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When a picker cannot find a card where Hoard says it is, the next job is a count—not an automatic location change. This guide uses a connected assistant to build that count queue from your Chaos Sort records. It can show where the stored shelf metadata and the last-synced on-hand quantity disagree; only a person looking at the box can verify what is physically there. Before you start, connect your assistant and make sure your store uses Chaos Sort locations.

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Step 1: Ask for location drift

Ask your assistant:
“Which shelf records need a human count? Search my inventory for is:location-drift. For each result, show the card, every open box and slot, the quantity recorded in those slots, the current on-hand quantity, and the difference. Do not shelve, move, clear, or change anything.”
is:location-drift finds a card when its open shelf records hold more copies than Hoard’s current on-hand inventory count. It is a read-only inventory search. The assistant can inspect these records through MCP, but it cannot shelve, move, or clear a location. The usual explanations are a copy that shipped outside a Hoard pull or a slot that was never cleared. They are explanations to investigate, not a conclusion about what happened.

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Step 2: Keep the two location problems separate

Ask a second question for stock that has no shelf record at all:
“Now search is:unshelved. Show the card, quantity on hand, and unshelved quantity so I can make a shelving backlog. Do not assign locations.”
is:unshelved means there are on-hand copies with no open box-and-slot record. It does not mean the shelf record exceeds the inventory count. In short:
  • is:location-drift is a count discrepancy: recorded shelf quantity is greater than the last-synced on-hand quantity.
  • is:unshelved is a placement backlog: on-hand copies do not yet have a shelf slot.
Use both queues if you are catching up after a large import or a period of picking outside Hoard, but count the drift queue first. Do not turn an unshelved result into a guessed location.

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Step 3: Scope the count walk

If you are walking one box, narrow the review list:
“Limit the drift results to box:5 and sort the results by location.”
For a single record, ask for its card with loc:5-234. box:5 finds cards with an open location in box 5, and loc:5-234 finds the card recorded in that exact slot. They are useful for a physical count route, but location drift is calculated across the card’s open shelf records. A card that appears after you scope to one box can have its discrepancy in another slot too, so read every open location before changing a record.

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Step 4: Verify the physical shelf before correcting metadata

The on-hand number comes from your TCGplayer inventory as Hoard last synced it. A shelf location is a record created when someone placed a card—through Quick Add, scan review, a CSV Location column, or a Shelve action. Sync never assigns a location. Neither record alone proves the current physical stock count. Take the assistant’s list to the shelf and count the actual copies. Check the card, condition, finish, and every listed slot. If the card is where the record says it is, compare the count with the listing quantity; if it is elsewhere, find the correct slot before changing anything. Make the correction in the dashboard’s Cards table or card panel: use My Copies to move or clear a slot, or Shelve after you have placed unshelved stock. Picking and reporting a missing card happen in the dashboard’s Visual Pull flow or on its tablet pull view. Those are human, physical-work steps; the assistant’s MCP location access is read-only.

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Step 5: Recheck the queue

After the count and any dashboard correction, ask the assistant to run is:location-drift again. A shorter list is evidence that the stored records now agree with the current on-hand data, not proof that every card in the store has been physically audited. If a fresh TCGplayer sync changed quantities while you were counting, recheck the affected cards before treating the result as resolved.