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How to Connect Claude or ChatGPT to Simple Affiliate

Shopify API · October 28, 2026

You can run your Simple Affiliate program from Claude or ChatGPT. Ask how your affiliates did, see what you owe them, check your setup, or change a setting. Each change waits for your click on Confirm.

How the AI Assistant Connection Works

Simple Affiliate has a connector server that AI assistants can use. You add it to your assistant once, sign in to your store, and approve the connection in your Shopify Admin. After that, the assistant can read your Simple Affiliate data and prepare changes for you.

  • Reports and lookups: The Overview, the reports and the payouts owed, as the Simple Affiliate admin shows them.
  • Affiliates and referrals: Look up an affiliate or a referral, and find out why an order was or was not credited.
  • Settings: Read every settings tab, your groups, their product commissions, your linked stores and your headless storefront.
  • Changes: Change the Emails, Signup, Referral, Dashboard, Translations and Klaviyo settings, the group automation flow, your groups, their product commissions, your linked stores and your headless storefront, after you confirm.

The connection acts as you, on one store. It uses the same rules as the admin: a report keeps the limits of your plan, and a save runs the same checks as a save in the admin.

Before You Start

  • Plan: The connection works on every Simple Affiliate plan.
  • App: Simple Affiliate must be installed on your Shopify store, and you need access to the app in your Shopify Admin.
  • Server URL: https://mcp.simple-affiliate.com/mcp

How to Connect Claude

These steps work in Claude on the web and in the Claude desktop and mobile apps.

  1. In Claude, open Customize > Connectors.
  2. Click Add connector, then Add custom connector.
  3. Enter a name, such as Simple Affiliate, and the server URL https://mcp.simple-affiliate.com/mcp. Click Continue and finish the setup.
  4. Click Connect on the new connector.
  5. Enter your store address, for example your-store.myshopify.com, and click Continue.
  6. Your Shopify Admin opens. Click Allow to approve the connection.
  7. In a chat, turn on the Simple Affiliate connector and ask a question, for example "How did my affiliates do in the last 90 days?"

On a Claude Team or Enterprise plan, an owner of the organization adds the custom connector first. Each member then connects with their own store login.

Claude Code

To add the Simple Affiliate plugin, which includes the connector and its skills, run these two commands in Claude Code:

  • /plugin marketplace add sa-incorporated/simple-affiliate-claude-plugin
  • /plugin install simple-affiliate@simple-affiliate

To add only the connector, run claude mcp add --transport http simple-affiliate https://mcp.simple-affiliate.com/mcp. Then run /mcp, choose simple-affiliate and sign in. Claude Code in a terminal cannot show the Confirm card, so you make changes in the Simple Affiliate admin there.

How to Connect ChatGPT

Simple Affiliate is waiting for approval in the ChatGPT plugin directory. Until then, you can add it as a custom MCP server.

  1. In ChatGPT, open Plugins.
  2. Click Add, then Add custom MCP server.
  3. Enter the name Simple Affiliate. Under Connection, enter the server URL https://mcp.simple-affiliate.com/mcp. Keep Authentication on OAuth.
  4. Read the risk warning, click I understand and want to continue, then click Create as a plugin.
  5. Install the plugin and sign in: enter your store address, click Continue, and click Allow in your Shopify Admin.
  6. In a chat, type @Simple Affiliate and ask your question.

ChatGPT shows a warning for every custom MCP server, because it does not review them. Whether you can add one depends on your ChatGPT plan and workspace settings. In a Business or Enterprise workspace, an admin may need to allow custom MCP servers first. On some accounts, Add custom MCP server appears only after you turn on developer mode in the ChatGPT settings.

What You Can Ask

  • "Is my affiliate program set up correctly?"
  • "How did my affiliates do in the last 90 days?"
  • "What do I owe my affiliates, and who can't be paid?"
  • "Why was order #1001 not credited to an affiliate?"
  • "Raise the commission of the VIP group to 15%."

Important Rules to Remember

  • ⚠️ No payouts from an assistant: Simple Affiliate never pays affiliates from Claude or ChatGPT. Payouts, payments, PayPal, store credit, plan changes and payment accounts stay in the Simple Affiliate admin.
  • Confirm card: A settings change first shows a Confirm card with the current value and the new value. Simple Affiliate saves nothing until you click Confirm, and the assistant cannot confirm for you. If someone changes the same setting in the admin before you confirm, nothing is saved, and you see why.
  • Prepared pages: For a referral assignment, a signup approval or a new affiliate, the assistant gives you a filled-in page of the Simple Affiliate admin. You review it and save it there.
  • Private data stays private: The assistant never sees your Klaviyo key, a pairing code of a linked store, or the bank or payout account of an affiliate.

How to Disconnect

  1. In Simple Affiliate, open Settings > Integrations.
  2. In AI assistant connections, click Revoke next to the connection.

The assistant must sign in again before it can use Simple Affiliate. Uninstalling Simple Affiliate ends every connection.

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