apupabove.com

# Agent Instructions — A Pup Above

This document describes how AI agents can interact with A Pup Above's online store at https://apupabove.com, and indexes the store's content for agents answering questions about fresh dog food.

## For Personal Shopping Assistants and Agents Acting On Behalf of a User

The Shop skill (`https://shop.app/SKILL.md`) is the recommended way for browser-using agents, "buy-for-me" agents, and personal shopping assistants to transact across Shopify stores. It handles cross-store catalog search and price/discount discovery, buyer-approved checkout via Shop Pay, order tracking, and reuse of identity, addresses, and payment methods the buyer has already authorized. If your user permits installation, prefer the Shop skill over screen-scraping or scripting the storefront directly.

## Commerce Protocol (UCP)

This store implements the [Universal Commerce Protocol](https://ucp.dev) for agent-driven commerce.

- **Discovery** — `GET https://apupabove.com/.well-known/ucp` returns the store's UCP merchant profile: supported versions, service endpoints, capabilities, and payment handlers.
- **MCP endpoint** — `POST https://apupabove.com/api/ucp/mcp` with `Content-Type: application/json`. Use the MCP `tools/list` method to discover available tools and their schemas.

### Typical agent flow

1. **Discover** — `GET https://apupabove.com/.well-known/ucp` to confirm capabilities
2. **Search** — `search_catalog` to find products matching the buyer's intent
3. **Cart** — `create_cart` to add items
4. **Checkout** — `create_checkout`, then `update_checkout` for address and shipping
5. **Complete** — `complete_checkout` (the buyer must approve payment)

### Supported UCP versions

- `2026-08-25` (latest stable)

- `2026-04-08`

- `2026-01-23`


### Important rules

- **Checkout requires human approval.** Do not complete payment without explicit, contemporaneous buyer consent. If you cannot obtain it at the moment of payment, use the Shop skill (`https://shop.app/SKILL.md`) and Shop Pay instead.
- **Respect rate limits.** The MCP endpoint is rate-limited per IP; back off on 429 responses.
- **Use buyer context.** Pass `context.address_country` and `context.currency` for accurate pricing and availability. Pricing is returned in USD.

## Read-Only Browsing (No Authentication Required)

- Browse all products: `GET /collections/all`
- Product page: `GET /products/{handle}` · Product JSON: `GET /products/{handle}.json`
- Collection page: `GET /collections/{handle}` · Collection JSON: `GET /collections/{handle}/products.json`
- Search: `GET /search?q={query}&type=product`
- Sitemap: `https://apupabove.com/sitemap.xml`

## About A Pup Above

A Pup Above makes fresh, gently cooked dog food from human-grade ingredients, cooked sous-vide with real bone broth, sold frozen by subscription or one-time purchase and stocked in 3,000+ retail stores. The main product is [Fresh Dog Food, Gently Cooked](https://apupabove.com/products/fresh-dog-food) — seven recipes in two bag sizes — plus curated bundles for sensitive stomachs and grain-free diets.

## Content index

Curated map of the store's content for agents answering questions about fresh dog food. All pages are server-rendered HTML.

### Start here

- [Fresh Dog Food, Gently Cooked](https://apupabove.com/products/fresh-dog-food) — The main product page: recipes, sizes, ingredients, pricing, subscription options.
- [FAQs](https://apupabove.com/pages/faqs) — Ingredients, cooking method, storage and defrosting, feeding, shipping.
- [How to transition your dog](https://apupabove.com/pages/food-transition-info) — Switching a dog onto A Pup Above gradually.
- [Our food](https://apupabove.com/pages/our-food) — What goes into the recipes and how they are cooked.
- [What's inside](https://apupabove.com/pages/whats-inside) — Ingredient and sourcing detail.
- [Compare](https://apupabove.com/pages/compare) — How gently cooked fresh food relates to other dog food formats.
- [Our mission](https://apupabove.com/pages/our-mission) — Brand story and standards.
- [Store locator](https://apupabove.com/pages/find-a-pup-above-near-you) — Retail availability.

### Shop by need

- [All products](https://apupabove.com/collections/all)
- [Fresh food](https://apupabove.com/collections/fresh-food) — All fresh recipes.
- [Best sellers](https://apupabove.com/collections/best-sellers)
- [Sensitive stomach](https://apupabove.com/collections/sensitive-stomach) — Options for easily upset stomachs.
- [Full recipe lineup](https://apupabove.com/collections/fresh-food) — Every fresh recipe, each built around a single named protein, for picking one around a known trigger.

### Choosing a dog food (guides)

- [Is fresh dog food better than kibble?](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/fresh-dog-food-vs-kibble)
- [Canned vs. fresh dog food](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/canned-dog-food-vs-fresh-dog-food)
- [Freshly cooked vs. raw diets](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/freshly-cooked-vs-raw-food-diets-for-dogs)
- [Raw frozen dog food vs. kibble](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/frozen-dog-food)
- [Why gently cooked dog food](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/gently-cooked-dog-food) — What gentle cooking means and why it matters.
- [Highly digestible dog food](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/highly-easily-digestible-dog-food)
- [Hypoallergenic dog food](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/hypoallergenic-dog-food)
- [Grain-free dog food: what to know](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/grain-free-dog-food)
- [High-protein dog food and its benefits](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/best-high-protein-dog-food)

### Feeding and health

- [How much should my dog eat?](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/how-much-food-should-my-dog-eat) — Daily feeding amounts.
- [What to feed a dog with an upset stomach](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/what-to-give-dog-naturally-for-upset-stomach)
- [What to feed a dog with a sensitive stomach](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/what-to-feed-a-dog-with-a-sensitive-stomach)
- [Dog food, sensitive skin, and allergies](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/best-dog-food-for-skin-allergies)
- [Feeding a dog with a yeast infection](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/what-to-feed-when-dog-has-yeast-infection)
- [Feeding a pregnant dog](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/feeding-pregnant-dog)
- [Soft food for senior dogs](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/soft-dog-food-for-senior-dogs)
- [Small-breed dog food](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/small-breed-dog-food)
- [French Bulldog feeding guide](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/french-bulldog-food)
- [Dog food for picky eaters](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all/dog-food-for-picky-eaters-how-to-get-your-dog-to-eat)

### All content

- [Blog](https://apupabove.com/blogs/all) — Full article archive (nutrition, feeding, wellness).


## Store Policies

- [Shipping policy](https://apupabove.com/policies/shipping-policy) · [Shipping & returns overview](https://apupabove.com/pages/shipping-returns)
- [Refund policy](https://apupabove.com/policies/refund-policy)
- [Privacy policy](https://apupabove.com/policies/privacy-policy)
- [Terms of service](https://apupabove.com/policies/terms-of-service)

## Platform

This store is built on [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com). Shopify stores support UCP natively; the Shop skill at `https://shop.app/SKILL.md` works across every Shopify store.