The AI Assistant lets you read and update your shipment tracking, notifications and TrackShip settings by chatting with your own AI — Claude, ChatGPT, or any assistant that supports connectors. It works by exposing a secure MCP (Model Context Protocol) endpoint on your store that AI assistants can connect to.
No external AI API key is required. Your own AI subscription powers the conversation. Your store only provides the secure tools and the authenticated connection — you never pay per message.
What data reaches the AI provider? When the AI assistant calls a tool, the tool’s response — order numbers, carrier names, tracking numbers, shipment statuses and customer names — is sent to your AI provider (Anthropic for Claude, OpenAI for ChatGPT) as part of the conversation. This is how every AI connector works. No data leaves your store until you ask the AI a question that triggers a tool call. To stop all data flow, turn off Enable the TrackShip connection, or revoke individual connections from the Who is connected table.
What you can do with it
- Look things up — which shipments are late, the full tracking history of an order, shipment notification logs (email and SMS), delivery analytics, and your carrier mappings and settings.
- Make changes — update TrackShip settings and shipment status email settings, add or remove carrier mappings, add an internal note to a shipment, and send tracking to TrackShip to refresh a shipment status.
- Same rules as working by hand — every action runs as your own store account and follows your existing TrackShip settings. The AI cannot bypass them, and it never sees customer payment details.
How it works
The plugin adds a standards-based MCP server to your store. You paste your connection URL into your AI assistant’s connector settings. The AI is then sent to your store’s sign-in page, where you sign in with your normal store account and approve access using OAuth 2.1 with PKCE — no API key is ever copied by hand. After that the AI can call TrackShip tools on your behalf, acting as your store account.
Your connection URL looks like this, and contains no password:
https://your-store.com/wp-json/trackship/v1/mcpEach person who connects signs in as themselves and gets their own token, so you can turn one person off without affecting anyone else.
Two ways an AI can connect
| Route | Who it suits | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Connection URL (recommended) | claude.ai in a browser, Claude and ChatGPT mobile apps, desktop apps | The only route that works from a phone. Each person gets their own token and can be revoked individually. |
| WooCommerce MCP | Claude Desktop, Cursor | Uses a WooCommerce API key. The AI gets WooCommerce’s own tools plus all TrackShip tools in one connection. A WooCommerce key opens the whole store — orders, products, customers — not just tracking. Set up under AI Assistant → Woo MCP. |
claude.ai and ChatGPT cannot use the WooCommerce route, because it needs an API key header they cannot send.
Requirements
- TrackShip for WooCommerce installed, up to date, and your store connected to TrackShip.
- Your site’s REST API reachable over HTTPS by outside clients. Some security plugins block AI clients — see Troubleshooting if the connection fails.
- Pretty permalinks: Settings → Permalinks set to anything other than Plain.
- For WooCommerce MCP: WordPress 6.9 or newer, with WooCommerce’s MCP feature switched on under WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → MCP. Claude Desktop and Cursor also need Node.js installed, because that route starts a small bridge with
npx. - An AI assistant that supports custom connectors (Claude, ChatGPT, and others).
In this section
- Enable & Configure the AI Assistant — turn it on, review who is connected, and control read/write access.
- Connect Your AI Assistant (Claude / ChatGPT) — step-by-step connection guide.
- WooCommerce MCP — connect Claude Desktop or Cursor with a WooCommerce API key.
- What the AI Can Do (Tools) — the full list of actions and their limits.
- Audit Log — every action taken, which app made the call, and the result.
- Troubleshooting — fix connection problems.