Release Notes

Brand clarity and homepage messaging

Simpler hero and About page, restored disclaimer, and easier release-notes navigation — no audit or API changes.

• Homepage hero sells the outcome with Merchant Signals label and clearer Commerce Optimizer copy
• About page reordered: creator, why Merchant Signals, product summary
• Independent-project disclaimer restored site-wide
• Release notes grouped by version family (3.3.x, 3.2.x, …) with newest first

Brand Architecture Update with MerchantSignals.com

Branding updates across site to support new domain name along with continued use of Commerce Optimizer product name.

• Update Header with parent brand and product name
• Update Footer with parent brand and product name
• Update About page with parent brand and product name
• Update Site metadata/Open Graph with parent brand and product name

commercetools detection and Recent Audits UX

Headless commercetools storefronts are identified correctly; Recent Audits cards and links are easier to read and use.

• commercetools detection via __NEXT_DATA__, expanded HTML fingerprints, and verified domain hints
• Platform false-positive fixes for robots.txt Demandware paths, generic /product/ URLs, and cross-domain Shopify links
• CommerceTools displays as commercetools in audit and stats surfaces
• Homepage recent-audit card grid no longer overlaps Platform and Top Gap columns
• Recent Audits table and mobile cards link domains to storefront URLs in a new tab

Ecommerce eligibility false-positive fix

Restaurant and brochure sites on Squarespace/Wix no longer pass eligibility from default cart URLs alone.

• Require core storefront signals (product pages, schema, catalog, or pricing) for a valid audit
• Cart, checkout, and generic platform points only count when catalog signals exist
• Reject LocalBusiness, Restaurant, and similar schema without storefront catalog evidence

Ecommerce eligibility validation

Non-storefront domains are rejected before persistence so Recent Audits, benchmarks, and platform stats reflect verified ecommerce sites only.

• Ecommerce eligibility check with ecommerceConfidence scoring (threshold 50) before any scan is saved
• Parked, coming-soon, and brokered domains rejected immediately
• Invalid scans return scanStatus invalid_non_ecommerce_site with guided messaging
• Only lightweight rejection logs stored for troubleshooting; no scores or findings persisted

Homepage hierarchy, platform logos, release notes UX

Reordered homepage for faster value comprehension, compact platform and recent-audit cards, grouped release notes, and About creator section.

• Homepage order: hero, differentiator, audit checks, assets, platform stats, recent audits
• Platform readiness cards use local wordmarks and ~40% shorter layout
• Renamed Other Platform to Other Platforms; homepage recent cards stay compact
• Release notes grouped in v3/v2/v1 accordions with pre-3.0 historical backfill
• About page creator section with local headshot support
• Release Notes moved from header to footer navigation

UI clarity, platform display, release notes, contributors

Simplified Other Platform display, platform readiness icons, grade badge fixes, automated release notes, and richer contributor profiles.

• Renamed Unknown Platform to Other Platform with compact tooltip-only display on cards and tables
• BuiltWith technology profile link only in Platform Detection on audit reports
• Added platform icons and commercetools / Adobe Commerce to readiness-by-platform cards
• Fixed grade badges to stay on one line with grade-aware colors
• Added CHANGELOG.md, /release-notes page, and npm run release:add script
• Contributors support optional company, URL, testimonial, and active flag

User feedback: platform help, mobile CTA, differentiation

Addressed feedback on platform confidence, mobile homepage CTA, API docs version, free-tier messaging, and homepage differentiation.

• Unknown Platform explanation and BuiltWith link on audit surfaces
• Low-score scope note for popular brands
• Mobile-first homepage hero with Run Free Audit CTA
• AI Commerce Readiness by Platform section from scan data
• Homepage copy reduction and Not Just Visibility differentiator
• About page rewrite and friendly rate-limit messaging
• Dynamic API docs and health version examples

Other Platform label consistency

Unknown Platform shown as plain muted text instead of a badge, matching known platform typography.

• Other Platform (formerly Unknown) uses plain text with info tooltip
• Removed pill styling from unrecognized platform values
• Consistent platform display on recent audits and metadata

UI polish and visual hierarchy

Presentation-only release improving readability, badges, dark mode, and score card layout.

• Balanced 60/40 overall score card layout
• Confidence badges and uppercase finding titles
• Missing Findings section tinting and dark-mode finding cards
• Unknown Platform readable badge treatment (later refined in 3.2.4)

Theme tokens and homepage positioning

Semantic theme tokens, dark mode card consistency, and AI Commerce Optimization Platform positioning.

• Semantic CSS theme tokens for cards and text
• Banned domain scanning notice
• Homepage differentiator and platform positioning copy

Crash fix and local timezone

Fixed audit metadata timestamp formatting and timezone display.

• Resolved Invalid option error in audit metadata timestamps
• Audit times shown in the user's local timezone

Historical data and audit credibility

Foundation for historical audits, benchmarking, domain normalization, and enriched API responses.

• Audit history storage and crawl hash
• Benchmarking and audit confidence metadata
• Domain normalization and /api/index
• Dynamic API docs origin

Dynamic API origin

API documentation examples use deployment origin automatically.

• Dynamic base URL in API docs examples based on localhost or server

Scroll offset and mobile polish

Audit navigation scroll offset, mobile finding badges, and dark mode headers.

• Scroll offset helper for audit section anchors
• Compact grade badge and mobile recent audit cards
• Dark mode page headers

Desktop and mobile UI fixes

Multiple UI/UX fixes across desktop and mobile layouts.

• Platform label and tooltip improvements
• Recent audit card layout consistency
• Mobile navigation and theme toggle
• Contributors page and admin API

Invalid domain handling

Improved validation and messaging for invalid scan URLs.

• Clearer invalid domain error handling

Dimension score UX

Improved dimension score presentation on the readiness dashboard.

• Dimension score card UX improvements

Scroll to overview

After running an audit, the page scrolls to the overview section.

• Auto-scroll to overview after audit completes

Bug fixes and version display

Various bug fixes and application version labeling.

• Version label in header and footer
• Miscellaneous audit and UI bug fixes

Scoring and activity feed fixes

Removed artificial scoring, fixed activity feed, restored project focus.

• Evidence-backed scoring without artificial inflation
• Activity feed reliability improvements

AI Commerce Readiness scoring

Major release introducing readiness scoring, executive dashboard, and visual refresh.

• AI Commerce Readiness score and grade
• Executive summary and recommendations dashboard
• Merchant-friendly UX and visual refresh

Admin tools and audit management

Admin maintenance tools, single audit delete, banned domains, and recent scans UX.

• Admin tools with server-verified token
• Delete single audit by hostname
• Banned domains admin override
• Favicon and recent scans improvements

Rate limits and audit deduplication

Scan rate limits, banned domains, and deduplicated recent audit storage.

• Scan rate limiting
• Banned domain enforcement
• Recent audit deduplication in Redis

Product UX improvements

Merchant-facing UX refinements from early user feedback.

• Audit results layout improvements
• Clearer finding presentation
• Homepage and scan flow polish

Production launch cleanup

Production readiness pass before public launch.

• Production configuration cleanup
• API health and docs stabilization
• Deployment hardening

Production readiness and shared activity

Shared scan activity, bot protection, and production cache behavior.

• Shared recent scan activity in Redis
• Turnstile bot protection support
• Production cache fixes for Vercel

Community and product experience

Contributors page foundations and community-facing polish.

• Contributors and contact pages
• Community positioning copy
• Improved public navigation

Product experience and positioning

Clearer product narrative and audit presentation.

• Homepage positioning refresh
• Audit report readability improvements
• Marketing and about copy

Generated assets UX

Improved downloadable fix assets experience.

• Generated fixes download UX
• Asset section layout improvements

AI commerce recommendations

Major milestone adding AI-ready recommendation and asset generation.

• Generate fixes API and downloadable assets
• llms.txt and schema template generation
• Recommendations section in audit reports

Validation reporting quality

Early merchant validation and reporting improvements.

• Improved validation fixture reporting
• Early platform detection checks
• Foundational audit engine improvements