Core Concepts

Better Data platform concepts

Layered ecosystem model (canonical)

Better Data is described as five layers — not as a flat list of products:

| Layer | Surface | | ----- | ------- | | Infrastructure | Gateway Console, Hosted Gateway MCP | | Protocol | Commerce Gateway, Registry MCP | | Reference | Gateway Demo, Commerce Demo, Agent Starter | | Control | Loop Engine | | Platform | Better Data |

• Infrastructure is where operators configure and host gateway/MCP surfaces.
• Protocol is what agents and integrations speak (gateway execution, registry discovery).
• Reference is implementation demos and accelerators — illustrative, not standalone administration products.
• Control is governed automation (loops, policy, approvals, audit).
• Platform is the workspace shell that composes the layers after onboarding.

Operational authority (four layers)

For the buyer and architecture mental model mapped to products, use one vocabulary everywhere:

| Layer | Authority | | ----- | --------- | | Commerce Chain | Operational truth | | Loop Engine | Governed decisions | | Commerce Gateway | Controlled connectivity | | Signal Tags | Operational trust |

Operating model: Sense → Decide → Approve → Execute → Improve. Use workflow only for concrete task flows (e.g. approval workflow), not as platform category identity.

→ MCP surfaces · Platform architecture · Architecture on betterdata.co

Agent flow (C04 / C12)

Agents reuse the layered stack — they do not replace it or sit “beside” the gateway as a separate product. Canonical wording: agents use Registry to discover, Gateway to act, and Loop Engine to govern.

1Agent
2  ↓
3Registry MCP
4  ↓
5Commerce Gateway
6  ↓
7Loop Engine
8  ↓
9Demo / UI

Experience (demos, product UI) sits at the bottom; developers start from Build an agent. See Commerce Agent pattern.

Loops, actors, guards, and evidence

The core concepts in Better Data apply across all four authority layers (Commerce Chain / Loop Engine / Commerce Gateway / Signal Tags — see Platform architecture):

• Loops — governed operational cycles. Task patterns (e.g. approval or transfer sequences) are modeled inside loops; “workflow platform” is not the category story.
• Actors — human, automation, or AI agent. Every action is attributed.
• Guards — policies enforced at runtime. Not in prompts.
• Evidence — structured context attached to every decision.
• Audit trail — immutable record of every loop transition.

The Commerce Gateway, SCM/DCM modules, and Signal Tags all participate in loops. The loop model is the unifying concept.

→ Platform Architecture
→ Loops

Commerce Gateway concepts: Backends, Tools, and Sessions

The Commerce Gateway is built on three main pillars: Backends, Tools, and Sessions. Understanding these concepts will help you design flexible and robust conversational commerce experiences.

1. Backends

Backends are where your data lives. They provide the gateway with access to your product catalog, shopping carts, and order management systems.

• ProductBackend: Handles searching and retrieving product information.
• CartBackend: Manages the lifecycle of a shopping cart.
• OrderBackend: Facilitates order creation and status tracking.

Learn more about Backends ->

2. Tools (Capabilities)

Tools (often referred to as Capabilities in the marketing docs) are the specific actions an AI can perform. The gateway takes your backend logic and "adapts" it into a format the LLM can understand (like MCP for Claude or Function Calling for OpenAI).

Common tools include:

• search_products
• get_product_details
• add_to_cart
• check_inventory

Learn more about Tools ->

3. Sessions

Sessions maintain the state of a conversation across multiple turns. They store things like the current cartId and user context.

• Persistent: Sessions can be stored in Redis to survive server restarts.
• Cross-Platform: A session started in Claude can be transferred to a web checkout or even another AI assistant.

Learn more about Sessions ->

Architecture Overview

The Commerce Gateway is the controlled connectivity layer between LLM providers and your commerce infrastructure — adapting backends into governed tools agents can call.

graph LR
    A[Claude / OpenAI] --> B[Commerce Gateway]
    B --> C[Universal Tools]
    C --> D[Backends]
    D --> E[Shopify / Square / Custom]

Getting Started

If you're ready to start building, head over to the Quickstart guide.