product content is being served successfully."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront#retrieval",
      "title": "Product and collection retrieval",
      "basis": "implementation_review",
      "sources": [
        "website"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "The reviewed merchant implementation includes readable product pages, structured JSON product documents, catalog listing/search, collection discovery, brand facts, and an agent guide. Product URLs can follow Shopify handles or mirror the merchant's original paths, depending on the store. Agents should follow the actual URLs returned in discovery or listing responses rather than manufacture paths from product titles.",
        "Collection paths and availability can differ by store. A paginated product API is the documented bulk retrieval path in the reviewed implementation; the presence of feed-related code does not prove that a downloadable bulk feed is enabled or published. Read the target merchant's live guide and API specification to establish the available contract."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront#insights",
      "title": "Product insights and decision context",
      "basis": "implementation_review",
      "sources": [
        "enrichment",
        "data-guide"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "The storefront implementation can include structured product insights with provenance and decision-guide content such as use cases, constraints, variant choices, comparisons, and evidence references. Availability depends on the product record and configuration. A section type supported by the renderer does not imply that every product has content of that type.",
        "This material helps an agent connect product facts to a buyer's question. Use the cited evidence and preserve distinctions between manufacturer facts, review observations, and editorial conclusions. For comparisons, confirm that the alternatives and variants being compared actually match the user's market, budget, and constraints."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront#protocols",
      "title": "Protocol availability belongs to each live hostname",
      "basis": "implementation_review",
      "sources": [
        "website"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "The separate merchant storefront implementation contains MCP, A2A, OpenAPI, agent discovery and skill-related code. Those code paths were inspected as implementation evidence; this reference does not certify their live operation for every merchant. Use the exact target hostname's published descriptors and test the advertised operation before relying on it.",
        "The Catalog company reference at ai.getcatalog.ai is deliberately a public, read-only HTTP document collection. Its OpenAPI describes actual JSON reads on this hostname. It has no merchant products, tool execution, MCP server, A2A task service, registration, checkout, or downloadable skill. Do not transfer a merchant storefront's advertised capabilities onto this hostname."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://ai.getcatalog.ai/ai-storefront#publication-state",
      "title": "What counts as published and what counts as used",
      "basis": "editorial_guidance",
      "sources": [
        "website",
        "quality",
        "dark-traffic"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "Publication means that the intended product representation can be fetched successfully from its destination. Agent access means an external client requested it. A sampled assistant answer mentioning or displaying the product is a further observation. A shopper click, an attributed order, and incremental revenue are additional, distinct outcomes.",
        "A useful launch check verifies hostname ownership, DNS, TLS, canonical URLs, content types, page/JSON consistency, product selection, policy links, redirects, and unknown-route behavior. After launch, use evidence from the relevant measurement surface to assess access or visibility. The existence of a machine-readable page cannot establish that an assistant has indexed it or will recommend it."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "website",
      "title": "Catalog website",
      "url": "https://www.getcatalog.ai/",
      "note": "Public product explanation. Illustrations and example metrics are not customer outcome evidence."
    },
    {
      "id": "data-guide",
      "title": "Ecommerce Product Data Infrastructure Guide",
      "url": "https://www.getcatalog.ai/blog/complete-guide-ecommerce-product-data-catalog-ai",
      "note": "Published April 28, 2026. Explains attributes, identifiers, validation, and delivery layers."
    },
    {
      "id": "quality",
      "title": "Product data quality",
      "url": "https://www.getcatalog.ai/blog/product-data-quality",
      "note": "Published July 10, 2026; updated July 31, 2026. Definitions, category-specific validation and evaluation guidance."
    },
    {
      "id": "enrichment",
      "title": "Machine-readable product enrichment",
      "url": "https://www.getcatalog.ai/blog/product-data-enrichment-ai-commerce",
      "note": "Published June 16, 2026. Field families and workflow examples; illustrative product records are not validated product specifications."
    },
    {
      "id": "dark-traffic",
      "title": "Dark traffic in agentic commerce",
      "url": "https://www.getcatalog.ai/blog/dark-agentic-commerce-traffic",
      "note": "Published July 15, 2026. Measurement caveats; third-party percentages are not Catalog customer results."
    }
  ]
}