How to Migrate Your Shopify Chatbot to Carti (2026 Playbook)

Who This Guide Is For

You already have a Shopify chat app (Tidio, Gorgias, Zipchat, Chatty, Rep AI, Shopify Inbox, etc.) and you want to move to Carti — or you are evaluating what a real cutover looks like before you commit.

This playbook is written for merchants and operators, not developers. Where Shopify’s own developer docs clarify behavior (install scopes, theme integrations, uninstall cleanup), we link out so you can go deeper.

Cluster home: Shopify chatbot hub · Install primer: How to add a chatbot to Shopify · Pricing: Shopify AI chatbot pricing

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How Installing a Shopify App Actually Works

When you install an app from the Shopify App Store, the flow is roughly:

1. You click Install on the app listing.
2. Shopify shows an OAuth / permissions screen listing the access scopes the app needs (read products, read content, customer data, etc.). You approve or cancel.
3. The app becomes an installed app on your store. Embedded apps open inside your Shopify admin (often in an iframe) using Shopify’s app platform; some apps also add theme pieces or customer-facing scripts.
4. The app receives credentials so it can call Shopify’s APIs on your behalf — you don’t manage tokens yourself.

Shopify has been moving toward Shopify-managed installation for partners: declared scopes in app configuration, fewer redirects, and clearer updates when an app needs new permissions. That is mostly invisible to you as a merchant — you still see permission prompts when install or scope changes require it. See Shopify’s overview: App installation.

What you need to know: every app is its own OAuth grant. Installing Carti does not “inherit” permissions from your old chatbot — Carti requests its scopes; you approve fresh.

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Storefront Chatbots and Your Theme

Modern Shopify apps usually integrate with the online store using theme app extensions (app blocks and app embed blocks) instead of pasting Liquid into theme.liquid. Shopify’s docs describe this as the standard path for App Store apps touching themes: Theme app extensions · Apps in the online store.

Why this matters for migration:

• Online Store 2.0 themes use JSON templates; merchants add app blocks in the theme editor or turn on app embeds in the App embeds panel.
• When an app is built this way, uninstalling the app tends to remove its theme integration cleanly — Shopify documents that blocks associated with uninstalled apps are removed from themes. See the UX guide: UX for theme app extensions (section on uninstalling).

If your old app is legacy (manual Liquid snippets, old ScriptTag-style injections, or leftover code from an uninstalled app), you may still have orphan code. That is merchant-specific: you (or your dev) need to diff the theme or follow the old vendor’s removal doc. Shopify warns that apps editing theme code can strand merchants off the upgrade path unless code is fully removed: Apps in the online store (caution on ScriptTag / theme edits).

Action item: note whether your current widget came from Theme editor → App embeds / Apps section, or from Edit code. The second case needs a manual cleanup pass after uninstall.

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What Can Be Migrated vs What Cannot

Developer note: Uninstalling an app via the Shopify API (what a developer might do programmatically) triggers cleanup of registered webhooks, ScriptTags, and Shopify admin links for that installation — see Uninstall a Shopify app with an API request. Merchants normally uninstall from Admin → Settings → Apps and sales channels (human path, same end state for the store).

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Pre-flight Checklist (Before You Touch Production)

1. Pick a maintenance window if you have heavy chat usage — or do it quietly if volume is low.
2. Screenshot / export anything you need from the old vendor (transcripts, FAQ exports if offered).
3. Identify how the old widget is injected — theme editor app embed vs code.
4. Open a preview / duplicate theme (optional but smart) to test Carti before you pull the old widget.
5. List paid add-ons on the old app (AI packs, flows, extra seats) so you cancel the right subscriptions.

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Migration Steps (Recommended Order)

Phase A — Install Carti without confusing customers

1. Install Carti from the Hey Carti listing.
2. Complete in-app onboarding — connect the store if prompted, let the app sync catalog and content.
3. In Carti (and in Shopify Settings → Apps and sales channels), confirm the app shows Active.
4. Do not enable the customer-facing widget on the live theme yet if your old chat is still the primary surface — OR use a preview theme / password-protected dev store URL to validate answers on real SKUs.

Phase B — Validate quality on your catalog

Run 10–20 real prompts you see in support: comparisons, sizing, “is it in stock,” policy edge cases, bundles.

• If something is wrong, fix data in Shopify (metafields, descriptions) first — chatbots read what you publish.

Phase C — Cut over (one widget rule)

Rule: one customer-facing chat widget on the live storefront. Two bubbles = split data and shopper confusion.

1. Disable or hide the old app’s storefront widget from the old app’s dashboard (exact toggle name varies).
2. Enable Carti’s embed / app embed in the theme editor following Carti’s onboarding (deep links are common for app embeds — see Shopify’s guidance on app embed blocks).
3. Publish theme changes if the theme editor prompts you.

Phase D — Monitor, then uninstall the old app

1. Monitor Carti conversations for 3–7 days.
2. When satisfied, open Settings → Apps and sales channels in Shopify admin, select the old chat app, and uninstall.
3. Cancel billing with the old vendor if uninstall does not auto-cancel (depends on vendor; verify in their billing portal).
4. Theme audit: if the old app used manual code, open Online Store → Themes → Edit code and remove leftover snippets per the old vendor’s doc.

Phase E — Ops and expectations

• Escalations: decide whether email, helpdesk, or phone catches what the bot escalates — Carti is not a full replacement for Gorgias-style omnichannel unless you design that stack.
• Analytics baseline: note conversion and chat volume the week before switch so you can compare after. Shopify chat AI ROI metrics · ROI calculator

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Vendor-specific Notes (High Level)

Use these as add-ons to the phases above, not replacements:

Head-to-head pages: Compare Carti vs competitors.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will uninstalling my old app break my theme?

If the old app used theme app extensions, Shopify removes associated blocks on uninstall — see UX for theme app extensions. If someone edited theme code manually, you must clean code yourself.

Q: Do I lose SEO or site speed?

Well-built apps load asynchronously. The main risk is two heavy widgets or broken theme Liquid — not Carti vs your old app in isolation.

Q: Can Carti import my old bot’s conversations?

Generally no. Treat historical logs as read-only in the old vendor.

Q: Who do I contact if OAuth or permissions look wrong?

Carti support (from the app) for Carti-specific prompts; Shopify Support for store admin issues approving installs.

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The Bottom Line

Migration is mostly operations: install → validate → single widget cutover → uninstall → billing cleanup → theme audit if you had manual Liquid.

Start from the Shopify chatbot hub, then install Carti when you are ready.