Have your Bot fill the cart and show the total before you pay
A Bot can get a cart ready and fill the checkout fields it is allowed to fill. You should still see the total before anyone pays. This idea came from Forward Future's Grok Bot Playbook, Part II. Here's how we'd set it up. We did not run a live checkout for this guide.
1. Start from a Vault you already have. If you have not set one up yet, use our earlier guide on saving a login, a card and your address. Official help says a saved card fills in at checkout, and saved contact info fills shipping and billing fields. The Bot does not see the saved card number or security code.
2. Say what to buy, and where. Name the item and the store if you have a preference. If a store blocks the Bot, point it at another retailer. Our earlier story on Amazon blocking Bot shopping still applies. Don't ask the Bot to get around a block.
3. Ask it to prepare the cart, then stop. Tell it to add the items, fill shipping and billing from your Vault contact info, and fill a saved card only if you want that. Then have it read back the checkout total, including shipping and tax if the page shows them, and wait before it completes the order.
4. Know what a saved card does. If a card is saved in Vault, the Bot can fill it in at checkout without asking every time. Official help does not offer a switch that requires a prompt for each fill. To keep that step in your hands, don't save the card. When the Bot asks for a card with a Secure Form, leave "Securely save to Bot's vault" unchecked. If that form has no such checkbox, don't submit it; official help says that kind of form saves straight to Vault.
5. Approve the purchase yourself. The official changelog for v0.78.1 says, "Buy now starts an order you approve." Earlier changelog notes say you choose a preferred payment method on the Vault Payments tab, and that every purchase still needs your approval. Read the total the Bot just reported, then approve the order only if the number is right.
What you save in Vault is available to every Bot on your account. Vault isn't supported on shared Bots.
What to do: Ask your Bot to prepare one cart this week, have it read the total back, and approve the order only if that number is right.
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