AgentScore now checks your checkout with an item in the cart

Most checkouts only show their form once something is in the cart, so AgentScore rarely got to see yours. From scoring version 2026.10-v7 it adds one item first, the way a shopper would. Here's exactly what it presses, where it stops, and what happens when it can't add anything.

Why an empty cart hid your checkout

Two AgentScore checks depend on seeing your checkout form: Cart and checkout fields are labelled for agents and Shoppers can check out without an account. Until now the scanner loaded your cart and checkout with nothing in them. On most stores that gives you a "Your cart is empty" message, or a redirect straight back to the cart. No form, nothing to check.

So both checks usually came back "not tested". When we ran our store study on scoring v6, the scan could rarely see a checkout form. That's a blind spot in exactly the place where an AI agent shopping for someone either finishes the job or gives up.

A person fixes this without thinking: they put something in the cart. AgentScore now does the same.

What AgentScore does now

The scanner first loads your cart and checkout as before, as a browser and as three AI assistants (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User and Perplexity-User). If either page already shows form fields, nothing changes: it checks them as they are. Only when the site looks like a store and neither page shows a form does it add an item:

1. Open the product page The one the scan already checked, in a real browser
2. Press add to cart, once The product's add-to-cart button, never a “Buy now” one
3. Open the cart The cart page the scan found, or /cart, in the same browser session
4. Open the checkout The cart's checkout link, or /checkout if there is none
5. Read the form Labels, input types, autocomplete and a guest option

A few details matter. The product is the one the scan already judged. If that product was sold out and the scan moved on to another one, it uses that one. If a cookie banner or pop-up covers the add-to-cart button so the press doesn't land, it presses the banner's close or accept button once, the way a shopper would, and tries again. And many carts check out with a form button rather than a link (Shopify's cart uses a <button name="checkout">). The scanner doesn't submit that form. Instead it loads /checkout in the same session, which reaches the same place on most platforms, and keeps that page only if it didn't bounce back to the cart.

When the fields check then reports on your form, it says so: the finding reads "after AgentScore added one item to the cart".

Where it stops

Adding to a cart is not ordering, and we've drawn the line so it can't become one.

What it presses

• Your add-to-cart button, once
• A pop-up's close or accept button, once, if it covers that button

What it never does

• Fill in any form field
• Submit a form, sign in or sign up
• Choose a size, color or other option
• Press “Buy now”, which can go straight to an express checkout
• Pay or place an order

The item sits in a cart that belongs to the scanner's own browser session, which is closed when that step ends. Nobody comes back for the cart, and no order is placed. To your store, a scan looks like one shopper who added an item and left.

When it can't add an item

Some stores won't take an item from a single press, and that's often a sign of something an AI agent would struggle with too. When the scanner can't add one, the fields check is marked not tested, never failed, and the report says why. So is the guest checkout check, unless the cart page itself says whether an account is needed. The usual reasons:

• Disabled until an option is chosen The add-to-cart button only works after picking a size or color. The scanner never picks options.
• Something covers it The button still couldn't be pressed after closing a pop-up once.
• Only “Buy now” The product page's only buy button is “Buy now”. It can go straight to an express or wallet checkout, so the scanner doesn't press it.
• No add-to-cart button The scan found no add-to-cart button on the product page.
• No product page The scan found no product page to add from.

A button that stays disabled until a size is picked is worth a look. An agent can choose a size, but only if your picker is something it can read and operate. Our guide to size, color and variant pickers covers what works. If a pop-up was in the way, see cookie banners and pop-ups that trap AI agents.

Keeping the block check fair

A third check reads your cart and checkout: AI agents aren't blocked or shown a CAPTCHA at the cart and checkout. It works by comparison. It loads each page as a browser and as the three AI assistants, and fails only when the assistants are blocked or challenged while the browser gets through.

That comparison only means something if both sides see the same thing. The AI assistant requests are plain page loads with an empty cart, so the browser side must be an empty-cart load too. While building v7 we found that swapping in the full-cart page made some checkouts look as if they blocked only AI agents, when they actually turned everyone away while the cart was empty. So the page with the item is kept separately, and only the form fields and guest checkout checks read it. The block check still compares empty cart with empty cart.

The change before this one, in v6, was how AgentScore treats bot protection that checks where visitors really come from. It's explained in why AgentScore stopped marking you down for checking who's visiting.

What it found, and what it means for you

We reran our store study on v7, which then covered 258 online stores. With an item in the cart where the empty one showed no form, AgentScore could inspect the cart or checkout form on 94 stores. On v6 it could rarely see one.

• 258 stores in the study, scored on v7
• 94 stores whose cart or checkout form AgentScore could inspect
• 71% of those 94 had fields an agent can't reliably read

The most common problem was a field labeled only by placeholder text, which disappears as soon as something is typed. Guest checkout is still hard to see from outside: only 49 stores showed whether they offer it, too few for a reliable figure, so the study doesn't report one.

For your own score:

• If your checkout checks used to say "not tested", they may now count. Your score can move up or down depending on what the form looks like.
• If they still say "not tested", read the reason. A button that's disabled until a size is chosen, or covered by a banner, is something to fix for real agents too.
• If the fields check fails, give every field a visible label, the right input type (email, tel) and an autocomplete value. Our guide to agent-ready checkout and guest checkout explain both.

Scores from different scoring versions aren't comparable, so rescan before you compare. Reading your AgentScore report explains what each result means. And because AgentScore stops at the checkout's first page, the steps after it, up to payment, need a real agent: that's what Ghost Agents test.