Univers V-Commerce Protocol · UVCP

Place

A V-Commerce store is a place a person can walk into. This capability tells an agent where a person arrives, which rooms they can reach and how, what stands where, and what entering offers that a product listing cannot.

Capability: com.univershq.vcommerce.place
Version: 2026-09-15
Schema: https://vcommerce.univershq.com/2026-09-15/schemas/place.json
Builds on: Universal Commerce Protocol 2026-08-25, over MCP
Tools: vcommerce_place, vcommerce_where

Why it exists

Commerce protocols describe products. They have no words for a store that is somewhere: a hall a piece stands in, a private room for members, a door the house has closed. UVCP is the layer that adds those words. A store that offers it still speaks the Universal Commerce Protocol unchanged; an agent that knows UVCP simply learns more.

How a store declares it

In its UCP profile at /.well-known/ucp, beside the capabilities UCP defines:

"capabilities": {
  "com.univershq.vcommerce.place": [{
    "version": "2026-09-15",
    "spec": "https://vcommerce.univershq.com/2026-09-15/specification/place",
    "schema": "https://vcommerce.univershq.com/2026-09-15/schemas/place.json"
  }]
}

The tools are served on the store's own MCP endpoint, the one its profile names for dev.ucp.shopping. Every answer carries UCP's response envelope naming this capability and version.

vcommerce_place

The store as a place, for the audience asking. It takes no arguments.

Field	Meaning
`store`	What the store is called.
`you_arrive_in`	The room a person arrives in.
`spaces`	Every room this audience can reach: its name, the house's own line about it, its kind, the way there from where a person arrives, the rooms it leads to, and what stands in it. A private room is marked `"access": "private"`.
`closed_doors`	Rooms the house has closed, each with the rooms it is seen from.
`offers`	What entering offers: that every piece stands at its own size, whether someone is answering questions for the house, the private rooms, and the experiences the house has described in its own words.

vcommerce_where

Where one piece stands, by the identifier a catalogue search returned.

Field	Meaning
`space`	The room it stands in.
`way_there`	The rooms from where a person arrives, in walking order.
`beside`	The two nearest pieces in the same room, with approximate distances.
`level`	How high it stands: at floor level, at hand height, at eye level, or above eye level.
`from_arrival`	Approximately how far it is from where a person arrives, measured in a straight line.
`url`	The address that puts a person in front of the piece.

Rules every store keeps

Closed is closed; private is a room

A closed room is one the house has shut, for any reason, to everybody. It appears only as a door, named where a visitor would see it, and nothing beyond it is described. A private room is open, for members or invited clients, and is part of what the store offers: it is described as a room and marked private. What stands in a private room is not listed to an agent whose person is not invited, and nothing beyond it is described to them.

What cannot be seen is not found

A piece in a room this audience may not enter answers exactly as a piece that does not exist, so an answer can never be used to learn what a closed or private room holds.

Relations, not measurements

Distances are approximate, to the half metre, and say so. Heights are given in words. An agent is told what a person would notice standing in the store.

Only what the house has said, or can show

Room lines and experiences are the house's own words. That someone answers questions for the house is stated only when they have actually been heard from.

Versions

A version is a date. A published version never changes: its schema and this page stay at their addresses. A new version is published beside it, and a store declares the one it serves.