Obtain Instacart Connect retailer partner credentials; Instacart Connect is built for retailer partners and requires a commercial agreement.
Use the Catalog API to create or update product records including UPC, item name, description, images, and pricing for your store's inventory.
Submit catalog updates in bulk for initial load; use incremental updates via the same API to keep item data current as prices or descriptions change.
To mark items as out of stock or unavailable, update the item's availability status via the appropriate availability endpoint rather than deleting and re-creating the item.
Validate your catalog submission by reviewing error responses per item; catalog imports process item-by-item and partial failures do not block the successful items.
Monitor catalog sync status via the API or Instacart partner portal to confirm items are live and shoppable before going live with the fulfillment integration.
Known gotchas
Instacart Connect is designed for retailer partners, not independent app developers; the Instacart Developer Platform (developer_platform_api) is a separate product for app integrations and uses different endpoints and auth flows — confirm which product applies to your use case.
Catalog changes do not take effect instantly on the Instacart shopper-facing side; allow for a propagation delay after submitting updates before expecting them to be reflected in shopper search results.
Item photos submitted via the Catalog API must meet Instacart's image quality and dimension requirements; items with non-compliant images may be published without photos, reducing shopper confidence and conversion.
Give your agent this knowledge — and 200+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp