Commerce Signals

Overview

Commerce Signals is an extraction-only MCP server. Give it any block of text - an AI reply, an article, a support thread - and it returns the product and purchase-intent mentions it found, each with a brand label when one was named, a confidence score, and the exact character offsets of the phrase. It’s the same extraction engine that powers the ChatAds widget, exposed on its own for builders who already have their own chat, agent, or commerce stack. Nothing is resolved: no affiliate offers, no product pages, no prices, no catalog lookups, and no country restrictions. You get the signal and decide what to do with it.

This is a different server from the MCP Data Connector. That one is read-only access to your own widget data with a uk_ user key. This one takes a cak_ team access key and analyzes text you send it.

Get Your Access Key

Commerce Signals authenticates with a team access key (cak_...) in the x-api-key header.

Log into app.getchatads.com
Open Commerce Signals
In the Access Keys card, click Create Access Key

You can hold as many access keys as you have clients - one per MCP client is a good default, so you can revoke them independently. Widget keys (cwk_...) and user keys (uk_...) do not work here.

Connect

Add the server to your MCP client’s configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chatads-signals": {
      "url": "https://api.getchatads.com/tools/mcp/mcp",
      "transport": "http",
      "headers": {
        "x-api-key": "cak_your_access_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

It’s a Streamable HTTP MCP server, so there’s nothing to install locally and no Node or Python dependency - one URL in a config file. Restart your client and find_commerce_opportunities is available.

Tool

Tool	Params	What it returns
`find_commerce_opportunities`	`message` (required) - the text to scan; `metadata` (optional object, max 10KB) - arbitrary data echoed back on the response	An `opportunities` array of detected product mentions, plus a `count`

Each opportunity:

Field	Type	Description
`product`	string	The extracted product phrase, taken verbatim from your text
`branded`	boolean	Whether the mention named a specific brand (`true`) or is generic (`false`)
`brand`	string	The matched brand label. Present only when `branded` is `true`
`confidence`	number	Purchase-intent / extraction score from `0` to `1` - how strong a real, buy-relevant product mention this is. This is not a catalog match or relevance score; nothing is resolved in this mode
`span`	array	`[start, end]` character offsets of the phrase in the text you sent, for inline highlighting or linking. Omitted when unavailable

Example

Calling the tool with:

{
  "message": "The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are great for commuting, but a good laptop stand matters more for posture."
}

returns:

{
  "data": {
    "opportunities": [
      {
        "product": "Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds",
        "branded": true,
        "brand": "Bose",
        "confidence": 0.87,
        "span": [4, 35]
      },
      {
        "product": "laptop stand",
        "branded": false,
        "confidence": 0.43,
        "span": [72, 84]
      }
    ],
    "count": 2
  },
  "error": null,
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "60556e82-ec0b-425b-8289-b95395db8943",
    "timestamp": "2026-07-23T14:42:01Z",
    "version": "1.0.0"
  }
}

The opportunities sit under data. Anything you passed as metadata comes back on a top-level metadata field alongside it. Text with no detected purchase intent returns "opportunities": [] with "count": 0 - that’s a success, not an error.

Limits

Message length: 10,000 characters per call.
Requests: the free tier includes 500 requests per month. Every call counts, including ones that return zero opportunities. Get in touch to raise your cap - tell us roughly what volume you’re expecting.
Signals shares one usage pool with the rest of your team’s API usage, and the same per-minute burst limit. Your current month’s usage is shown at the top of the Commerce Signals tab.
Your team’s blocked-keyword and language content rules still apply. A message that trips one returns an empty opportunities array rather than an error.

Troubleshooting

”This tool requires a cak_ API key”

You connected with a user key (uk_...). Commerce Signals takes a team access key (cak_...) - create one on the Commerce Signals tab.

”Message is required”

The message argument was missing, empty, or whitespace only. An empty message is a client error, not an empty-opportunities success.

”Message exceeds max length”

The text was over 10,000 characters. Split it and call the tool once per chunk - the span offsets are relative to whatever you sent, so track your own chunk offsets if you’re highlighting against the full document.

”Extraction backend temporarily unavailable - please retry”

A SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE error means the extraction service didn’t respond. It’s deliberately surfaced as an error rather than silently returning zero opportunities, so a retry is safe and correct here.

”Daily request limit exceeded” / “Monthly request limit exceeded”

You’ve used your plan’s allowance. See Limits.

Tool not appearing in your MCP client

Verify the URL is exactly: https://api.getchatads.com/tools/mcp/mcp
Check that transport is set to "http"
Confirm the key in x-api-key starts with cak_
Restart your MCP client completely
Ask: “What tools do you have access to?”

Getting Started

Integrations

Configuration

Monetization

Analytics & Data

Developer Tools

Trust & Performance

Account

Troubleshooting

Commerce Signals

Overview

Get Your Access Key

Connect

Tool

Example

Limits

Troubleshooting

”This tool requires a cak_ API key”

”Message is required”

”Message exceeds max length”

”Extraction backend temporarily unavailable - please retry”

”Daily request limit exceeded” / “Monthly request limit exceeded”

Tool not appearing in your MCP client

​Overview

​Get Your Access Key

​Connect

​Tool

​Example

​Limits

​Troubleshooting

​”This tool requires a cak_ API key”

​”Message is required”

​”Message exceeds max length”

​”Extraction backend temporarily unavailable - please retry”

​”Daily request limit exceeded” / “Monthly request limit exceeded”

​Tool not appearing in your MCP client

Overview

Get Your Access Key

Connect

Tool

Example

Limits

Troubleshooting

”This tool requires a cak_ API key”

”Message is required”

”Message exceeds max length”

”Extraction backend temporarily unavailable - please retry”

”Daily request limit exceeded” / “Monthly request limit exceeded”

Tool not appearing in your MCP client