Why does your business data live in so many places?
Your advertising platform knows about campaigns and clicks. Everflow or another affiliate platform may know about attributed conversions. Shopify, 29Next, or another commerce system records purchases and post-purchase events. Payment providers record charges, refunds, and disputes. These tools each answer a different question, which makes it difficult to understand the full customer and financial story from any single dashboard.
Each system holds a piece of the story—not necessarily the complete picture.
What does connecting a platform actually do?
A supported integration allows TraceKit to receive or retrieve certain records from another platform, subject to the connection's permissions and coverage. Some connections may support clicks or conversions; others may support orders, upsells, refunds, payment activity, or costs. TraceKit can then investigate how the available records relate using their original references. A connection does not mean every data type or historical record is automatically included.
Example: from an affiliate click to a purchase
Imagine a fictional shopper arrives through an Everflow-tracked affiliate link, visits a Shopify store, and buys a product for $79. The affiliate platform has a click or conversion reference, while Shopify has the merchant order. If those records share reliable identifiers, TraceKit can help relate the recorded acquisition to the purchase. If they don't, the order still matters and should remain visible without invented attribution.
Example: what happens after checkout?
Now imagine a customer purchases through a 29Next checkout, accepts an upsell, and later receives a partial refund. The base order, upsell, and refund are distinct events. A useful integration preserves their individual references and any known parent-child relationships rather than replacing them with one combined sale. Actual supported 29Next event coverage must be verified for the connected account.
Where do payments and Product COGS fit?
A store can report a $99 purchase while a payment provider supplies the capture or refund status. Product COGS describes what the sold products cost the business; advertising, fulfillment, shipping, and processing fees are other important expenses. Where these sources and cost records are available, they can support a more complete financial investigation. Missing Product COGS or other expenses must be identified rather than assumed to be zero.
A connected order isn't the same as a complete profit calculation.
Does every logo on the Integrations page mean it's live?
No. Featured platforms represent TraceKit's ecosystem, not a guarantee of a fully available production connector. Even a connected provider may support only certain record types, accounts, or operations. Before onboarding, confirm which records are supported, whether historical data can be imported, how often information refreshes, and whether any features are still in development.
Ask what data is available today, not just whether a platform is listed.
What happens when a connection fails or data is missing?
A provider may temporarily reject a request, delay an update, or return a record without enough information to match it to another system. TraceKit's intended approach is to retain original source evidence and make unresolved relationships visible. A missing attribution link should not cause a valid order to disappear. Data freshness and import failures should be investigated rather than silently hidden.
What is MCP, without the technical jargon?
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. Think of it as a standard way for a compatible AI assistant to discover and use tools offered by another service. When TraceKit exposes supported tools through MCP, an authorized assistant may be able to request information or perform specifically permitted operations. MCP does not replace the underlying TraceKit data connections, and it is not required for built-in Intelligence.
Your business platforms connect to TraceKit; optional AI assistants can connect to supported TraceKit tools.
How is MCP different from built-in Intelligence?
Built-in TraceKit Intelligence is intended to help users investigate their data inside the TraceKit product. MCP is an optional bridge for compatible external AI tools. For example, an authorized user might ask a connected assistant to inspect available evidence, subject to tool availability and permissions. The assistant does not gain unrestricted access to customer data simply because the connection exists.
TraceKit Intelligence lives in the product; MCP is an optional external access path.
What keeps an AI assistant from changing things?
Authentication, organization and client context, role permissions, tool availability, and production policy are important boundaries. A tool may be visible but not permitted for a particular user or environment. Reading a report is different from changing a connection or performing a sensitive action. Those operations require their own authorization and readiness, and some may be unavailable entirely.
Discovering a tool does not authorize every action it could perform.
A practical checklist before connecting your tools
Start by identifying the questions your business needs answered. List which systems hold the necessary clicks, orders, payments, refunds, Product COGS, and costs. Confirm supported record types, permissions, historical coverage, and sync frequency for each connector. Then test a few representative transactions and review both matched and unmatched evidence before relying on broader reporting.
Where should you start?
If your main problem is affiliate attribution, start with your tracking platform and commerce orders. If it's profitability, focus on purchases, Product COGS, refunds, advertising, and payment fees. If it's customer journeys, include post-purchase events and repeat transactions. Confirm which capabilities are actually available for your account, then expand gradually rather than connecting everything without a clear purpose.
Start with one useful business question and the evidence required to answer it.
Explore the connected picture.
See how TraceKit's ecosystem, customer journeys, and Intelligence concepts fit together.