MCP server

Checkout Links runs an MCP server. MCP is the standard way AI tools connect to other apps, so once you add a connection, tools like Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI and ChatGPT can work with your links directly. You describe what you want in plain language and the tool does it.

It is most useful for work that is slow by hand: one link per influencer, 300 one-time links for a mailing, or the same change on fifty links.

The MCP server is in early access. If Settings → MCP server shows “The MCP server is in early access”, click Contact us and we’ll switch it on for your store.

What you can do

Every connection can read your links. Ask things like:

“Which links do I have for Black Friday?”
“What’s in the link called Summer Sale, and does it have a popup?”
“Which of the child links under my gifting link have been used?”
“Find the variant ids for the Linen Shirt”

A connection with write access can also make changes:

“Create a checkout link for the Linen Shirt with 20% off and free shipping over $100”
“Add a popup to my gifting link with a callout that says ‘Pick your free gift’ and three upsells at 100% off”
“Make one copy of this link for each name in this list, and give me the URLs as a table”
“Create 300 one-time links from my VIP link”
“Tag every order from my influencer links with ‘influencer’”
“Delete the test links I made yesterday”

Your AI tool asks you to confirm before it changes anything.

What it can read and change

Links. Create a link from products in your store, and change its order tags, attribution (UTM values, ref and custom parameters), usage limit, passcode and preview text. Switch a link on or off, or delete it.

Promotions. Order discounts, free shipping, free gifts and discount codes, with or without a cart threshold, in tiers.

Popup. Add, change, reorder or remove the blocks of a link’s popup: logo, callout, countdown, cart items, upsells, image, consent, cart summary, progress bar, checkout button and skip button.

Child links. Many links that are copies of one link. See below.

A few things are still done in the app:

Changing the products on a link that already exists
Schedules
Limiting a discount to chosen products or collections
Adding a Kaching Bundles block to a popup
Custom colours in a popup. The ones you set in the app are kept when your AI tool edits the popup.

Your products are never changed. The MCP server can search your products to find the ones a link needs, and nothing more.

Create many links from one

When you need many links that are the same apart from a name or a number, ask your AI tool to make one link with the right settings, then create child links from it. The first link is the parent.

A child link is a real link with its own URL, its own usage limit and its own statistics. It is created as a copy of its parent. You can name each one (“one for Anna Berg, one for Sam Lee”) or ask for a number of them, which are named after the parent and numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on.

To give each child link something of its own, write a placeholder on the parent. Each child link gets its own value in its place:

{{ link_name }} is the child link’s name, like “Anna Berg”
{{ link_slug }} is the name in a form that fits a tag or a UTM value, like “anna-berg”
{{ link_number }} is its number

You can use these in popup text, order tags, UTM values and preview text. A callout that says “A gift for {{ link_name }}” on the parent reads “A gift for Anna Berg” on Anna’s link, and an order tag of “influencer-{{ link_slug }}” tags her orders “influencer-anna-berg”.

When you change the parent later, ask your AI tool to update the child links from it. That writes the parent’s current settings over every child link, so a change you made on one child link is replaced. Names, numbers and placeholder values are kept.

In the app, a parent link shows its child links in the links table and in a Child links card in the link editor, where you can view them all, export them as a CSV file or delete them all. A parent’s statistics include its child links.

Permissions

Each connection is one of two kinds:

Read only, the default. The connection can look at your links and search your products.
Read and write. The connection can also create, change and delete links.

You choose when you create the connection and it can’t be changed afterwards. To change it, remove the connection and create a new one.

Create a connection

In Checkout Links, go to Settings, then MCP server
Click Create connection
Give it a name you’ll recognise later, like “Claude on my laptop”
Tick Allow write access if the tool should be able to create, change and delete links
Click Create
Copy the Connection URL

The URL contains a secret token and is shown only once. If you lose it, remove the connection and create a new one.

Add it to your AI tool

The connection URL is all your tool needs. There is no separate sign-in or API key. Right after you create a connection, pick your tool under Your AI tool and the app shows the exact command or configuration with your URL already filled in.

In the examples below, replace https://mcp.checkoutlinks.com/your-token with your own connection URL.

Claude (desktop and web)

Open Settings, then Connectors, choose Add custom connector and paste the connection URL. No sign-in is needed.

Claude Code

Run this in your terminal, then restart Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http checkout-links https://mcp.checkoutlinks.com/your-token

Cursor

Open Settings, then Tools & MCP, choose New MCP server and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "checkout-links": {
      "url": "https://mcp.checkoutlinks.com/your-token"
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Run MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette and add:

{
  "servers": {
    "checkout-links": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.checkoutlinks.com/your-token"
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI

Add this to ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "checkout-links": {
      "httpUrl": "https://mcp.checkoutlinks.com/your-token"
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT

Open Settings, then Connectors, add a custom connector and paste the connection URL. This needs a ChatGPT plan with connectors or developer mode.

To check that it works, ask your tool “What Checkout Links links do I have?”

Manage your connections

Settings → MCP server lists every connection with its access, the day it was created, the day it was last used and the last characters of its URL.

To remove one, click the delete icon next to it. The connection stops working right away, also in a conversation that is already open. Removing can’t be undone. To connect the tool again, create a new connection.

Create one connection per tool or per person. Then you can remove one without cutting off the others.

Security

Treat the connection URL like a password. Anyone who has it can do what the connection is allowed to do. Don’t paste it into a chat, a ticket or a shared document.
The full URL is shown once. Checkout Links keeps only a fingerprint of it, so nobody, including us, can show it to you again.
A connection only reaches the store it was created in.
A read-only connection is never offered the tools that make changes, and never sees a link’s passcode, only whether it has one.
Your products, orders and customers can’t be changed through the MCP server.
Uninstalling Checkout Links removes all of the store’s connections.
What you type into your AI tool is handled by that tool’s provider, under their terms.

Troubleshooting

The tool says it can’t connect, or the connection is not authorised. Check that the whole URL was pasted, including the long token at the end. If the connection was removed, create a new one.

The tool can read links but says it can’t create or change them. The connection is read only. Create a new one with Allow write access ticked and add that to your tool.

A large job stops partway. Creating, updating and deleting are done in batches of up to 50 links, and your tool calls again for the rest. If it stops early, ask it to continue. Numbered child links carry on from the highest number in use.

A link was created but comes with a warning. The tool passes on anything that would stop a link working, like a product that isn’t available on the Checkout Links sales channel or discounts being switched off for your store. Fix it in your Shopify admin and the link works without being recreated.

An older link isn’t found. Lists and searches look through your 2,000 most recently changed links. Give the tool the link’s shortcode and it can read the link directly.