AI Assistant & MCP

Ask ShipWave: the in-dashboard AI assistant

Run natural-language queries against your orders, shipments, returns, and inventory without leaving the dashboard.

What Ask ShipWave does

Click the Ask ShipWave button in the dashboard header (or press Cmd+K / Ctrl+K) to open a chat panel that can answer questions about your data. Ask things like "Which orders shipped late last week?", "How much did I spend on USPS in April?", or "What is the tracking status of #23122743?". The assistant pulls from the same database the dashboard uses, so the answers are live, not cached.

Actions it can take

Beyond answering questions, the assistant can do things on your behalf: create a return label, void an unused shipment, requeue a failed fulfillment push, or reprice a marketplace listing. It will always summarize what it is about to do and ask for confirmation before any write action. Read-only questions execute immediately. Each call is logged in Admin → Settings → AI Audit Log.

The Cmd+K shortcut

Cmd+K on macOS or Ctrl+K on Windows opens Ask ShipWave from anywhere in the dashboard. The panel pre-fills context from the page you are on — if you are looking at an order, the question is already scoped to that order. Press Esc to close.

Daily budget meter

Every workspace gets a free tier of $1.00 per user per day for AI usage. Heavier users can upgrade to the $5.00 per user per day tier in Admin → Settings → Billing. The meter at the bottom of the chat panel shows how much of today's budget you have left. Most questions cost less than a cent; complex multi-step actions cost more. See AI budgets and rate limits for the full breakdown.

When to use it vs. the regular UI

Ask ShipWave is fastest for one-off questions and bulk actions that would otherwise require clicking through several screens. For repetitive workflows — e.g. "every order over $500 needs signature confirmation" — build an automation rule instead. The Rule Recommender can spot these patterns automatically.

FAQs

Does the assistant see my data?
Yes, but only your workspace data. The assistant runs inside your authenticated session and uses the same row-level security the dashboard uses. It cannot read other workspaces, and your data is never used to train any model.
Can I disable Ask ShipWave for some teammates?
Yes. In Admin → Settings → Team, set each user's AI access to "Off", "Read-only", or "Full". Read-only blocks any tool that performs a write action.
What happens if I run out of daily budget?
The chat panel switches to read-only and shows a "budget exhausted" notice. Tool calls that perform writes are blocked until midnight UTC. Upgrade the workspace or wait for reset. See <a href="/help/ai-budget-and-limits">AI budgets and rate limits</a>.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes. The panel is responsive and works on phone and tablet, including the keyboard shortcut equivalent (long-press the floating button).

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