AI Product Tools
AI Shop Assistant

AI Store Index

Build the compressed copy of your catalog the Shop Assistant searches, choose what it includes, and keep it fresh.

AI Store Index builds a compressed, AI-optimized copy of your WooCommerce catalog in the background, then the AI Shop Assistant searches that copy instead of querying live product tables for every chat message. Index your catalog here before turning the assistant on.

Before you start

The manage_woocommerce capability to open AI Product Tools > AI Store Index (admin.php?page=aipt-store-index). No AI provider is needed for indexing itself, building reads your own product data only; a provider is only needed once the assistant answers questions with it.

Basic view

The page opens in Basic view by default; a toggle in the top right switches to Advanced. This choice is only remembered in this browser (localStorage), so a bookmarked link always opens on whichever mode you last used here.

Turn indexing on

Flip the switch between Disabled and Enabled, then Save Settings. Before the first save the page is just an explainer; afterward it shows a status card with Products, Categories, and Last Build counts.

A freshly created profile showing zero products and no build yet, with the Build Now button ready
Enabling the index is a separate step from building it; a brand new profile always starts in this state.

Build it

Click Build Index. A toast confirms "Indexing has started. This process may take several minutes to several hours, depending on the size of the product catalog." For a small catalog this finishes in seconds; a brief "Starting..." button state is the only visible sign of the in-progress build before the status flips to ready.

Build button showing a Starting state right after being clicked
On a large catalog this state persists much longer, since only a small first batch runs immediately; the rest continues in the background.
AI Store Index status card showing Ready, product and category counts, Last Build Just now, and the Build Index button
A completed build shows the exact product and category counts actually indexed, which can be lower than your total catalog once visibility rules apply.

Turn on scheduled rebuilds (Business)

The Automatic Updates card lets Business stores pick a frequency, Hourly, Every 2 Hours, Every 6 Hours, or Daily, so the index stays current without a manual click. Free sees the toggle disabled with an upsell.

Automatic Updates card disabled with an upgrade prompt on Free
There is no Twice Daily or Weekly option, only these four frequencies.

Advanced view: profiles, filters, and fields

Switch to Advanced for everything Basic does not show: multiple profiles, fine-grained filters, and exactly which product fields get indexed.

Profiles

Every site starts with one Default profile, marked with a star. Business stores can create more.

Clicking "+ New Profile" opens an upgrade prompt instead of the create dialog; Free is limited to the one default profile.

New Profile button on Free opening an upgrade prompt instead of a create dialog
One profile covers most stores; multiple profiles matter once you want different filtered views of the catalog for different purposes.

"+ New Profile" opens a Create new profile dialog. Names must be 50 characters or fewer, letters, numbers, spaces, and dashes only.

Create new profile dialog with a profile name typed in
Each profile keeps its own filters, fields, and build status, useful for a filtered profile alongside your broad default.

Switch between profiles with the selector at the top of the page; the default profile cannot be deleted.

Product Filters

  • Stock Filter: All Products, In Stock Only, or Out of stock products only. Free.
  • Date Filter (days): only include products created within the last n days; 0 disables the filter. Free.
  • Specific Categories / Specific Tags: multi-select with live product counts per term. Business
  • Filter Logic: Match ALL or Match ANY across whichever filters are active. Business, since it only matters once category or tag filters are in play.
Product Filters card on Free showing the Stock Filter and Date Filter controls, with a teaser replacing category and tag filters
Stock and date filters are free; Specific Categories and Specific Tags are replaced by a teaser until you upgrade.
Product Filters card on Business with two categories and one tag selected and Match ANY chosen
Match ANY here means a product needs to be in either selected category, or carry the selected tag, to be included.

Downgraded filters do not silently widen your old index

If a site saved category or tag filters while entitled, then lost that entitlement, a note explains: "Saved category and tag filters are not applied on your current plan, so the index includes products from every category and tag." The saved selections stay in place and reactivate automatically if entitlement returns.

Field Selection

Every field lives in one grid, grouped as Basic Info, Content, Inventory, and Taxonomy. Title, Categories, and Price are marked REQUIRED and cannot be unchecked. SKU, Stock Quantity, and Attributes are Business-only.

The three Business-only fields are left out of their groups entirely (Basic Info and Inventory show fewer fields than on Business) and listed together in one teaser card instead: "Business unlocks additional index fields", naming SKU, Stock Quantity, and Attributes with an Upgrade to Business button.

Field Selection grid on Free ending in a Business unlocks additional index fields teaser listing SKU, Stock Quantity, and Attributes
Short Description, Full Description, Tags, and Stock Status are free; SKU, Stock Quantity, and Attributes are named in one upgrade card instead of being shown individually.
Field Selection grid on Business with every field checked, including SKU, Stock Quantity, and Attributes inline in their groups
On Business the same three fields appear as ordinary checkable cards inside Basic Info, Inventory, and Taxonomy. Select All and Reset to Defaults apply per group or across the whole grid.

Index Settings

These apply across the whole site, not per profile.

SettingRangeDefault
Max Products1-50,00010,000
Batch Size50-500100
Rebuild FrequencyHourly / Every 2 Hours / Every 6 Hours / DailyDaily
Index Settings card with Max Products, Batch Size, and Rebuild Frequency fields
10,000 is only the default ceiling; a single profile can index up to 50,000 products without needing a second profile.

Build controls and status

Next to Build Now sit three small icon-only buttons, their names only show up as tooltips, so here is what each one does:

  • Build: starts (or resumes) an indexing run for the current profile.
  • Force Rebuild (circular-arrow icon): starts over from scratch rather than only processing new or changed products.
  • Reset Index (trash icon): deletes the index file and clears status, with a confirmation dialog; your settings are preserved.
  • Refresh status (the remaining icon): re-fetches this profile's status without starting a build. There is also a Cancel button while a build is actively running ("Cancelling...").
Build Now button with three icon-only buttons beside it, Force Rebuild and Reset Index outlined
From left to right after Build Now: Force Rebuild (highlighted), Reset Index (highlighted), then Refresh status.
FAILED status pill with a red Build failed error message, and the same Build Now button to try again
A failed build keeps its exact error message visible; click Build Now again to retry, or Reset Index to start clean.

If WP-Cron is disabled on your server, a WP-Cron Disabled modal appears on this page explaining that AI Store Index, Automation Jobs, Bulk Generation, and Scheduled Tasks all depend on it, with steps to fix it (a real server cron, the ALTERNATE_WP_CRON constant, or asking your host) and a note that affected features still work but may need the browser tab left open. Open Docs and Got it are its only two buttons, there is no way to dismiss it permanently from here.

WP-Cron Disabled modal listing affected features and how to fix it, with Open Docs and Got it buttons
Scheduled rebuilds depend on WP-Cron (or a real server cron hitting wp-cron.php) actually running.

How it works, and keeping it fresh

  • Builds run in the background via Action Scheduler. A small first batch (a "kickstart") finishes in one to two seconds so the request never times out, then the rest proceeds in your configured Batch Size until the whole catalog is processed.
  • A shard closes at 10,000 products or about 5MB compressed, whichever comes first, for large catalogs the index is several shard files, not one.
  • A 30-second lock prevents two builds from running at once; it expires on its own, so a crashed build never jams the index forever.
  • Only published, non-password-protected, publicly visible products are ever indexed, this is independent of whatever stock, date, category, or tag filters you chose, a hygiene rule for the assistant's public chat route.
  • Build only processes new or changed products since the last run; Force Rebuild starts clean. If a product edit is not showing up in assistant answers, rebuild.
  • Data is stored at wp-content/uploads/ai-product-tools/ai-index/, protected by a generated .htaccess denying direct access. If that directory is not writable, the plugin falls back to storing the index in the options table, which risks hitting size limits on a large catalog, keep uploads writable.

Reference: plan differences

CapabilityFreeBusiness
One (default) profile, build/cancel/reset, Stock + Date filters, Max Products, Batch Sizefullfull
Additional profiles beyond the default-up to any number
Category / Tag filtersteaserfull
Scheduled rebuildsdisabledfull, 4 frequencies
SKU, Stock Quantity, Attributes fieldslocked, shown inlinefull

A license downgrade from Business automatically turns scheduled rebuilds back off.

Troubleshooting

Setting up the assistant

Pick a profile and turn the chatbot on once the index is ready.

What shoppers see

How indexed products actually surface in a conversation.

What Shoppers See

The launcher, the home screen, a real conversation with product cards, mobile view, and what errors look like to a shopper.

Settings

The Settings overview page, its six cards, who can open it, and how saving, discarding and Ctrl/Cmd+K navigation work across every cluster.