# Reply to Faire retailer messages with an AI agent

> Clear the Faire Needs Reply inbox: an agent checks the order or stock behind each retailer question and drafts the answer before the 2-day mark.

Source: https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server/reply-to-retailer-messages

Retailers write in the Faire Messenger about ship dates, restocks and minimums, often while you are at a trade show or packing orders. Each answer means leaving the thread, finding the order or the SKU, and coming back to type it.

Cotlet does it in your own Faire account with list\_conversations, get\_conversation, list\_orders, get\_order, get\_inventory and reply\_to\_message, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=faire) [All Faire tools](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server)

Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Official options

## Can Faire do this on its own?

Faire has no API for Messages (checked 11 Oct 2026); the External API covers products, orders and inventory. In the portal, Faire sorts threads into Needs Reply, shows order and cart context next to each conversation, and offers default Messenger templates such as items in cart and requesting a review through Use template. Nothing in Faire drafts an answer from the order data or replies for you, so each thread still needs a person to look things up and write.

By hand

## How you do it in Faire today

1. Open Messages in the Faire brand portal; threads that wait for you are sorted into the Needs Reply section at the top of the inbox.
2. Open a thread and read the recent orders and cart activity that Faire Messenger shows beside the conversation.
3. For a ship-date question, switch to the Orders page, find that retailer's order, read its status and scheduled ship date, then return to the thread and type the answer.
4. To take a thread out of Needs Reply without answering, open the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the conversation and select Dismiss; Mark as needs reply puts it back.
5. Questions that land on a Friday evening or during a market week sit unanswered, and every opening message answered after 2 business days counts on the Late replies card of the Customer service page.

With an agent

## How to reply to Faire retailer messages with an AI agent

Prompt

```
Go through my Faire Needs Reply threads, check each order or SKU the retailer asks about, and draft a reply for every thread.
```

1. 01  
### Work the oldest opening messages first  
The agent pulls the Needs Reply threads and orders them by the age of the retailer's first unanswered message. A first message from a retailer goes to the top, because that is the one Faire times against its 2 business day late-reply rule.
2. 02  
### Sort each question by what it needs  
get\_conversation gives the whole thread, read in order. The agent tags each one: ship date, restock, opening order minimum, pricing, a damaged or missing item, or a retailer who has not ordered yet and is asking about the line.
3. 03  
### Look up the answer before drafting  
For a ship date it finds the retailer's orders with list\_orders by retailer\_id and opens the right one with get\_order, so the reply quotes the real scheduled date or the tracking already added. For a restock it reads get\_inventory for the SKUs the retailer named. It never offers a date the order does not show.
4. 04  
### Leave the hard ones to you  
Damage and missing-item claims, cancellations, return requests and any discount or price change are not answered. The agent writes you a one-line summary of each and leaves the thread in Needs Reply, so it keeps counting as open.
5. 05  
### Send text replies after your OK  
reply\_to\_message posts each approved draft under your brand. A reply that needs a line sheet or a photo is held back with a note to send it from the portal on desktop, since the agent can only send text.

### What you get back

Example data

```
6 threads in Needs Reply, oldest opening message from Thursday.
Example Gift Shop: "When do the candles ship?" Order bo_8x2k4m9q ships Fri 16 Oct. Draft ready.
Harbor Home Store: "Is Cedar back?" CNDL-CDR-02 shows 0 in stock. Draft says you will confirm a date.
Willow & Pine: asks about the opening minimum. Draft ready.
Maple Street Books: 2 cracked jars on order bo_3k8d1v. Not answered, left for you.
4 drafts waiting for your OK.
```

### Other ways to ask

- Every weekday at 8:00, draft replies for Faire threads older than one business day and send me the list.
- Answer only the ship-date questions in Faire Messages; leave everything else for me.
- Which Faire retailers who have not ordered yet wrote to us this week, and what did they ask?

Before you automate it

## What Faire allows, and what to know first

- Faire counts a late reply when a retailer's opening message waits more than 2 business days; the day the message arrives is not counted, and weekends and regional holidays are excluded.
- Faire's Late replies card shows the share of opening messages from the last 90 days that were answered late, not the threads themselves, and it leaves out follow-ups, spam and conversations the brand started.
- Faire tells retailers to give a brand 24 hours to respond, after which they can ask Faire support to help them reach the brand.
- Faire Messenger takes PDF, JPEG, PNG, GIF and WEBP attachments on desktop or a mobile browser, while the Faire app cannot attach files.
- A message sent in Faire Messenger can be unsent within 10 minutes, and a deleted message cannot be restored.

reply\_to\_message asks for your OK by default. To run it daily without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: [Faire Help Center: What is considered a late reply?](https://www.faire.com/support/articles/31209179507611) · [Faire Help Center: What are Customer Service metrics?](https://www.faire.com/support/articles/31209441566875) · [Faire Help Center: How do I contact a brand on Faire?](https://www.faire.com/support/articles/360016145111) · [Faire release notes for brands](https://www.faire.com/blog/for-brands/release-notes/)

REST

## Call reply\_to\_message from a script

curl

```
curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/faire/reply_to_message \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"conversation_id":"cv_4f7a21","body":"Thanks for asking! Your candles ship on Friday 16 Oct and the tracking link follows by email."}'
```

Example response

```
{
"conversation_id": "cv_4f7a21",
"message_id": "msg_9d20",
"status": "sent"
}
```

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is faire\_reply\_to\_message. Example data.

[Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server#automations)

Tools

## Faire tools this automation uses

__Cotlet Faire tools used to reply to Faire retailer messages with an AI agent__
| Tool | Parameters |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| list\_conversations | needs\_reply, limit, cursor |
| get\_conversation | conversation\_id |
| list\_orders | status, since, retailer\_id, limit, cursor |
| get\_order | order\_id |
| get\_inventory | skus |
| reply\_to\_message | conversation\_id, body |

[All 12 Faire tools with descriptions](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server#tools)

## More Faire automations

- [Email Faire retailers who are late to reorder](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server/email-lapsed-retailers)
- [Faire API and MCP server: every tool](https://cotlet.dev/integrations/faire-api-mcp-server)
- [All use cases](https://cotlet.dev/use-cases)

## Give your agent access to Faire.

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[Request access](https://cotlet.dev/app/signup?app=faire)