How to publish your store's app in the ChatGPT app directory

Adding your store's plugin to your own ChatGPT account is quick. Publishing it in ChatGPT's app directory, so anyone can find it, install it and use it, is a bigger step. OpenAI reviews every submission, and most rejections come down to the same handful of missing details.

This guide explains what the review needs, why, and how AI Plugin Generator prepares each piece so your submission is complete the first time. Menu names in OpenAI's dashboard change from time to time, but the requirements have been stable.

Should you publish at all?

First, decide whether a public listing fits your goal.

Keep it private if the app is for you and your team. Private use doesn't need a review, and you can connect it in minutes. See how to connect WooCommerce to ChatGPT.

Publish it if you want your customers or the wider public to use it, for example to browse your catalogue, check stock or track an order from inside ChatGPT. A directory listing gives you discovery, a trustworthy install flow and a page that represents your brand inside ChatGPT.

If you publish, be deliberate about which tools the public version includes. A customer-facing app should usually be read-only and limited to things like products, stock and the customer's own orders. Keep owner tools such as refunds and settings in a separate, private plugin.

What OpenAI reviews

Broadly, reviewers check four things:

1. Who you are. That you control the domain the app runs on.
2. What it does. A clear name, description and category, and that the tools match the description.
3. That it works. Reviewers sign in and run test cases.
4. That it's safe and honest. Tools are correctly labelled as reading or changing data, privacy terms are available, and nothing misleads users.

Let's go through each.

1. Verify your domain

OpenAI asks you to prove you control the domain your app's MCP server runs on. In the submission flow you get a verification token, which must be published at a specific address on your domain.

With AI Plugin Generator, open your plugin's Submit tab, paste the token into the OpenAI field, and save. We publish it at the right address automatically, whether your plugin runs on our domain, your own subdomain or your own site. Then click verify in OpenAI's dashboard.

Tip: if you plan to use your own domain, set that up before you submit. Changing the app's address after approval means verifying again.

2. Write the listing

The listing is what people see in the directory. You'll need:

• App name. Your brand, not a generic phrase. "Borehole Pump Shop", not "Store Assistant".
• Short description. One line that says what it does for the user.
• Long description. What it does, who it's for, its limits, and the fact that it only accesses your store.
• Category. Pick the one that matches the main use, usually shopping for customer-facing store apps, or productivity and business for owner tools.
• Icon. Square, simple and recognisable at small sizes.
• Example prompts. Three realistic things a user would ask.
• Privacy policy URL and, ideally, terms of service.

Your plugin's Submit tab drafts every one of these from your site's name and the tools you chose, in copy-ready fields with the right length limits. Edit them to sound like you.

Privacy policy

Reviewers check that your privacy policy covers the app: what data it accesses and why. If your site doesn't have a suitable page, the Submit tab detects that and can create it for you on your WordPress site, as a draft or published, with text describing the app's data use. Review it before relying on it; it's your policy.

3. Give reviewers a way in

Reviewers need to sign in to your app and try it. That's often where submissions stall. They can't use your personal login, and they shouldn't.

In the Submit tab, create a reviewer code. It's a connection code that reviewers can reuse for 30 days, so it survives the time a review takes. Paste it into the review instructions along with simple steps: "When ChatGPT shows the sign-in page, enter this code."

Test cases

Provide a few test cases, each with a prompt and what a correct result looks like. Make them:

• Read-only. Never ask reviewers to change your live store. "List the five newest products" is good; "refund order 1042" is not.
• Deterministic. "Show products in the 'Pumps' category" works today and next week.
• Covering your main tools. One per major capability is enough.

We pre-fill read-only test cases based on your tools.

Countries

You'll be asked where the app should be available. Pick the countries you actually sell to or support. Our country picker uses two-letter codes in the format the form expects.

4. Get the safety labels right

Each tool tells ChatGPT whether it only reads, changes data, or deletes or does something irreversible, and whether it reaches outside your own system. Reviewers check that these labels are honest. A tool that issues refunds must not claim to be read-only.

Every plugin AI Plugin Generator builds labels its tools correctly by default. Read tools are marked read-only, write tools are marked as changing data, and destructive tools such as refunds, deletions and order status changes are marked destructive. Tools that contact outside services are flagged as such. If OpenAI's automated scan raises a finding, it will usually point to a specific tool, and you can turn that tool off or report it to us.

Common reasons for rejection

• Domain not verified, or verified on a different address than the app uses.
• Reviewers couldn't sign in: an expired code, or no instructions.
• Description doesn't match the tools. It says "track orders" but there's no order tool, or there are write tools the description doesn't mention.
• Missing or generic privacy policy.
• Test cases that change live data, or that only work with your account.
• Too many powerful tools in a public app with no clear reason.

After approval

Once approved, your app appears in ChatGPT's directory under your name. You're the publisher; AI Plugin Generator is the toolmaker, like a website builder. A few things to keep in mind:

• Changes to tools may need a new review. Plan bigger changes in batches.
• Keep your subscription active. If it lapses, the plugin pauses, and public users would see errors.
• Watch the activity log in the first weeks to see how people actually use it.

If you also want to be in Claude's directory, most of the same material carries over. See how to list your connector in the Claude directory.