Connect Claude & ChatGPT to Joy Loyalty
Connect Joy Loyalty to compatible AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT. Ask questions about your loyalty program, analyze performance, and take approved actions: manage points, tiers, and rewards, or set up your programs and widget design.
You can disconnect any connected app anytime in Settings → Developers → AI connections.
Overview
Joy Loyalty can connect directly to AI assistants that support MCP (Model Context Protocol) — currently Claude and ChatGPT — using a secure, one-click OAuth connection. Once connected, you (or your team) can ask the assistant about your loyalty program in plain language, and it reads live data straight from your store: member points and tiers, earning and redemption rules, referrals, and performance analytics.
With your approval, it can also take action on your behalf — adjusting points, changing a member's tier, issuing a reward, or sending a referral invite — depending on the access level you grant. On a full-access connection it can set up the program itself: earning and redemption programs, VIP tiers, your referral program, and the look of your Unified Widget.
This is different from pasting screenshots or exporting reports: the assistant is talking to your actual, live Joy data, and every connection is scoped and revocable from inside Joy.
Looking for the AI assistant built into the Joy app itself? See Joy AI Agent. Looking for Shopify's own assistant? See Joy with Shopify Sidekick.
What the assistant can do
| Access level | What it means |
|---|---|
| Read-only | Can view your loyalty data — members, points, tiers, rewards, referrals, programs, analytics — but can never change anything. |
| Full access | Can view and change data on your behalf — award, deduct, or adjust points, redeem rewards, refund a coupon, change a member's tier, or create a referral invite. It can also create and edit programs, tiers, referral rewards, and widget design. See Set up your program by chat. |
You choose the access level when you approve the connection, and you can revoke it at any time.
How to connect
Generate your key, then get your MCP server URL.
In Joy, go to Settings → Developers. Under Manage keys, generate the Read-only key (if you plan to grant read-only access) or make sure a Secret key exists (for full access) — this is the credential your AI assistant will use once connected. Then scroll down to AI connections and copy the MCP server URL shown there.
Generate the matching key before you connect. If you approve a "Read-only" connection without generating a Read-only key first, the connection will complete, but every request from your AI assistant will fail with a "no key provisioned" error.
Add it as a custom connector in your AI assistant.
- In ChatGPT, open Settings from your profile menu.
- Go to Plugins → Browse plugins, then open Connectors and start a new custom connector.
- Paste your Joy MCP server URL into Server URL.
- Check "I understand and want to continue" — ChatGPT's standard warning that it hasn't reviewed the server, shown for any custom connector — then click Create.
- Click Sign in with JoyLoyalty, then Continue on the "ChatGPT is requesting access" screen — this opens Joy's approval screen.
- Once approved, go back to a chat, click the + button in the message box, and choose JoyLoyalty to bring it into the conversation before you ask your question.
Start asking. Once connected, ask your assistant about your loyalty program directly — it now has access to your live Joy data (and, if you granted full access, can act on it with your approval).
Things you can ask
| Area | Example prompts |
|---|---|
| Overview | "How's my loyalty program performing overall?" · "What plan am I on — do I have API access?" |
| Members & points | "How many points does [email protected] have?" · "What tier is customer ID 7348912 in?" · "How many more points until this customer reaches the next tier?" · "Who are my top 10 members by points?" · "Which Gold-tier member has the most points?" |
| Point history | "Why does this customer have 850 points when they had 500 before?" · "Show this member's last 10 point transactions." |
| Tiers & programs | "How many VIP tiers do I have, and what are the thresholds to reach each one?" · "How many members are in my Gold tier?" · "What can customers redeem their points for?" · "Which redemption program has the most redemptions?" |
| Referrals | "Is my referral program active?" · "What does the referrer get vs. the friend they invite?" · "How many people has [email protected] referred?" |
| Analytics | "How much revenue did my loyalty program drive last month vs. last year?" · "Which tier has the highest average spend per customer?" · "Is my loyalty program healthy?" · "Who are my top referrers?" |
| Set up & design (Full access only) | "Add a birthday program that gives 200 points." · "Create a free shipping reward for 1,500 points." · "Add a Platinum tier above Gold." · "Scan my storefront and match the widget to my brand." · "Upload this logo and use it in the widget header." |
| Take action (Full access only) | "Award 500 points to [email protected] — their order shipped late." · "This customer's point balance looks wrong — correct it to 1,200." · "Redeem 1,000 of this customer's points for a 10% discount voucher." · "Move this customer up to Gold tier manually." · "Create a referral invite link for [email protected]." |
Point-balance changes (like an adjustment) show a preview of the before/after balance before they're applied. Every setup change also shows a preview first. Your AI assistant will generally walk you through what it's about to do and ask you to confirm — but always review "Take action" requests before approving them, the same way you would with any assistant.
Set up your program by chat
On a full-access connection, the assistant can build and change your loyalty program, not only report on it.
| Area | What it can set up |
|---|---|
| Earning programs | Place an order, sign up, birthday, website visit, product review, and social follows |
| Redemption programs | Discount, free shipping, and free gift rewards |
| VIP tiers | Tiers, tier rewards, the perks listed on each tier, and tier settings such as reset and notifications |
| Referrals | Referrer and friend rewards, and the referral popup style |
| Shop settings | Language, date format, point position, and discount, coupon, and free gift behavior |
| Languages | Add a new language, with your content translated automatically |
| Unified Widget | Scan a storefront for colors, fonts, and button style, apply it to a widget draft, and change individual widget settings |
| Images | Upload an image (PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF, or SVG, up to 20 MB) to your Shopify Files for use in the widget |
How a change goes through
- Ask for the change in plain language.
- The assistant shows a preview of exactly what will change.
- Reply yes, and it applies the change.
Review each preview before you confirm. The assistant is instructed to wait for your yes, so read what it is about to change the same way you would review a teammate's edit.
What to expect
- Widget changes go to a draft. Publish the draft from the widget editor in Joy. If you ask the assistant to change the live widget directly, there is no draft to fall back on.
- Referral popup style changes apply to your store right away.
- Nothing is deleted. To stop a program or reward, the assistant turns it off.
- Tier thresholds need a relaunch. A new point threshold takes effect after you relaunch tiers in Joy.
- Uploaded images stay in Shopify Files until you delete them there, even if you discard the widget draft.
- Still done in Joy: switching widget version, SSO, tier-specific earning limits, weekly report recipients, and referral eligibility rules.
Connected before this update? Disconnect Joy Loyalty in your AI assistant and connect it again to load the setup tools. Your access level stays the same.
Managing connected apps
Every app you've approved shows up under Settings → Developers → AI connections, along with its access level (Read-only or Full access).
To remove access, click Disconnect next to the app. This takes effect immediately — the app loses access to your loyalty data right away. You can reconnect it later by repeating the steps above.
Good to know
- Your credentials stay in Joy. The AI assistant never sees or stores your Joy API key — it authenticates through a separate, revocable connection.
- Nothing changes without your say. You approve full access when you first connect (see Step 2 above), and every setup change shows a preview for you to confirm.
- Different from the developer MCP package. If your team previously set up the
@joy-loyalty-1/mcp-servernpm package manually with an API key, this is a simpler alternative: no Node.js install, no copying keys — just paste one URL and approve.
FAQ
Which AI assistants are supported?
Claude (Desktop and Claude Code) and ChatGPT today.
Can I connect more than one AI assistant?
Yes — connect as many as you like; each shows up as its own entry under AI connections with its own access level.
Is this safe?
Yes. Each connection is scoped to read-only or full access (your choice), and disconnecting takes effect immediately. Joy never shares your underlying API key with the AI assistant.
The assistant says it can't change my program settings. Why?
Setup changes need a Full access connection. If you connected before the setup tools arrived, disconnect Joy Loyalty in your AI assistant and connect it again.
What happens if I disconnect and want to reconnect later?
Repeat the connect steps above from your AI assistant — you'll go through the approval screen again.