gmc-cli — Google Merchant Center CLI

A standalone command-line client for the Google Merchant API v1 (merchantapi.googleapis.com) — the GA replacement for the Content API for Shopping, which Google retires in August 2026.

Drive your Merchant Center from the terminal (or from an AI agent): products, feeds, performance reports, price benchmarks, promotions, account settings. One auditable codebase, credentials never leave your machine, all output is JSON on stdout — pipe it to jq.

pipx install gmc-cli

gmc auth login --client-id=… --client-secret=… --merchant-id=1234567890
gmc register-gcp          # one-time Google requirement, see below

gmc products issues-summary | jq '.top_issue_codes'
gmc report performance --start 2026-06-01 --end 2026-06-30 --order-by clicks

Why

• CLI, not SaaS: no third-party service proxies your Merchant Center data.
• Merchant API v1: built on the new GA API, not the deprecated Content API v2.1.
• Read-first safety model: only three write commands exist, deletes require --yes, and a global --dry-run prints the exact HTTP request instead of sending it.
• Agent-friendly: predictable JSON output and one flat command tree make it easy to hand to Claude/other AI agents as a tool.

Install

pipx install gmc-cli        # recommended (isolated)
# or: pip install gmc-cli

From source:

git clone https://github.com/almoretti/gmc-cli && cd gmc-cli
./setup.sh                  # local venv + editable install; run via ./gmc

Setup

1. Create an OAuth client (one-time, ~3 minutes)

1. Go to Google Cloud Console → pick or create a project.
2. Enable the Merchant API.
3. APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth client ID → Desktop app. Copy the client ID and secret.
4. If the OAuth consent screen is in Testing mode, add yourself as a test user (and note refresh tokens expire after 7 days until you publish the app to In production).

2. Log in

gmc auth login --client-id=xxx --client-secret=xxx --merchant-id=1234567890

Opens a browser — sign in with a Google account that has access to your Merchant Center (the numeric merchant ID is in the top-right of merchants.google.com). Credentials are saved to ~/.config/gmc-cli/credentials.json (chmod 600) and refresh automatically.

3. Register your GCP project (one-time, mandatory)

Google requires the GCP project behind your OAuth client to be registered as a developer with the merchant account, or every API call returns 401:

gmc register-gcp --developer-email you@example.com
gmc auth check    # should print your account name and "ok": true

Idempotent — safe to re-run.

Alternative credentials

• Service account (headless automation): set GMC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY to a JSON key path, and add the service account's email as a user in Merchant Center → Settings → People and access.
• Env/dotenv: GMC_ACCOUNT_ID, GMC_SUBACCOUNT_ID (act on an MCA sub-account), GMC_OAUTH_TOKEN. A .env in the working directory is read.
• ADC fallback: gcloud auth application-default login with the content scope.

Resolution order: GMC_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY → GMC_OAUTH_TOKEN → ~/.config/gmc-cli/credentials.json → ADC. Merchant ID: --merchant-id → GMC_SUBACCOUNT_ID/GMC_ACCOUNT_ID → saved config.

Commands

gmc auth login | check | init --client-secrets FILE
gmc register-gcp [--developer-email EMAIL]        # one-time per GCP project
gmc account get | list | issues | users | programs | shipping | homepage | business-info
gmc products list [--limit N] [--full]
gmc products get|status ID                        # ID = contentLanguage~feedLabel~offerId
gmc products disapproved                          # all disapproved products (via Reports)
gmc products issues-summary                       # issue codes ranked by frequency
gmc products insert --product @p.json --data-source accounts/…/dataSources/…   (WRITE)
gmc products delete ID --data-source … --yes                                   (WRITE)
gmc report query "SELECT … FROM product_performance_view WHERE …"
gmc report performance --start YYYY-MM-DD --end YYYY-MM-DD [--order-by clicks] [--top N]
gmc report zero-clicks [--min-impressions N] [--start …] [--end …]
gmc report price-competitiveness | price-insights | demoted
gmc report best-sellers [--country GB] [--granularity WEEKLY|MONTHLY]
gmc report competitors [--country GB] [--category 469] [--traffic-source ALL|ADS|ORGANIC]
gmc datasources list | get ID | fetch ID          # fetch = WRITE, triggers feed re-crawl
gmc promotions list | get ID
gmc regions | quotas | return-policies
gmc raw GET|POST|PATCH|PUT|DELETE <path> [--body JSON] [--param k=v]   # escape hatch

Global flags: --merchant-id ID, --dry-run (print writes instead of sending), -v (retry diagnostics), --version.

Defaults note: report shortcuts default to --country GB and --category 469 (Health & Beauty) — override for your market (category IDs).

Examples

# What's broken in my feed, ranked by issue code?
gmc products issues-summary | jq '.top_issue_codes'

# Top products by clicks, last 30 days, as TSV
gmc report performance --start 2026-06-09 --end 2026-07-08 \
  | jq -r '.results[].productPerformanceView | [.offerId, .clicks, .impressions] | @tsv'

# Where am I priced above the market benchmark?
gmc report price-competitiveness | jq '.results[].priceCompetitivenessProductView
  | select((.price.amountMicros|tonumber) > (.benchmarkPrice.amountMicros|tonumber))'

# Force an immediate re-fetch of a scheduled feed
gmc datasources list | jq -r '.dataSources[].dataSourceId'
gmc datasources fetch 123456789

# Preview a product upsert without sending it
gmc --dry-run products insert --product @sku.json --data-source accounts/…/dataSources/…

# Anything the built-ins don't cover
gmc raw GET conversions/v1/accounts/1234567890/conversionSources

Safety model

• Reads are unrestricted; writes exist only for products insert/delete and datasources fetch; delete requires --yes.
• Global --dry-run short-circuits any write and prints the exact request.
• Retries with exponential backoff + Retry-After on 429/5xx.
• gmc raw can perform any method — use deliberately.
• Product inserts only work against API-type data sources; feeds fetched from files/Sheets can't be written via the API (use datasources fetch to trigger re-crawls instead, or overlay a supplemental API data source).

Merchant API v1 notes (learned the hard way)

• Product IDs: contentLanguage~feedLabel~offerId (e.g. en~GB~SKU123).
• Product writes go through productInputs:insert (upsert — full body overwrites) and always require a dataSource.
• v1 vs v1beta field changes: gtin → gtins (list), attributes → productAttributes, enums are UPPER_CASE strings, channel/taxes removed.
• Report dialect rules (all verified live; the built-in shortcuts handle them):
  • ctr → click_through_rate; conversion_value_micros → conversion_value
  • product_performance_view requires a date condition in WHERE
  • price_competitiveness_product_view requires report_country_code + id in SELECT
  • price_insights_product_view requires id in SELECT
  • best_sellers_* requires report_date, report_granularity, report_country_code, report_category_id in SELECT and a report_granularity WHERE condition
  • competitive_visibility_* requires report_country_code, report_category_id, traffic_source in SELECT and WHERE conditions on date, report_category_id, traffic_source

Testing

./test.sh runs a 45-check functional suite against whatever merchant account you're logged into: every read command live, every write in --dry-run only, plus the guard rails. It never mutates your feed.

Acknowledgements

Endpoint conventions were originally mapped out by studying kiwoongeom/gmc-mcp (MIT), an MCP server for the same API. No code was copied; this project exists for people who want a plain CLI with no MCP layer.

License

Apache-2.0