MCP is the discovery surface through which an agent locates what to buy before it can settle any payment.
Before an agent can pay for anything, it must first locate the right product under locale, currency, and jurisdiction constraints, using tools such as searchProducts, quote, placeOrder, and getOrderStatus, each defined by a JSON schema the agent can call without prior knowledge of the merchant's backend.
Shopify, Stripe, Cloudflare, and Cryptorefills all ship MCP servers. By early 2026, MCP has become the default agent-facing surface for commerce, with any MCP-speaking agent able to connect to any compliant server without a custom integration.