> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://pingbusiness.gitbook.io/pingbusiness/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://pingbusiness.gitbook.io/pingbusiness/integration/create-your-store-guide.md).

# Create Your Store Guide

There are 2 parts of the guide (Part 1 & Part 2) where we will explain what you need to do exactly in order to create your customized store using PingBusiness prompts.

### What you should first know

Before you start, gather these and make sure you have these items. You don’t need them all today - the ones marked (Part 2) can
 wait until you’re ready to go online:

* [x] Your PingBusiness account, with your store created in it.
* [x] Your merchant key - it’s in your Ping Business welcome email. Keep it somewhere
  \
  safe. (Part 2)
* [x] Your logo file, and photos of anything you sell.
* [x] Two brand colours. If you don’t have any, pick a main colour and a second
  \
  one to go with it.
* [x] Cursor, or another AI coding assistant that runs on your own device.
* [x] A payment card, for the hosting bill on cloud platform like Railway. (Part 2)
* [x] A web address you own, if you want your own. (Part 2 - optional, you can
  \
  start with a free one)

### What you will need to do besides pasting the prompt

Across the whole process, there are only **four things the prompt and AI workflow can't do for you,** this means you will need to:

1. Decide how the store looks with your store name, colours and brand logos
2. Sign in to Railway or cloud platform to host your store - it hands you a link and you will need to approve it
3. Add a payment card and pick a plan on the cloud platform
4. Put your secret key into a file on your own device - the AI workflow will tell you exactly where to put, you never need to type the secret key into the chat

Everything else will be handled by the AI assistant using the prompt you share.

### Six words worth knowing

<table><thead><tr><th width="263">Keywords</th><th>Definition</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Your merchant key</td><td>A long secret code, like a password, that lets your shop
<br>take payments. Treat it like a bank card PIN.</td></tr><tr><td>Hosting</td><td>Renting space on someone else’s computer so your
<br>shop is online all the time. Railway is the tool used in the guide.</td></tr><tr><td>Deploy</td><td>Putting your shop onto that rented space so the public
<br>can reach it.</td></tr><tr><td>Practice mode</td><td>A safe copy where test orders don’t charge anyone real
<br>money. Sometimes called <strong>staging</strong> or <strong>test</strong>.</td></tr><tr><td>Real mode</td><td>The live shop, with real customers and real money.
<br>Sometimes called production or live.</td></tr><tr><td>Domain</td><td>Your web address, like <code>myshop.com</code>.</td></tr></tbody></table>

{% hint style="warning" %}
Never paste your merchant key into a chat message, not to the assistant, and not
&#x20;to anyone - there is a proper place for it. A good
&#x20;assistant will refuse to accept it in chat - that’s a sign it’s behaving correctly, not
&#x20;a fault.
{% endhint %}


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