Field Notes from the Build

We Replaced Shopify Search With AI — Here’s What Actually Happened

Gabriel Richards

How we built a custom MCP + OpenSearch product discovery system, and what real customers are already doing with it.

Split Fulfillment Between Shopify POS and STORIS at the Line-Item Level

How deterministic middleware maps STORIS fulfillment records to the correct Shopify fulfillment orders, line items, quantities, delivery methods, and tracking records.

Shopify ChatGPT Checkout Payments Explained: Who Handles the Money and What the 4% Fee Really Is

Jonathan Anderson

A clear, non-technical breakdown of how payments work with Shopify ChatGPT Instant Checkout: who processes the money, what OpenAI’s role is, how the 4% platform fee works, and what this all means for merchants and customers.

The Agentic Shift: Why E-Commerce Brands Need an MCP Server Now

Gabriel Richards

We are entering the era of "Agentic Commerce," where AI agents like ChatGPT and Gemini handle the entire shopping journey. While Shopify’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) opens the door, building your own private Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is how you take control. Discover why owning your data infrastructure is the key to maintaining a competitive edge.

From WordPress Sites to Agentic AI Systems: A Practical Consulting Guide

Discover how modern consulting work is evolving from traditional WordPress and hosting projects to designing AI systems and agentic workflows. This guide walks through foundations, integration patterns, and practical lessons from bringing ChatGPT-style intelligence into real-world websites.

Integrating Avalara with Shopify Checkout to Clearly Show Recycling Fees

Gabriel Richards

Tuong Nguyen

Yasuhiro Nakano

Some states require mattress recycling fees to appear as their own tax line during checkout. This article walks through how we combined Avalara's AvaTax API, Shopify metafields, middleware, and Checkout UI extensions to display a clear tax and recycling-fee breakdown in Shopify checkout for a retailer.

AI Driven Software Development with Cursor

Gabriel Richards

AI has changed how we write software, but the real story isn’t “AI writes code.” The real story is how you work with AI: what you delegate, what you design yourself, and how you keep the whole thing from turning into an unmaintainable mess.

Two Years Later: TailwindCSS Is Thriving

Yasuhiro Nakano

Two years ago, I predicted TailwindCSS would fade like Bootstrap. I was wrong. Both frameworks are thriving in 2025, but not competing. They evolved instead.

Architecting Custom Order Pages in Shopify Using Customer Account UI Extensions

Architecting a Flexible Hours & Scheduling System With a Custom Form

Arturo Trejo

What Is a Website Manifest and Why Do You Need it?

Brian Miller

Learn what a website manifest is, how it powers Progressive Web Apps, and why it's essential for creating app-like experiences on mobile devices. Includes implementation tips.

How Shopify Shop Metafield Objects can be Used to Show Information about your Brick and Mortar Stores

Thom Zolghadr

This guide shows how to centralize store details in Shopify using shop metafields (and metaobjects) and render them across your theme. Set up fields for hours, address, contact, and policies, then use Liquid snippets to keep headers, footers, and templates consistent and easy to maintain.