Distinguish Instacart's Developer Platform (IDP) from Instacart Connect before building a recipe/shopping-list integration, since IDP hands off fulfillment rather than executing it directly

Steps

1. Confirm which product you actually need: Instacart Connect is for retailers to receive and fulfill orders; IDP is for third-party publishers (recipe sites, content apps) to let users build a shopping list or recipe that deep-links into the Instacart app for checkout
2. Use the IDP Create Shopping List Page or Create Recipe Page endpoints to generate a URL that opens the Instacart app (or web fallback) with items pre-populated
3. Do not expect a direct 'place order' or fulfillment-status API in IDP — once the user follows the deep link, checkout, retailer selection, and fulfillment happen entirely inside Instacart's own app/session
4. Use brand_filters and health_filters to influence product matching, understanding that Instacart's matching engine — not your app — makes the final product selection at checkout
5. Request API keys through Instacart's developer platform onboarding; access has historically required going through an Instacart representative rather than being instantly self-serve