Key points
- Shopify's standalone Knowledge Base app will no longer be available after January 15, 2027, per the company's October 26 changelog.
- Merchants with more than 1,000 facts in the old app did not have them migrated and must re-enter the ones they want to keep before that date.
- The new admin knowledge base sits under Sales channels > Agentic and has ten categories, with storefront scans proposing updates that stay unpublished until approved.
- The old app's query log of customer questions is not listed in the new Help Center page or the agentic storefronts page.
Why it matters for marketers: Store policies and brand facts now live in Shopify admin, so marketers must keep them accurate, published and complete, since AI shopping agents draw on them to answer shoppers.
Shopify has replaced its Knowledge Base app with a built-in knowledge base in Merchant Admin. The tool holds non-product information that AI shopping agents may need to answer questions about a store, such as return policy, shipping times and brand values. Store policies and contact details are published automatically, and the published content is available through the Storefront MCP to apps like the Shop app and third-party platforms.
Most merchants need to do nothing. Facts entered or edited in the old app moved over and were published automatically for smaller stores. Stores with more than 1,000 facts did not get a transfer and must re-enter what they want to keep before January 15, 2027. Shopify says it emailed those merchants directly. Scanned content stays unpublished until a merchant approves it, and a rescan can take up to 48 hours.
For marketers, this makes policy and brand copy an input to AI-driven customer service. Gaps matter: an SEJ test by Bill Hunt found that, of 88 stores whose policy tool he queried, only two returned a usable answer about canceling an order. Because there is no cancellation category, merchants can add missing terms as an additional fact.
Also watch measurement. The old app's metrics page included a query log of customer questions to AI assistants, and the new documentation does not list an equivalent record. Hunt suggests testing the policy tool with real buyer questions. Shopify's developer documentation also marks the Storefront MCP policy and FAQ tool as deprecated and points developers to Ask MCP, which it describes as a draft capability.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.
