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This page answers the questions sellers ask before and just after connecting an AI assistant to Hoard. If yours isn’t here, email support@tryhoard.com and we’ll add it. If you just want to get going, the Talk to your store quick start is the safe two-minute version.

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What it is and why you’d use it

It’s a way to ask your store questions in plain English, from an AI assistant you already use, like Claude or ChatGPT, and get answers pulled from your real Hoard data. “What sold best last week?” “Which cards are underpriced?” “What should I deal with today?” The assistant looks it up live and answers.Under the hood it’s a secure connection (an “MCP connector”) between your assistant and your Hoard account. You don’t have to know how it works to use it. You ask in plain English; the assistant does the rest.
The dashboard is great when you know exactly which screen to open. The assistant is great when you have a question and don’t want to go hunting, or when the question crosses several screens at once.“Show me cards where my price is more than 30% under market, that have sold at least once in the last month, sorted by how much money I’m leaving on the table” is one sentence to an assistant and several clicks plus a spreadsheet otherwise. It’s a conversational front door to the same data, and eventually the same actions.
No. This is the part people mix up. The desktop sync app runs on your computer and keeps TCGplayer and Hoard in lockstep, that one needs your machine awake. The AI assistant talks to the data Hoard has already collected, so it works from any browser on any device, any time, even if your home computer is off.Your assistant always shows the last-synced state. If you want fresher numbers, you can ask it to trigger a sync (that’s one of the actions it can take, once you’ve turned on permissions).
Today: Claude (claude.ai and the desktop app), ChatGPT (Plus, Pro, or Business, the connector feature requires a paid OpenAI plan), and the OpenAI Codex CLI. Any assistant that supports custom MCP connectors can point at https://mcp.tryhoard.com/mcp and connect the same way.

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Is it safe?

No. By default an assistant can only read your store, it can answer questions but can’t change anything. The ability to make changes is a separate switch you turn on at Settings → Assistants, and it’s off until you do.Even with changes turned on, every edit goes through a preview → confirm → commit flow. The assistant shows you exactly what would happen, with a risk rating, before anything touches your live listings. Hard price floors and server-side safety checks sit underneath that, so a bad instruction can’t blow through your pricing. See permissions and safety for the full model.
No. The assistant never sees your bank account, payout settings, or tax info, none of that is part of Hoard. It can’t delete listings either. The change surface that exists today is pricing-related (like editing a pricing rule), and it’s all logged so you can see exactly what happened.
When you ask a question, the relevant answer data flows back through your assistant so it can respond to you, the same as any connector you’d add to Claude or ChatGPT. Hoard doesn’t sell your data or share it beyond fulfilling your request. The connection is scoped to your account, and you can cut it off any time by revoking it (below). For the broader trust model, see Security.
Open Settings → Assistants and click Revoke next to it. Access is cut immediately, the assistant can’t refresh its way back in, and any change it had previewed but not committed is dead. You can reconnect any time by following the connect guide again.

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What it costs

No separate Hoard charge today. It’s included with any paid Hoard plan (Gold, Platinum, or Diamond). You’ll need a paid plan because the assistant reads your synced store data, and you’ll need an assistant account on the other side (a Claude account, or a paid ChatGPT plan for connectors).
Any paid plan works for connecting an assistant. Pick the plan based on how often your prices need to move, Gold (weekly), Platinum (daily), Diamond (every four hours), the assistant connection comes with all three. See tryhoard.com/pricing.

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Common setup snags

The quick answers are below. For step-by-step fixes with what to click, see common setup issues.
Almost always a popup blocker. Allow popups for your assistant’s site and try connecting again. If you’re on a work network, a firewall can also block the sign-in window.
Two usual causes. Either the connector didn’t finish connecting (remove it and re-add https://mcp.tryhoard.com/mcp, then complete the sign-in and click Allow), or you’re on a free Hoard plan, the assistant connection needs a paid plan. In ChatGPT specifically, connectors also require a paid OpenAI plan.
Changes are off by default. Turn on the write surface at Settings → Assistants, then try again, the assistant will show you a preview to confirm before it commits. If it still declines, it may be a capability that’s dashboard-only for now; see what your assistant can do.
Models know Magic well and newer games less well. Ground it in your own data first, ask it to pull a snapshot of your store before it reasons, and treat any claim about general market norms as a guess unless it’s backed by your numbers. More in what your assistant can do.