Ilya Grigorik

High Performance Browser Networking @ hpbn.co: {on,off}line perf best practices at your fingertips!

We've done this at @Shopify for a while now. Massive unlock. Kudos to @tobi for always living in the future. Now it's time for everyone to get clever on how to save costs losslessly (i.e. gisting).

@tjelailah You can stand up one pretty quickly with UCP proxy! Shopify is WIP and coming soon, we're updating our implementation to match latest spec shape.

@igrigorik Are there any UCP-enabled storefronts in production right now? Any agent developers can test with?

Shopify merchants get UCP built-in and work with all agentic storefronts. What about everyone else? 👉🏻 github.com/Shopify/ucp-pr… Introducing UCP Proxy: a DIY implementation that lets any commerce backend speak UCP. Your store stays the system-of-work & truth, the proxy translates. What's in the box: • REST + MCP transports • Capability negotiation • Discount + fulfillment capabilities • Custom payment handlers • Configurable escalation rules In short, batteries included for core UCP primitives. Fork it, review the demo adapters and documentation to get started. Enable UCP for your shape of commerce.

@arturskruze @tobi 👍 Take a look at #extensions" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">ucp.dev/specification/…. For a hands-on example, take a look at how "discount" extension is defined in the spec.

@igrigorik @tobi I’m thinking a flow on Google or ChatGPT - discover a product, tell AI what to write on it, maybe other options, and then pay right in the chat. Are there any docs on the schema? I’m not aware of it.

We build UCP Proxy to take any ecommerce system and expose it via UCP to shopping agents. Make commerce better for everyone.

@arturskruze @tobi Can you elaborate on the flow you're thinking? FYI, you can define & advertise an extension that extends the base schema -- it doesn't need to be in "core" UCP.

@tobi Any plans on customizable product support? I.e, embroidery?

@arturskruze Awesome.

@igrigorik Magento merchants would use Magebit's UCP extension (still WIP), others would need to wait or build a custom one. 👉 github.com/magebitcom/mag…

UCP-Proxy is advanced mode. Want an easier way to sell on agentic storefronts (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, ...) without replatforming your ecommerce? Check out Shopify's Agentic plan: shopify.com/agentic-plan p.s. for an abundance of clarity: if you already run your store on Shopify, everything comes built-in. 🎇

Have questions about UCP? Tune in & join in the convo.

@WiltOnTilt Be on Shopify. Connect the Google channel.

@igrigorik what can merchants do to ensure their shopify stores are optimized for this?

Is that Gemini talking to Shopify over UCP, to help you buy a shiny new Monos carry-on? Yep, yes it is. For the curious: shopify.dev/agents

And is that Copilot talking UCP embedded protocol? Yep, yes it is. For the curious: ucp.dev/specification/… Want a batteries included SDK? Checkout Kit got you covered (ECP under the hood): shopify.dev/docs/storefron…

@RalphSadowski @mcfazeli @Shopify As @mcfazeli said, we're on it: x.com/i/status/20006… 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

@mcfazeli @Shopify Moreso curious to see if / how Shopify can live higher up the stack to superpower models in the discovery process in a way that Shopify is uniquely positioned to do!

Really neat. Now, can @Shopify help solve for better product discovery upstream from the purchase?

@falhazmiai It is a bit confusing, but it's lego blocks. UCP models checkout negotiation. AP2 is payments (which UCP uses). A2UI is presentation. Now we have all the pieces.

Google has so far introduced Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol, the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), the Agent-User Interaction (A2UI) protocol and now the Universal Commerce Protocol. Having this many protocols for the supposedly generic reasoning engines is counterintuitive.

@KartikB101 Check how payment handlers are modeled, it's an open and pluggable protocol. We didn't define it because the job of the core protocol is to model how to negotiate, not dictate what's sanctioned. You, or anyone else, can define a handler for stable coin payments. Let's go build!

Why no stablecoins in Google’s new Agentic Universal Commerce Protocol? Stablecoins only make sense for high frequency, low value micro payments settled instantly (APIs). x402 will dominate here Shopping-like use cases are higher value (“macro” payments), lower frequency, and usually require chargeback / dispute resolution. Card networks will continue to dominate here

@DavidMagee @Google @Shopify This: x.com/i/status/20103…

@DavidMagee @Google @Shopify It is. You can see it in action already: Google docs contain gpay handler, Shopify docs have the Shop Pay handler. Decentralized, open. There are more gems to discover in there still.. the negotiation is dynamic and can adapt to context of a specific transaction.

The real story from NRF today isn’t the buy button…all about the battle for commerce infrastructure. Today @Google and @Shopify announced UCP (Universal Commerce Protocol). It’s an open standard for AI agents to discover, purchase, and support transactions across any merchant. I think this matters more than the “shop in Gemini” headlines you see suggest: Shopify just became the universal checkout layer for AI… Shopify isn’t hedging…they’re all in, and building a moat. While AI platforms still fight for consumers, Shopify positioned themselves as essential infrastructure for all of them. Smart. Is Google betting against Amazon’s model? Amazon has historically owned discovery-to-delivery, so this very much feels like Google’s counter. Same playbook as Android vs iOS, but for commerce? “Retailers remain merchant of record” appears in every piece of UCP messaging. That’s not a feature…a direct appeal to merchants terrified of platform dependence. The catalog quality arbitrage is real I’ve read that OpenAI’s checkout is struggling with “messy data.” Who isn’t 😂 Meanwhile, Shopify’s been quietly going deep on search and LLMs to categorize and enrich product data across millions of merchants. Clean, structured catalog data is about to become a competitive advantage. Most retailers aren’t ready. The trust gap is the actual constraint IAB reports 693% growth in AI-driven traffic, but only 46% of shoppers fully trust AI recommendations. The protocol wars assume consumer behavior will catch up to technology. Feels likely, but hard to say when. What I’m watching: How quickly merchants adopt. Shopify auto-enrolling everyone says a lot. Whether “open” standards actually stay open. Which retailer builds the first breakout AI-native experience. The retailers who win in agentic commerce won’t be the ones with the best buy buttons. They’ll be the ones who understand that product data, checkout flexibility, and brand storytelling are now infrastructure problems. Consumers probably won’t notice much of this, and maybe that’s the point. But the platforms are moving fast.

@KawaDono Check the links in the Shopify.dev docs. There is a new dev dash where you play with catalog and checkout tools.

@igrigorik Can you elaborate on rollout? Don’t see it on settings yet just preview products. Super exciting.

The bazaar is open. Gemini is ready to shop. Millions of Shopify merchants are ready to sell.

@aleyda Indeed, inevitable. And done right, modelled as an open bazaar: extensible, dynamic. Chiseled out from decades of experience processing billions of transactions and powering millions of merchants at Shopify.

📣 Google is launching UCP, a new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools ... that will soon power a new checkout feature on eligible Google product listings in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app 👇 * Google is launching the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey * UCP is built to work across verticals and is compatible with existing industry protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and Model Context Protocol (MCP)." * UCP will soon power a new checkout feature on eligible Google product listings in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, allowing shoppers to check out from eligible U.S. retailers right as they’re researching on Google * Google says shoppers can buy confidently with Google Pay using payment methods and shipping info already saved in Google Wallet and soon, will be able to make a purchase with PayPal. * Google work with retailers to expand globally and add more capabilities, like discovering related products, applying loyalty rewards, and powering custom shopping experiences on Google. More: blog.google/products/ads-c… PS: This announcement is not surprising after OpenAI's own announcement of Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol last year. Google also has an important advantage with its product shopping graph and existing integration with online retailers and brands. 🍿

@vikashmehta2925 @sundarpichai Nailed it.

@sundarpichai Universal Commerce Protocol feels like the TCP/IP moment for shopping. Agents won't just recommend, they'll transact.

AI agents will be a big part of how we shop in the not-so-distant future. To help lay the groundwork, we partnered with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart to create the Universal Commerce Protocol, a new open standard for agents and systems to talk to each other across every step of the shopping journey. And coming soon, UCP will power native checkout so you can buy directly on AI Mode and the @Geminiapp.