Yandex Commerce Protocol

ycp · yandex commerce protocol · yandex agentic commerce · alice commerce protocol · yandex shopping protocol

Definition

The Yandex Commerce Protocol is Yandex's agentic commerce standard, connecting store catalogues to the AI in Alice and Search so a purchase can be completed inside the dialogue.

What the Yandex Commerce Protocol is

The Yandex Commerce Protocol (YCP) is an agentic commerce standard announced by Yandex on
27 February 2026. Yandex is the dominant search engine in Russia and several CIS markets, and the
protocol links online store catalogues to its AI ecosystem — Alice, its voice assistant, plus Search
and Yandex Pay — so that a purchase can be completed inside the dialogue, without a visit to the
merchant’s site.

YCP works as a translator between the user’s natural language and the store’s structured data:
stock, prices, product attributes and order logic.

How the buying journey changes

Without YCP (the traditional path):

Query -> search results -> click to the site -> navigation ->
product page -> basket -> checkout -> confirmation

With YCP:

Dialogue with Alice -> the agent finds offers ->
the user confirms -> the order is placed

The number of steps falls by a factor of two to three. Friction drops, especially on mobile, where
navigating a site is least comfortable.

How it works technically

YCP describes a standardised API through which the Yandex agent interacts with the store’s systems:

Operation	What the agent does
Search	Finds products by query, with filters
GetProduct	Retrieves detailed product information
CheckAvailability	Checks stock and delivery windows
CreateOrder	Creates an order in the store’s back office
GetOrderStatus	Tracks the status of an order

The store implements these endpoints to the YCP specification, and its catalogue becomes reachable
by Yandex agents.

YCP in the context of agentic commerce

YCP is one regional implementation of a global shift towards agentic commerce. MCP (Anthropic),
Agent2Agent (Google) and various industry initiatives are developing in parallel. Their underlying
logic is the same: AI agents get structured access to commercial systems and can act on a user’s
behalf.

Important: YCP is tied to the Yandex ecosystem. Stores oriented towards international traffic,
or working with other AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude, will want parallel support for MCP
or other protocols.

What a store needs in order to connect

Connecting to YCP means implementing an API to the Yandex specification — in scope, it resembles
building a new sales channel. The key technical requirements are a catalogue API with real-time
search and filtering, endpoints for creating and managing orders, and integration with the
authentication system and Yandex Pay.

Frequently asked questions

What is YCP and how does it differ from an ordinary product feed?

A YML feed for Yandex Market is a static file describing the catalogue for indexing and ads. YCP is a dynamic protocol for agent interaction: the Yandex agent gets structured, real-time access to the catalogue, basket, stock and orders, and can transact. That is a fundamentally different level of integration.

How does YCP change the buying journey?

The traditional path is search query, click to the site, navigation, add to basket, checkout. With YCP it is a dialogue with Alice — find me Nike trainers in size 42 under 8,000 roubles, roughly $90 — after which the agent finds and compares offers, the shopper confirms, and the order is placed without ever opening the store's site.

Which stores does YCP matter most to?

Above all, stores with heavy traffic from Yandex Search and Yandex Market, where the mobile audience using Alice is material. Also merchants in categories with frequent repeat purchases — FMCG, electronics, accessories — because agentic commerce removes friction from reordering.

How does YCP relate to international agentic commerce protocols?

YCP is the regional counterpart, developed in parallel with international initiatives such as MCP from Anthropic and Agent2Agent from Google. Yandex focused it on its own ecosystem: Alice, Search, Yandex Pay and logistics. Stores trading in international markets tend to consider supporting both kinds of protocol.