MCP
Merchant Center MCP server: product feeds and Shopping data from Claude
TL;DR
Merchant Center is the integration most likely to fail for reasons that have nothing to do with your permissions. There is a one-time Google Cloud registration wall, and a multi-client account answers 403 to product queries in a way that reads like access denied and is not.
What already exists for this platform
Google has not shipped a platform-official Merchant Center MCP server at the time of writing (September 2026). The underlying API also changed: Content API for Shopping was sunset in August 2026 and the replacement is Merchant API v1.
- No official server, and any community one written before mid-2026 may target an API that no longer exists.
- Content API for Shopping was sunset on 18 August 2026, with progressive errors from 1 September. A server built against it is broken rather than deprecated.
- Merchant API v1 requires a one-time developer registration between your Google Cloud project and the merchant account — and it refuses every call until that is done, including the call that would tell you about it.
What a full MCP server adds
| Typical option today | Agent Planners MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant Center tools | Community, possibly on a sunset API | 8 reads, 5 writes |
| API generation | Often Content API (sunset) | Merchant API v1 |
| Registration handling | Left to you | Handled during connect where the id is discoverable |
| Product writes | Rare | Via productInput, under the key's write mode |
| Google Ads in the same session | No | Yes |
Tool counts are derived from the live catalogue rather than typed by hand: this family exposes 8 reads and 5 writes of the 1018 tools on the endpoint. A key only sees the writes if it carries
tools:write.How to configure it
- 1Create a key in API & MCP.
tools:readfor questions; addtools:writeif the agent should be able to change things. Tools mode needs a paid plan and fails closed. - 2Connect Merchant Center under Integrations — that OAuth step is why the MCP key never carries platform credentials.
- 3Add the server to Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Codex using the snippet below.
- 4Have the agent call
describe_permissionsfirst — it reports the key's mode, scopes, plan entitlement and connected accounts. - 5Call
list_accountsfor the account ids, and scope each call with one. Resolution is exact or it refuses, naming the candidates.
bash
claude mcp add --transport http agent-plannershttps://www.agentplanners.com/api/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer ap_live_…"Claude Desktop and Codex
Claude Desktop takes the same endpoint as JSON:
json
{
"mcpServers": {
"agent-planners": {
"url": "https://www.agentplanners.com/api/mcp",
"headers": {
"Authorization": "Bearer ap_live_…"
}
}
}
}Codex uses the same endpoint from
~/.codex/config.toml, with the key in an environment variable rather than the file: [mcp_servers.agent-planners] / url = "…/api/mcp" / bearer_token_env_var = "AGENTPLANNERS_API_KEY".Two 403s that are not permission problems
- The registration wall. Merchant API refuses every call from an unregistered Cloud project — including
getAccountForGcpRegistration, whose own description is about reporting an existing registration. It reports one; it cannot create one. - The advanced-account 403. A multi-client (parent) account answers 403 to product and issue queries with "only subaccounts and standalone accounts", while a plain account lookup succeeds. It reads as access denied; it means you queried the wrong level, and the fix is to name a subaccount.
- The mirror of that, which is easy to miss: listing subaccounts on a standalone account returns the same 403 — so "this account has no subaccounts" is an answer that arrives as an error.
Writes go through
productInput against a data source rather than a products collection — Merchant API has no direct product write, and a tool that assumes one fails at the first call.Use cases
- Feed issue triage — which products are disapproved, why, and which fixes recover the most impressions.
- Shopping performance joined to feed quality, with Google Ads on the same key.
- Product data corrections proposed and approved, written through the data source the API actually accepts.
- Subaccount reporting for agencies running an advanced account, with the right level addressed explicitly.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there an official Merchant Center MCP server?
- Not from Google at the time of writing (September 2026). Take particular care with community servers here: Content API for Shopping was sunset in August 2026, so anything built against it no longer works.
- Why does Merchant Center return 403 for my products?
- Two common causes, neither about permissions. Your Cloud project may not be registered with the merchant account, which Merchant API requires once. Or you queried a multi-client parent account, which refuses product queries — those belong to subaccounts or standalone accounts.
- Can an agent update my product data?
- Yes, through productInput against a data source — Merchant API has no direct products write. Each change is queued for approval or run inside the guardrails, as the key's write mode says, and is recorded in the audit log.