The Custom Commerce Connector lets your AI bot talk to your own backend — no matter what platform it's built on. If you run a custom storefront (Laravel, Rails, a hand-built PHP app, or any REST API you control) instead of a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, this is how you connect it.

What the Custom Commerce Connector Does

Most integrations are built for one specific platform. The Custom Commerce Connector is different — it works with any backend that can expose a REST endpoint. Your development team registers the API calls your bot should be able to make (get cart, look up an order, submit a quote request, whatever your app supports), and the AI can call them live, mid-conversation, the same way it uses any other Velaro skill.

Because every backend names its fields differently, the connector uses Velaro's field mapper to translate your API's response into a consistent shape the AI always understands — you don't need to change your API to match Velaro, and Velaro doesn't force you into someone else's fixed data model.

How to Connect

1. In Velaro, go to Integrations → Custom Commerce Connector.

2. Enter your API's base URL and, if your API requires one, an authorization header and token.

3. Register each endpoint you want the AI to be able to call: give it a name (e.g. get_cart), the HTTP method, and the path.

4. Map the response fields your API returns to Velaro's field names, so the AI reasons over consistent data regardless of what your backend calls things.

5. Click Test Connection to confirm Velaro can reach your API before going live.

How the AI Uses It

Once configured, the AI can call custom_commerce_call_endpoint during a live conversation — for example, a visitor asks "what's in my cart?" and the AI calls your registered get_cart endpoint and answers using the real, live response.

Security

Every call is validated before it goes out — only the host you configured can ever be reached, and requests to internal or non-public addresses are always blocked, even if a URL is mistyped or a redirect tries to point somewhere else.

Troubleshooting

Test Connection fails

Confirm your base URL is reachable over HTTPS from the public internet — internal-only or non-public addresses cannot be used.

AI says the connector isn't configured

No endpoint is registered for this site yet, or the connection was disabled. Check Integrations → Custom Commerce Connector and confirm at least one endpoint is registered and enabled.

Response data isn't showing up correctly

Check your field mapping — if your API renamed a field, update the mapping so it points at the new field name.