TL;DR
- Shopify's changelog of 26 October 2026 moves the AI-agent knowledge base into the admin at Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base.
- The standalone Knowledge Base app will no longer be available after 15 January 2027; stores with more than 1,000 facts in it must re-add what they want to keep.
- Shopify drafts facts from storefront pages in ten categories, but nothing drafted reaches AI agents until the merchant publishes it; admin-linked policies publish on creation.
- Published facts are publicly available through the Storefront MCP to AI channels including Shop and third-party platforms, with a limit of 1,000 facts.
- There is no cancellations category and no query log of customer questions in the new page; Shopify stated no regional limits.
Shopify moved its AI-agent knowledge base into the Shopify admin on 26 October 2026, under Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base. It replaces the standalone Knowledge Base app, which will no longer be available after 15 January 2027. Merchants use the page to review, edit and publish the facts AI agents use about a store, such as returns, shipping and contact details, and Shopify says nothing it drafts reaches AI agents until the merchant publishes it.
What Shopify changed on 26 October 2026
The Shopify changelog entry dated 26 October 2026 says the knowledge base is now built into the admin and describes it as a single page for reviewing, editing and publishing the facts AI agents use about a store. Shopify drafts those facts from the store's published storefront pages, and each drafted fact links back to the page it came from.
The key control is publication. In Shopify's words, "Nothing Shopify drafted reaches AI agents until you publish it."
The changelog sorts merchants into three groups:
- Stores that used the Knowledge Base app with fewer than 1,000 facts had the facts they wrote or edited moved over and published, so AI agents can keep using them. Any fact can be unpublished at any time, and no action is needed.
- Stores that used the app with more than 1,000 facts did not have their facts moved. They need to add the facts they want to keep before 15 January 2027, and Shopify says it emailed these stores directly.
- Stores that never used the app need to do nothing. Drafted facts stay unpublished until the merchant publishes them.
How this differs from what Shopify shipped in September
Relevant Audience covered two earlier steps in the same thread. On 30 September 2026 the post on Shopify's WebMCP checkout tools explained how browser agents can now read and update a checkout and place an order once the shopper confirms. On 3 October 2026 the post on AI shopping channels explained the "Allow Shopify to manage for me" setting in Sales channels > Agentic, which is on by default and gives AI channels access to products through Shopify Catalog, with direct checkout switched on.
Both of those were about products and the purchase itself. The knowledge base covers the other half of a shopping conversation: questions that are not about a product. Shopify's Help Center describes it as holding non-product information such as returns, shipping and brand values, which AI agents use when they answer buyer questions. The new part is that this layer now sits in the admin next to the channel settings, with explicit publish controls, instead of in a separate app.
The ten fact categories
The Shopify Help Center page on the knowledge base lists ten categories. The table below gives each one with the kind of information Shopify says it holds.
| Category | What Shopify says it covers |
|---|---|
| About the Store | Description, target audience, ownership, history, size, business model, social mission |
| Brand and Identity | Your brands, third-party brands sold, brand values, aesthetic |
| Company policies | Terms of service, privacy, shipping and returns policies, with alerts for missing policies |
| Contact | Address, email, phone, social profiles |
| Gift services | Gift cards, gift receipts, registry, gift wrapping |
| Payment | Payment methods accepted at checkout |
| Returns and warranty | Return policy and window, refunds, warranty, self-serve returns link |
| Second hand | Whether the store sells second-hand products |
| Fulfillment | Shipping and delivery options such as international, express or in-store pickup |
| Additional facts | Custom information the merchant adds |
Additional facts come in three types. A Paragraph is explanatory text that the agent rephrases, a Yes/No fact is a question with two answers, and Tags are a list of short related values. Each additional fact takes one type only.
There is no dedicated category for order cancellations. A merchant whose cancellation terms matter to buyers would have to add them as an additional fact. Search Engine Journal, reporting on the change on 27 October, made the same point and cited an independent test from August and September in which only 2 of 88 Shopify stores whose policy tool was queried returned a usable answer about cancelling an order. That test was not run by Shopify.
Limits, publishing rules and who can edit
The Help Center sets a maximum of 1,000 facts per knowledge base, counting both generated and additional facts. The changelog wording differs slightly: it says the knowledge base "holds up to 1,000 additional facts". Either way, stores with more than 1,000 facts in the old app are the group that has to act before 15 January 2027.
The publishing rules are detailed:
- A merchant can publish or unpublish everything at once, a whole category, or a single field.
- Facts found by a scan of the storefront stay unpublished until the merchant publishes them.
- Facts linked to admin data, such as policies and contact details, are published when they are created.
- Suggested updates from later scans can be approved or rejected, and Shopify says it never changes content without the merchant's approval.
- A rescan can be requested and can take up to 48 hours.
Each field has one source, which can be a scan, an admin location or manual entry, and it can carry several reference URLs. Changing the source removes the previous source's references.
Some stores get a reduced version. Custom storefronts and stores on the Agentic plan can only add additional facts. For password-protected stores, the knowledge base uses only Shopify admin data, not storefront content. Access requires the store owner role or specific staff permissions, including the Agentic app and sales channel permission listed in the Help Center.
How the facts reach AI agents
The Help Center says AI agents can query the knowledge base through the Storefront MCP, and that the published content is publicly available, including to AI channels such as Shop and to third-party platforms. That is the practical meaning of pressing Publish: the fact becomes something any connected agent can read and repeat to a buyer.
Shopify's developer documentation also describes Ask MCP, whose ask_business tool "returns an answer from the store's knowledge base and policies". Shopify labels Ask a draft capability in its Universal Commerce Protocol, so agents must opt in to the draft version to use it. Search Engine Journal reported that Shopify's developer resources mark the Storefront MCP policy and FAQ tool as deprecated while it still works. The direction is the same in both cases: agent answers about a store's policies are expected to come from the knowledge base.
What the move leaves out
Search Engine Journal noted that the old app's metrics page included a query log of customer questions sent to AI shopping assistants, showing which agent responded and whether it answered. Neither the new Help Center page nor the agentic storefronts page lists an equivalent record. Shopify did not say whether a query log will return.
Shopify also did not state any regional limits, rollout timing beyond the changelog date, or how often agents refresh what they read from the knowledge base. It did not publish any data on how much the knowledge base changes agent answers or sales.
Analysis: why the knowledge base matters for AI visibility
This section is Relevant Audience's analysis rather than anything Shopify said. In AI shopping, the product feed decides whether a store can be recommended, but the policy answers often decide whether a buyer trusts it. A buyer who asks an assistant "Can I return this if it doesn't fit?" gets an answer built from whatever the store has published. If the knowledge base is empty or wrong, the agent either guesses or says it does not know.
That is the same principle behind generative engine optimisation on the open web: state the facts plainly in a source the machine reads, and keep them consistent. The difference is that on Shopify the merchant now controls a structured source directly, with a publish button. Consistency between the knowledge base, the storefront policy pages and the product pages also matters for Shopify SEO, because conflicting return windows or shipping terms across pages confuse both search engines and agents.
For stores that sell across marketplaces, social commerce and their own site, the knowledge base is one more channel to keep aligned with the rest of an ecommerce marketing plan. The work is not large, but it is easy to forget because scanned facts stay unpublished by default.
What this means for Thai marketers
Shopify did not mention Thailand or any regional restriction in the changelog or Help Center. Thai brands on Shopify that sell to buyers using AI shopping channels can still take a few concrete steps:
- Open Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base and check what Shopify has drafted. Drafted facts are not live until published.
- If your store used the old Knowledge Base app with more than 1,000 facts, re-add the ones you need before 15 January 2027.
- Add an additional fact for order cancellations if buyers ask about them, since there is no category for it.
- Check that returns, shipping and payment facts match the policy pages word for word, including delivery areas outside Thailand if you ship abroad.
- Review who on the team has the permissions to publish, so facts are not changed by the wrong person.
FAQ
Where is the Shopify knowledge base now?
It is in the Shopify admin under Sales channels > Agentic > Knowledge base, as of Shopify's changelog dated 26 October 2026. It replaces the standalone Knowledge Base app, which will no longer be available after 15 January 2027.
Do I have to do anything before 15 January 2027?
Only if your store used the old Knowledge Base app with more than 1,000 facts; those facts were not moved, and you need to re-add the ones you want to keep. Stores with fewer than 1,000 facts had them moved and published automatically, and stores that never used the app need to do nothing.
Will Shopify publish facts to AI agents without my approval?
No for scanned facts: Shopify says nothing it drafts reaches AI agents until you publish it. Facts linked to admin data, such as policies and contact details, are published when they are created, so check those too.
How many facts can the knowledge base hold?
The Help Center sets a maximum of 1,000 facts, counting generated and additional facts. The changelog describes the limit as up to 1,000 additional facts.
Is the Shopify knowledge base available in Thailand?
Shopify did not state any regional limits, and neither the changelog nor the Help Center mentions Thailand. Check your own admin for the Agentic section to confirm it is there for your store.
The knowledge base is a small page with a real effect on what AI agents say about a store's returns, shipping and payments. If you want a second pair of eyes on your Shopify setup for AI shopping channels and search, Relevant Audience can review it alongside your storefront policy pages.
