The Flowhub MCP lets you connect your Flowhub data to an AI assistant so it can look things up and take action using plain language.
Flowhub MCP makes it quick and easy to manage your store through an AI assistant. In this article, we'll guide you through what the MCP can read, write, and do so your team can get answers and make updates without leaving the conversation.
The assistant can only call a fixed, permission-scoped set of tools. It has no free or raw database access. You don't need to learn commands, codes, or any special syntax. Talk to the assistant the way you'd talk to a coworker who knows your store. Ask for what you want, and it figures out the right action behind the scenes.
What can it read
All analytics (sales, inventory, customers, employees), the product catalog, live inventory, deals, pricing, fees, taxes, store and org configuration, and individual sales and receipts. It can also review store-to-store transfers, and (when enabled for your account) browse incoming regulator manifests and packages.
What it can write
Products and variants, inventory (including moving stock between rooms and batch price overrides), deals and promotions, tiered price profiles, and fees. It can also create and send store-to-store inventory transfers, and (when enabled for your account) import received regulator packages into your inventory. Large changes can run through staged bulk edits (preview every row, confirm, then apply).
Every change is previewed first. The assistant restates what it's about to do in plain terms and waits for your OK before anything is saved.
What it CANNOT do
Ring up sales or run checkout, manage cash drawers, or check customers in. It also cannot create users or change permissions. Taxes, stores, rooms, categories, and store settings are read-only via MCP. Store-to-store transfers are limited to unregulated inventory; regulated transfers (such as Metrc or BioTrack manifests) still have to be done directly in Flowhub.
Watch the video below for a quick rundown of what the MCP server can do.
List of Available MCP Tools
Below are the actions an AI assistant can use once you connect Flowhub to Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. The assistant can only call this fixed, permission-scoped set. There is no raw database access, and each user's access always mirrors their existing Flowhub permissions.
The Access column tells you whether the assistant is looking something up (View), making a change you'll approve first (Update), or working with your account in the background (Setup).
Catalog & Products
Action | Access | Description |
View products | View | Browse your product catalog or pull up full details on one product. |
Add or edit products | Update | Create a new product (with variants and pricing) or update an existing one. |
Remove products or variants | Update | Delete a product, or remove a single variant from one. |
View brands & product types | View | List all the brands and product types in your catalog. |
Look up category rules | View | See which categories you can use and the fields a product needs before you add it. |
Inventory
Action | Access | Description |
View inventory | View | See your inventory batches, stock levels, SKUs, costs, and what's currently sellable. |
View suppliers | View | List your suppliers. |
Add or update batches | Update | Create a new inventory batch, or edit its stock, SKU, cost, or batch-level price. |
Move stock | Update | Move quantities between rooms (for example, back stock to the sales floor). |
Remove batches | Update | Delete an inventory batch. |
View rooms | View | See your inventory rooms and which are set as sales floor, quarantine, returns, or kiosk. |
Store-to-Store Transfers
Move inventory between your own locations, for example a distribution hub allocating received stock to sibling stores based on how fast each one is selling. Available for unregulated inventory only; regulated (Metrc/BioTrack) transfers still happen in the Flowhub UI.
Action | Access | Description |
View transfers | View | List transfers and see which destination stores are available. |
Create or edit a transfer | Update | Start a transfer or change one before it's sent. Reserves stock at the source once you confirm. |
Send a transfer | Update | Send a created transfer from the source store. |
Accept, reject, or cancel | Update | Accept an incoming transfer into a destination room, or reject/cancel one. |
Pricing, Fees & Taxes
Action | Access | Description |
View & build price profiles | Update | See your tiered, weight-based price profiles, or build a new one (e.g. $40 eighth, $75 quarter, $140 half). |
Edit or remove price profiles | Update | Update or delete an existing price profile. |
View & set fees | Update | See your fee rules, or add one — flat, percentage, or round-up — with cart thresholds. |
Understand your taxes | View | See your tax rates and how cumulative (stacking) taxes apply. |
Deals & Promotions
Action | Access | Description |
View deals | View | See all your deals and promotions, or pull up one in full. |
Create or edit deals | Update | Set up a promotion (product %, cart, buy/get, or bundle) or change an existing one. |
Remove deals | Update | Delete a deal. |
Check deal usage & fit | View | See how often a deal has been redeemed, or test which deals apply to a given cart. |
Regulator Imports
Available when enabled for your account.
Pull packages you've already received from your state regulator (like Metrc) straight into your Flowhub inventory. Packages must already be received and accepted in your regulator system first. The assistant matches them to your catalog; it does not receive them in Metrc for you.
Action | Access | Description |
Browse regulator manifests | View | List incoming manifests and look up the packages on them, without importing anything. |
Import packages | Update | Bring received regulator packages into your Flowhub inventory after you confirm. |
Analytics & Reporting
Action | Access | Description |
Sales analytics | View | Revenue, margin, discounts, taxes, and payment mix — by category, brand, store, or date. |
Inventory analytics | View | Inventory value, stock movement, and performance by category, brand, or location. |
Customer analytics | View | Customer counts, new vs. returning, spend, segments, loyalty, and trends. |
Employee analytics | View | Transactions, units sold, upsell rates, and captures per budtender. |
Custom reports | View | Combine any metrics and dimensions over a date range for a tailored report. |
Look up sales & receipts | View | Find individual sales by customer, payment method, order source, or date. |
Stores & Organization
Action | Access | Description |
View store setup | View | See your stores' hours, dual-license status, allowed customer types, and cart settings. |
View account setup | View | See your organization's configuration and which integrations are enabled. |
Large / Bulk Changes
When you want to change a lot of records at once, the assistant uses a safe, staged process: it stages the edit, shows you a preview of every affected row and any errors, and only applies it after you confirm. You can retry or cancel along the way.
Action | Access | Description |
Preview a bulk change | View | Stage a large edit and review every row it would affect before anything happens. |
Approve & apply a bulk change | Update | Confirm the previewed edit and run it as a tracked job. |
Manage a running change | Update | Track progress, retry rows that failed, or cancel a running job. |
Understand Read and Write Permissions
Flowhub MCP separates read (view) and write (update) actions into distinct tools. This separation lets your AI assistant freely look up data without needing permission to make changes.
In the tables above, every action labeled View (green) runs on a read-only tool. Every action labeled Update (yellow) runs on a separate write tool. Write tools use the same name as the corresponding read tool with a _write suffix added. For example:
Looking up your product catalog uses
manage_products(read).Creating or editing a product uses
manage_products_write(write).
The full list of split tools:
Read tool (lookups) | Write tool (changes) |
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*Regulator import tools appear only when that capability is enabled for your account.
Store-to-store transfers follow a slightly different pattern: reads use query_transfers and writes use manage_transfers (no _write suffix). If you configure custom tool permissions, add manage_transfers to your approval list alongside the _write tools.
Tools that were already read-only are unchanged. This includes catalog, store, room, and tax lookups, all analytics tools, and discovery tools like search_flowhub_tools.
💡 Tip: Most users do not need to change anything. The split only matters if you configure per-tool permissions in your AI client. For recommended permission settings and a configuration example, see the Flowhub MCP Setup Guide.
What happens to existing connections
No re-authentication is required. Your existing Flowhub MCP connection keeps working, and new tools appear the next time your assistant refreshes its tool list.
Scenario | What happens |
Read lookups (analytics, lists, product details) | Keep working. Same tool names, same actions. |
Write actions on the old combined tool name | Soft break. Your assistant receives a message pointing to the correct |
If you run automations or custom integrations that call Flowhub MCP write actions directly, update them to use the _write tool names listed above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the MCP have access to my full database?
No. The assistant can only call a fixed set of permission-scoped tools. It has no raw or direct database access. Think of it like giving a coworker a specific set of keys rather than the master key to the building.
Will the assistant respect my Flowhub role permissions?
Yes. Each user's MCP access mirrors their existing Flowhub permissions. If your role cannot edit inventory in Flowhub, the assistant cannot edit inventory through MCP either.
Can the assistant ring up a sale or manage a cash drawer?
No. Checkout, cash drawer, and customer check-in workflows are not available through MCP. Those actions still happen directly in Flowhub.
What happens with bulk changes? Can the assistant make mistakes on a lot of records at once?
Bulk changes go through a staged process. The assistant first previews every affected row so you can review it before anything is applied. You approve, retry, or cancel at each step.
My assistant says write actions moved to a different tool. What does that mean?
This is expected. Write actions (creating, editing, or deleting) now run through tools ending in
_write. If your AI client only allowed the original tool name, reads continue to work but writes need you to approve or allow the new_writetool. The assistant error message names the exact tool to use.
Did Flowhub remove my write permissions?
No. Your Flowhub account permissions are unchanged. This split only affects how the AI client decides which tools to auto-run. If you previously allowed a tool that handled both reads and writes, that permission now covers reads only (which is safer by default). Add the matching
_writetool to restore write access through your assistant.
Great work! 🥳
Now you know everything the Flowhub MCP can (and cannot) do. Connect it to your preferred AI assistant and start managing your store in plain language.