Connect ChatGPT or Claude to Avada Accessibility
AI Access opens a door between Avada Accessibility and an AI assistant you choose, so you can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your widget and your scan results without opening the app.
Once it is set up, you can also let the assistant change those settings for you.
You decide two things when you turn it on: which groups of data the assistant may work with, and whether it may only look, or also change things.
Prerequisites
- Avada Accessibility installed on your store.
- A Claude or ChatGPT account on a plan that supports custom connectors. See the table below.
| Assistant | What you need | Limit to know |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | A paid plan is recommended | The Free plan allows only one custom connector in total. Each Avada app needs its own connector. |
| ChatGPT | Developer mode, available on Pro, Plus, Business, Enterprise and Education | The Free plan has no Developer mode, so it cannot be connected. |
Step 1: Open AI Access
In your Shopify admin, open Avada Accessibility and select Integrations in the app menu, then select the AI Access card. It sits next to the Headless commerce - Hydrogen card.
Step 2: Read what is shared
Step 1 on the page explains what leaves the app and what never leaves it. Select Show what is shared and never shared to open both lists.
For Avada Accessibility:
| Can be shared | Never shared |
|---|---|
| Your current Accessibility plan, installation state, and widget status | Visitor personal data, customer identities, and browsing data |
| A safe summary of widget position, size, language, and enabled accessibility features | Visitor report emails, messages, and internal notes |
| Your latest accessibility scan score and summarized issues | Raw page content, private issue locations, and store access credentials |
One detail the list does not spell out: when your assistant reads your latest scan, the answer also carries the Lawsuit risk level that the scan itself recorded, the same High or Low label you see on the Accessibility scanner page and in an exported report. So the scan answer is the score, the lawsuit risk level, and the summarized issues.
That label is a stored field passed on as it is, not an assessment made for the assistant. It is not a legal opinion about your store, and it does not certify your store against any accessibility standard. Read more in Answers are raw data, not advice below.
The blocked list is enforced inside the app. There is no setting, no plan and no way of phrasing a question that opens it, and giving a connection full access does not open it either.
Your connection page repeats the blocked list as four fixed topics:
| Never accessible | What that covers |
|---|---|
| Visitor personal data | Customer and visitor identities, contact details, and browsing data are never shared. |
| Visitor report submissions | Report email addresses, messages, and internal notes are never shared. |
| Raw page content | Page HTML, captured content, and private scan locations are never shared. |
| Store access credentials | Shopify and Avada credentials never leave Avada. |
Tick I have read the data sharing notice to continue. The button in Step 2 stays disabled until you do.
Step 3: Turn on AI Access
Select Turn on. A window opens where you choose what your assistant may do.
Access level: nothing is selected in advance, so this is always a deliberate choice.
| Access level | What the assistant can do |
|---|---|
| Read-only access | View the data groups you tick. It cannot change anything in the app. |
| Full access | View those groups and change the settings inside them. Changes take effect immediately. |
Data scope: tick at least one group. This is what the assistant may work with.
| Data group | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Accessibility widget and app status | Your plan and installation status, plus the widget layout, button, and language fields. |
| Accessibility scan results | Your latest scan score, its lawsuit risk level, and summarized issues, plus the scan schedule. No raw page content. |
Under the two groups, the window shows one more item you cannot untick, listed under Always included: What this connector cannot answer. Every connection can read the list of topics it has no access to, so your assistant tells you a topic is closed to it instead of guessing at an answer. It opens none of those topics, and it stays on for every connection. The same item appears on your connection page under Step 1: Data scope.
The scan schedule sits in the scan group, not the widget group. If you want your assistant to see or change when scheduled scans run, tick Accessibility scan results.
Full access has no approval step. The assistant does not send you a suggestion to review. It calls the app and the setting changes at that moment. Revoking the connection later stops further changes, but the settings it already changed keep their new values until you change them back yourself.
Select Turn on. AI Access is on and your connection is created in one action.
Step 4: Copy your server URL
Select Open in Step 3 of the page to open your connection.
Under Step 2: Copy your connection details, select the copy button next to Server URL.
This URL belongs to this connection in this app. Avada Accessibility has its own URL, and so does every other Avada app.
Step 5: Generate an API key
You only need this for the command line and desktop clients. Claude and ChatGPT on the web ask you to approve access instead, so they do not use a key.
Select Generate API key, then use the eye button to reveal it and the copy button to copy it.
Treat the key like a password. Anyone who has it can reach the data groups you opened, at the access level you chose.
Step 6: Connect your assistant
Open Step 3: Set up in your AI assistant and pick the tab for the assistant you use. Each tab has three ways to connect.
ChatGPT on the web and mobile
- In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Security and login, and switch on Developer mode.
- Open Plugins, select Browse plugins, then select Add new.
- Enter a name, keep Connection set to Server URL, then paste the server URL into the connection field.
- Tick I understand and want to continue, select Create, then select Allow when Avada asks you to approve access.
- Open a new chat and add the connection from the tools menu.
Claude on the web and mobile
- In Claude, open Settings, then Connectors.
- Select Add custom connector, paste the server URL, then select Add.
- On the connector screen, select Connect, then select Allow when Avada asks you to approve access.
- Open a new chat and add the connection from the tools menu.
Codex, ChatGPT Desktop, Claude Code and Claude Desktop
These clients sign in with the API key instead of asking you to approve access in the browser. Each tab shows a ready-made command or configuration block with a copy button. Paste your own key where the command says YOUR_API_KEY.
Step 7: Ask your first question
Open a new chat with the connection enabled and try one of these. The same questions are listed in the Questions you can ask card, each with a copy button.
- Is the Avada Accessibility widget enabled on my storefront?
- What are my current accessibility widget settings?
- What score did my latest accessibility scan receive?
- What are the most important issues in my latest scan?
If you gave the connection Full access, you can also tell it what to do:
- Move the accessibility button to the left side of the screen.
- Run the scheduled scan weekly, on Monday morning.
The card only lists the questions your ticked groups can answer. The first two need Accessibility widget and app status, the last two need Accessibility scan results. Tick both groups to see all four.
What your assistant can change
With Full access, and only inside the groups you ticked, the assistant can change:
| Group | What it can change |
|---|---|
| Accessibility widget and app status | Widget trigger style, floating button or inline text · button position, top, middle or bottom · button size, small, medium or large · button icon, one of the four built-in icons · widget alignment, left or right · mobile widget ratio, full-screen, 90% or 80% · how the widget detects a customer's language, from the browser, the customer's IP or the store · the widget default language |
| Accessibility scan results | The scheduled scan: on or off, daily or weekly, the day of the week, and the hour |
It picks from the same values the app offers you in Widget settings and Scheduled scan. It cannot invent a new one.
Everything else stays out of your assistant's reach, including anything on the never-shared list. No tool touches it at all, so there is nothing there for the assistant to read or to change. That covers your custom widget text, custom CSS, selectors, fonts, branding colours, country visibility, your scan URL and store password, and the two paid features automatic alt text and Hydrogen integration. Those two stay in the app on every plan, so asking your assistant to switch them on always comes back refused.
Scan results are read-only. Your assistant can report the score, the lawsuit risk level and the summarized issues from your latest scan, but it cannot fix an individual issue for you. To work through the findings, open Accessibility scanner in the app.
There is no undo. If a change is not what you wanted, open the app and set the value back yourself.
Check what your assistant has been doing
The Activity history card on the connection page lists the five most recent actions, with the tool that was called and when. It fills up after your assistant uses the connection for the first time.
Change what your assistant can do
Open your connection, change the Access level or tick and untick groups under Step 1: Data scope, then select Save in the bar that appears at the top of the page.
The change applies to the next request your assistant makes. You do not have to set the connection up again in Claude or ChatGPT.
Turn it off or revoke it
| Action | What happens | Reversible |
|---|---|---|
| Turn off in Step 2 | Your assistant stops getting answers immediately. Your server URL and API key stay in place. | Yes. When you turn it on again you confirm the access level and data scope once more. |
| Revoke connection on the connection page | The API key and every approval for this connection stop working immediately. AI Access is turned off as well. | No. You can turn AI Access on again later and confirm a new data scope. |
Neither one puts back a setting that was already changed. They stop what happens next.
Tips
- One connection per store. Each store has a single connection in this app, so there is one server URL and one API key to look after.
- One connection per app. Avada Accessibility cannot see your Cookie Consent or Order Limit data. Each app has its own URL, its own approval and its own connector.
- There is a limit on changes. A connection can make 5 changes per minute, and the store can take 30 changes per hour. Questions do not count towards it.
- Answers are raw data, not advice. A score, a lawsuit risk level and a list of summarized issues are what the app recorded for your store, handed over exactly as they are stored. They are not a legal opinion and not a certification against any accessibility standard.
- Issue details stay in the app. The assistant receives issue types, severities and counts. It does not receive the page content or the location of an issue.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No place to add a connector in ChatGPT | Developer mode is off, or your plan does not have it | Switch it on under Settings then Security and login. It does not exist on the Free plan. |
| Claude will not add the connector | Claude Free allows one custom connector and you already have one | Remove the existing connector, or use a paid plan. |
| The connector exists but the assistant never uses it | The connection is not added to that chat | Open a new chat and add the connection from the tools menu. |
| The assistant says a tool is not available | The question needs a group this connection did not open | Open your connection, tick the group under Step 1: Data scope, then save. |
| The assistant cannot see or change the scan schedule | The schedule belongs to Accessibility scan results, not the widget group | Open your connection, tick Accessibility scan results, then save. |
| The assistant says it cannot change a setting | The connection is Read-only access | Open your connection, switch the access level to Full access, then save. |
| The assistant refuses to turn on automatic alt text or Hydrogen integration | Neither is changeable through AI Access, on any plan | Open Widget settings in the app and switch it on there. |
| The assistant reports issues but will not fix them | Fixing an individual scan issue is not something the connection can do | Open Accessibility scanner in the app and work through the results there. |
| The assistant will not set a monthly scan | Through AI Access the schedule can only be daily or weekly | Set monthly yourself in the Scheduled scan card. |
| The assistant says Avada does not share that data | The question touches blocked data | Nothing to fix. Open the app to see it there. |
| Everything is refused | AI Access is off, or the connection was revoked | Check the badge next to AI Access on the page, then the badge on the connection. |
| You are asked to approve access again | The approval expired, or access was interrupted for a security reason | Approve again from your assistant. This is expected. |
You're all set. AI Access is ready whenever you want your assistant to help with this app.