Inventory Optimizer MCP – Prompt Examples

Once Inventory Optimizer is connected to your AI assistant (Claude or ChatGPT), you can ask questions about your inventory, purchasing, forecasts, advertising and pricing data directly in the chat. Each answer is based on your live data, with no filters to configure and no reports to export.

This guide shows you how to ask well, and gives you ready-to-use questions to start with. Copy any of them, swap in your own SKU or supplier, and send. In this guide, "the assistant" means the AI assistant you connected, whether that is Claude or ChatGPT.

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What can I ask?

Almost anything you can see in the app. Some examples:

• How my stock is doing. How many items are out of stock, what needs restocking, how healthy the inventory is overall.
• What to buy. Which items need a purchase order, from which supplier, and how many units.
• What is happening with one product. Stock, sales trend, forecast, ads and price, all in one answer.
• Your orders and shipments. What is on order, what arrives soon, what is still in transit.
• Your Amazon ads. Which ads are spending money on products that are about to sell out. For Amazon (ASC) companies.
• Your prices. What the system suggests and why. For Amazon (ASC) companies.

What to expect?

The assistant reads your live data and repeats the numbers exactly as Inventory Optimizer shows them. It does not guess or round. If it cannot find something, it tells you so rather than making something up.

The connection is read-only: the assistant can look at your data and explain it, but it cannot create or change anything, such as purchase orders, prices or settings. Each connection is also linked to a single company, so every answer is about your company only.

Which questions fit my company?

Inventory Optimizer connects to different systems: Amazon Seller Central (ASC), QuickBooks Desktop, CSV uploads, ShipStation and Shopify. Everything about suppliers, purchasing and forecasts works for all of them. Restock, inbound shipments, Amazon ads and prices are available for Amazon (ASC) companies only.

"Limited" means the assistant still answers, but those numbers are only refreshed overnight for non-Amazon companies, so they may be a little behind. Each group of questions below says which companies it is for.

How to ask a good question?

The more specific you are, the more useful the answer. You do not need special wording. Just say what you want to know, about what, and how you would like to see it.

Five habits that help:

1. Say which product or supplier you mean. Use the SKU or supplier name. "SKU ABC-123" works better than "my best seller".
2. Say how many and in what order. "Top 10 by sales in the last 30 days" is much better than "show me my best items".
3. Use the names you see in the app. Terms like Restock Now, Warehouse Qty or Forecast Recommended Qty mean the same thing to the assistant as they do on screen.
4. Ask "how many" when you only need a number. You get the count straight away, with no long list to read.
5. Tell it how you want the answer. For example: "as a table with SKU, stock on hand and days left".

Make a vague question specific

A simple formula

If you are not sure how to start, fill in this sentence:

Show me [what] for [which product or supplier], limited to [condition], sorted by [what matters most], as [a table or a number].

For example: "Show me the items for Acme Supply with fewer than 30 days of stock left, sorted by days left, as a table."

Step-by-step use cases

The best results come from asking in steps. Instead of one big question, tell the assistant what to look at first, what to check next, and how to present the result. Each use case below is a prompt you can paste as it is. Replace the words in [brackets] with your own supplier or SKU.

Pick your company type and jump to it: Amazon (ASC), QuickBooks, CSV, ShipStation or Shopify.

🚀Use cases for Amazon (ASC) companies

ASC companies can use everything in this guide. Ads and price questions also need Amazon Ads or repricing to be connected.

1. Plan this week's purchasing

When to use it: at the start of the week, before you place orders.

What happens: the assistant finds what needs ordering, marks what is urgent, spots items you cannot order yet, and groups the rest by supplier.

Help me plan this week's purchasing. 
 
Step 1: Find the 20 items that most need a purchase order. For each, show the supplier, the Forecast Recommended Qty, the Daily Sales Rate Qty, the days of stock left and the projected out-of-stock date. 
 
Step 2: Mark an item as urgent if it has fewer than 30 days of stock left, or if its recommended order date has already passed. 
 
Step 3: List the items that have no supplier or no supplier cost. I cannot order those yet. 
 
Step 4: Group the remaining items by supplier and count how many items each supplier has. 
 
Finish with a summary table: supplier, number of items, number of urgent items.

What you'll get: a ranked list, a short list of items to fix first (missing supplier or cost), and a supplier summary you can work through one call at a time.

2. Stop paying for ads on products that are about to sell out

When to use it: weekly, or whenever stock gets tight. Needs Amazon Ads connected.

What happens: the assistant finds products at risk, checks whether their ads are still running, and uses the system's own pause and enable suggestions.

Check my ad spend against my stock. 
 
Step 1: Find products that are at risk of running out of stock while their ads are still enabled. Rank them by ad spend, highest first, and show days until stockout. 
 
Step 2: Which of those does the system suggest pausing? Show spend and sales for each. 
 
Step 3: Count the products that are already out of stock. Do not suggest pausing those, because Amazon pauses their ads itself. 
 
Step 4: Which paused ads can be turned back on because the product is back in stock? 
 
Finish with one table: product, days until stockout, ad spend, suggested action.

What you'll get: a short list of ads worth acting on today, with the money at stake next to each one. Only ads managed by Inventory Optimizer are included.

3. Build your Amazon restock plan

When to use it: before you prepare a shipment to Amazon.

Prepare my Amazon restock plan. 
 
Step 1: How many items are Restock Now, Restock Soon, Out of Stock and Well Stocked? 
 
Step 2: Show the top 20 Restock Now items. For each, show the supplier, the quantity I should send to Amazon, the quantity I should order from the supplier and the days of stock left. 
 
Step 3: Which of those need more units than I have in my own warehouse? 
 
Step 4: Show the 10 items that have been out of stock most often. 
 
Finish with a short list of what to ship first and what to order first.

What you'll get: the counts behind the Restock Status chart, a shipping list, and the items where your own warehouse cannot cover the recommendation.

4. Monthly inventory health review

When to use it: once a month, or before a planning meeting.

Give me a monthly inventory health review. 
 
Step 1: Show my stock health: over stocked, well stocked, low stock and out of stock items. 
 
Step 2: How many items sold something in the last 30 days, and how many did not? 
 
Step 3: How many new items did I add in the last 30 days? 
 
Step 4: What are my total estimated storage fees, and which 5 items cost the most? 
 
Step 5: Summarize in five bullet points what needs my attention first.

What you'll get: the numbers from your dashboard in one place, with a short plain-language summary.

5. Understand one product

When to use it: when a product looks wrong or a buyer asks "why this quantity?"

Explain SKU [your SKU] to me. 
 
Step 1: Give me the full picture: stock, sales, forecast, order recommendation, ads and price. 
 
Step 2: Show both recommended quantities (forecast and daily sales rate) and how the daily sales rate is calculated. 
 
Step 3: Compare the sales of the last 12 months with the forecast for the next 12 months. 
 
Step 4: Tell me in two sentences whether I should order now, and why.

What you'll get: one answer that replaces opening five screens. The final recommendation is based on the numbers the app shows, not on a new calculation.

6. Check your prices

When to use it: after a sales spike or when stock changes quickly. Needs repricing set up.

Review my price recommendations. 
 
Step 1: How many SKUs are in each price group, for example Understock Critical, Overstock High and Balanced? 
 
Step 2: Show 10 SKUs where the action is decrease, with the current price and the suggested price. 
 
Step 3: Which price changes failed to update on Amazon? 
 
Step 4: Explain the suggested price for the first SKU in the list.

What you'll get: a count by group, the biggest changes, and a plain explanation of one of them.

7. Supplier setup review

When to use it: when order quantities look off, or after adding new suppliers.

Check my supplier setup. 
 
Step 1: How many suppliers do I have? Show lead time and minimum order quantity for each. 
 
Step 2: Which suppliers have a lead time over 60 days? 
 
Step 3: How many items have no supplier, and how many have no supplier cost? 
 
Step 4: How many items have no case pack set? 
 
Finish with a checklist of what to fix first.

What you'll get: a checklist of setup gaps that change your order quantities.

🚀Use cases for QuickBooks companies

This covers QuickBooks Desktop. Your items, sales and purchase orders come from QuickBooks, so products are shown by Item Name rather than SKU. Amazon restock is not part of your setup.

1. Plan the next purchase order

Help me decide what to order next. 
 
Step 1: Find the 20 items that most need a purchase order. Show the supplier, the recommended quantity, the days of stock left and the projected out-of-stock date. 
 
Step 2: For each supplier, show how many items need ordering and the suggested order total. 
 
Step 3: List the items with no supplier or no supplier cost. 
 
Step 4: Which suppliers have a lead time over 45 days? Those orders should go out first.

What you'll get: a list of what to order, by supplier, with the order that makes the most sense.

2. Check open purchase orders

Check my open purchase orders. 
 
Step 1: List the open purchase orders for [supplier], newest first. 
 
Step 2: How many purchase order lines are due in the next 30 days? 
 
Step 3: Which items on those orders are low on stock today?

What you'll get: what is still open with each supplier and what to chase.

3. Check your item data

Check the quality of my item data. 
 
Step 1: How many items have no supplier? 
 
Step 2: How many items have a supplier cost of zero or no cost at all? 
 
Step 3: How many items have no case pack set?

What you'll get: counts of the gaps that make order recommendations less reliable.

🚀Use cases for CSV companies

Your data comes from the files you upload, so answers are as current as your last upload. Order recommendations use the forecast quantity. The daily sales rate quantity and Amazon restock are not part of your setup.

1. Decide what to order

Help me decide what to order. 
 
Step 1: Find the 20 items with the highest Forecast Recommended Qty. Show the supplier, the days of stock left and the projected out-of-stock date. 
 
Step 2: Mark an item as urgent if it has fewer than 30 days of stock left. 
 
Step 3: List the items with no supplier or no supplier cost. 
 
Step 4: Group the rest by supplier.

What you'll get: a ranked list based on the forecast, and a clear list of missing supplier information.

2. Check that your latest upload looks right

Check my data after the latest upload. 
 
Step 1: How many items do I have, and how many are out of stock? 
 
Step 2: How many items have no supplier, and how many have no cost? 
 
Step 3: How many items have no sales in the last 90 days unit shipped? 
 
Step 4: Tell me anything that looks unusual.

What you'll get: a quick check that your upload is complete. If the out-of-stock count looks too low, remember it may be a day behind.

3. Review warehouse stock

Review my warehouse stock. 
 
Step 1: How many items are out of stock in my warehouse? 
 
Step 2: Show the 20 items with the lowest warehouse quantity that also have a recommended order quantity. 
 
Step 3: Group them by supplier.

What you'll get: the items running low in your own warehouse, grouped so you can place orders by supplier. If you use more than one warehouse, the quantity is the total across all of them.

🚀Use cases for ShipStation companies

Your orders come from ShipStation. You can plan purchasing, track purchase orders and review sales. Amazon restock is not part of your setup, so skip those questions. Amazon ads and price questions are for ASC companies only.

1. Plan this week's purchasing

When to use it: before you place supplier orders.

Help me plan this week's purchasing. 
 
Step 1: Find the 20 items that most need a purchase order. Show the supplier, the recommended quantity, the days of stock left and the projected out-of-stock date. 
 
Step 2: Mark an item as urgent if it has fewer than 30 days of stock left, or if its recommended order date has passed. 
 
Step 3: List the items with no supplier or no supplier cost. 
 
Step 4: Group the rest by supplier, with the number of items for each.

What you'll get: a ranked buying list, the items to fix first, and a supplier summary.

2. See what is on order and what arrives soon

Show me what is coming in. 
 
Step 1: How many purchase order lines are due to arrive in the next 30 days? 
 
Step 2: List them by supplier, with the receive date and quantity, earliest first. 
 
Step 3: Which of those items are also running low on stock right now?

What you'll get: the arrivals you are waiting for, and the ones you cannot afford to be late.

3. Review what is selling

Review my sales. 
 
Step 1: Show the top 10 items by units sold in the last 30 days. Include stock on hand and days of stock left. 
 
Step 2: Show the top 10 items by units sold in the last 90 days, and mark the ones that were not in the 30-day list. 
 
Step 3: Which of the top 10 are at risk of running out before the next order could arrive?

What you'll get: your best sellers over two time windows, and the ones that need action now.

🚀Use cases for Shopify companies

Your orders come from your Shopify store. You can plan purchasing, follow purchase orders and review what sells. Amazon restock is not part of your setup.

1. Plan restocking for your store

Help me plan what to reorder for my store. 
 
Step 1: Find the 20 items that most need a purchase order. Show the supplier, the recommended quantity, the days of stock left and the projected out-of-stock date. 
 
Step 2: Mark the items with fewer than 30 days of stock left as urgent. 
 
Step 3: List the items with no supplier or no supplier cost. 
 
Step 4: Group the rest by supplier.

What you'll get: a reorder list for the week, with the items you cannot order yet pulled out.

2. Find what is selling and what is not

Review my store's sales. 
 
Step 1: Show the top 10 items by units sold in the last 30 days, with stock on hand and days of stock left. 
 
Step 2: Which of those are likely to sell out within 3 weeks? 
 
Step 3: Show 10 items with stock on hand but no sales in the last 90 days.

What you'll get: the products to protect and the products tying up cash.

3. Track incoming stock

Show me the stock that is on its way. 
 
Step 1: How many purchase order lines are due in the next 30 days? 
 
Step 2: List them by supplier, with the receive date and quantity. 
 
Step 3: Which items have an order coming but will still run out before it arrives?

What you'll get: a list of arrivals, and the products that will still run out in the meantime.

See it in action

These four examples come from real answers on a sample Amazon (ASC) company and a sample CSV company, as of October 2026. Product and supplier names are replaced; the numbers are as returned.

Example 1: "How many items are out of stock?"

How many items are out of stock right now?

You get: 919 items. This is the same number as the Out of Stock card on the dashboard.

Next, ask for the whole picture:

Give me a stock health summary.

Worth knowing: 919 and 918 are both "out of stock". The dashboard card and the stock health chart count it slightly differently. If you want a specific one, say "the number on the dashboard card" or "in the stock health chart".

Example 2: "What should I order first?"

Which 3 items most need a purchase order right now? Show supplier, both recommended quantities, and days of stock left.

What the assistant adds, based on the same data:

• Supplier A: minimum order 300, sold in cases of 30, lead time 75 days, $16.89 per unit. The recommended order date was already 23 days ago.
• Supplier B: minimum order 200, cases of 30, lead time 75 days, $20.25 per unit.
• The towel set has no supplier and no cost set up, so it cannot give you an order total. It has 4 days of stock left, so it is the most urgent.

Worth knowing: each item shows two quantities. They are two different calculations, and both are correct. Use the one your team normally orders by. Ask "which one should I follow?" and the assistant will check your company settings.

Example 3: "What should I send to Amazon?"

How many items are Restock Now?

You get (ASC company): 107 items.

Follow up with:

Show me the top 20 of those, sorted by the quantity I should send to Amazon.

Example 4: The same question for a CSV company

How many items are Restock Now?

You get (CSV company): 0.

This does not mean everything is fine. Restock for Amazon is built for ASC companies, so for a CSV company there is simply nothing there. The assistant will say so. Ask this instead:

Which items do I need to order from my suppliers?

The sample CSV company used here has no items to order, so that answer was an empty list. In your own company, your items would appear. For a CSV company, order recommendations use the forecast quantity only, and dashboard numbers such as out of stock can be a day behind.

When an answer looks odd

Most surprises have a simple explanation.

• I see two different order quantities for the same item. That is expected. The forecast and the daily sales rate are two separate calculations, and the assistant shows both. Use the one your team normally orders by.
• It says it found no data. Check the spelling of the SKU or supplier, or remove a filter and try again.
• "Out of stock" gives different numbers in different places. The dashboard card, the stock health chart and the warehouse card each count it differently. Mention which one you mean, for example "the out-of-stock number on the dashboard".
• The list stops at 1,000 rows. That is the most it returns at once. Add a condition or ask for the top 10 or top 50 instead.
• Only 5 items show for some dashboard lists. Those panels show 5 in the app too. Ask for the same ranking from the purchasing or items list to see more.
• Some ads have no pause suggestion. Only ads that Inventory Optimizer manages can be paused or turned back on automatically. Ask for the others separately.
• The assistant does not know about something new. Start a new conversation, or switch the connector off and on again.

Quick dos and don'ts

• Do mention SKUs, supplier names and time periods.
• Do ask for counts, top lists and sorted lists in one request.
• Do follow up with "why?". The assistant can explain a flag or a recommendation using the same data.
• Don't ask it to predict or calculate numbers itself. It reports what Inventory Optimizer has already worked out.
• Don't paste spreadsheets into the chat. It already has access to your live data.

Need help?

Contact our support team and tell us the question you asked, roughly when you asked it, and the answer you expected.