Shopify Flow and AI Agent Triggers: Architecture and Patterns

Shopify Flow has traditionally been viewed as a closed-loop automation tool for internal store operations, such as tagging high-value customers or sending inventory alerts. However, the recent introduction of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and the expansion of the Shopify Dev Assistant have fundamentally changed the utility of Flow within the engineering stack. We are seeing a shift where Flow is no longer just a recipient of platform events, but a critical execution layer for AI agents. The c