Minute 5
Your first AI reply ships
Send yourself a test question from the storefront chat widget. The AI answers in under a second using your catalog as context.
Onboarding guide
From install to first reply in 5 minutes.
Helmsly is a Shopify-native app. No theme code edits, no script tags, no separate login. Click Add app, wait sixty seconds for your catalog to index, flip the widget on, and you're live.
Free plan included — 50 conversations per month, every month. No credit card required.
The install
Five steps. Most stores finish before their coffee's cold.
Step 01
Install from the Shopify App Store
One click. Shopify handles billing through the same invoice as your subscription.
- Open the listing at apps.shopify.com/helmsly and click Add app.
- Approve the requested scopes — Helmsly only reads what it needs to answer customer questions (orders, customers' name + email, products, pages, policies). We never request phone numbers.
- Shopify drops you into the embedded Helmsly admin inside your store dashboard. No separate login.
Step 02
Wait ~60 seconds for the first knowledge sync
Helmsly auto-ingests your products, collections, pages, blog posts, and policies through the Admin API.
- Progress appears on the Knowledge tab — you'll see your sources turn from Pending → Indexed as embeddings finish.
- Most small stores finish in under a minute. Larger catalogs (5,000+ SKUs) can take 5-10 minutes; the rest of the app stays usable while it runs.
- Anything missing? Upload PDFs, DOCX, Markdown, or paste raw FAQ on the same tab to fill gaps.
Step 03
Enable the chat widget on your storefront
One toggle on your live theme — no theme code edits, no copy-paste scripts.
- From the Helmsly admin, click Launch widget. We open your active theme's App Embeds settings in a new tab.
- Toggle Helmsly Chat on, then Save. The chat bubble appears on every storefront page within seconds.
- Want it on staging first? Toggle it on a duplicate of your theme and preview before publishing.
Step 04
Set your automation policies
Decide which actions the AI can take on its own — and the dollar caps it can't exceed.
- Refunds, returns, cancellations, and discount codes each have their own toggle + per-action cap. Off by default; turn on what you trust.
- Set a dollar ceiling per action (e.g. auto-refund up to $25). The AI escalates anything above the cap to your inbox.
- Every action is logged in an append-only audit log with timestamp, actor, and before/after state — so you can see exactly what changed and reverse it if needed.
Step 05
Go live
First real customer message in. Helmsly answers, logs the conversation, and pings you only when it escalates.
- Watch the Inbox tab — incoming chats and emails appear in one shared queue with confidence scores on AI replies.
- You can edit any AI reply within 5 minutes of it being sent; the customer sees the corrected version without the thread breaking.
- Hit your free-plan cap (50 conversations / month)? The AI pauses on new threads and waits for you to upgrade. Existing in-flight conversations keep working — no surprise bill.
What happens next
Your first month on Helmsly.
Day 1
Inbox starts handling itself
Real customer questions land in the Helmsly inbox. WISMO and policy questions auto-resolve; anything novel is queued for you with the AI's draft reply attached.
Day 7
First weekly check-in
Helmsly emails you a one-screen summary — conversations handled, resolution rate, time saved, top topics. Skim it, adjust automation caps if needed, get back to building.
Month 1
Decide on a plan
Stayed under 50 conversations? Stay free. Need more? Upgrade in one click from the in-app Pricing tab — billed through Shopify, on the same invoice as your subscription.
FAQ
What new merchants ask first.
How long does install actually take?
Under five minutes from clicking Add app to handling your first customer message — assuming your catalog is under a few thousand SKUs. Larger stores take longer for the initial knowledge sync, but the app is usable the moment install completes; ingestion runs in the background.
Will Helmsly answer customers before I've reviewed it?
Only via the chat widget if you enable it. The widget toggle is off by default — you flip it on when you're ready. Email auto-reply requires forwarding your support inbox to Helmsly, which is its own opt-in step. You're in control of when the AI goes live.
What if the AI gets something wrong?
Two safety nets. (1) You can edit any AI reply within 5 minutes of it being sent — the customer sees the corrected version and the thread stays intact. (2) Every action (refund, return, cancellation, discount) is logged in an append-only audit log and capped by the dollar limits you set, so a bad call can't exceed your guardrails. Disable any category of automation in one click and the AI escalates instead.
Can I uninstall cleanly?
Yes. Uninstall from the Shopify Apps page and we drop your access tokens immediately. Within 30 days we purge ingested content and conversation history. The chat widget disappears from your storefront the moment App Embeds is disabled.
Do I need to write FAQ content?
No. Most stores get useful answers from day one because Helmsly reads your existing pages and policies. If you spot a gap (e.g. a sizing chart that lives in your fulfillment SOP), drop it in as a PDF or paste it in as Markdown on the Knowledge tab.
Where does my customer data live?
On Vercel + Neon (Postgres) in the US, encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and in transit with TLS 1.3. We use Shopify's Protected Customer Data scope minimally — name, email, address only. We never train any AI model on your data or your customers' data. Full details on the DPA at /dpa.
Something else? Email support@helmsly.io — the founder reads every message.
Now on the Shopify App Store
Ready in 5 minutes. Free for the first 50 conversations.
Install Helmsly and let the AI handle the boring 80% of your support. You stay in control of every refund, every escalation, every reply.