Title: Virelo – Shopping Assistant for WooCommerce Author: aamir099 Published: August 18, 2026 Last modified: August 18, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/virelo-shopping-assistant/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=3653463) ![](https://ps.w.org/virelo-shopping-assistant/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3653463) # Virelo – Shopping Assistant for WooCommerce By [aamir099](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aamir099/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/virelo-shopping-assistant.1.0.1.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/virelo-shopping-assistant/) ## Description Your catalog usually has the right product. Shoppers just can’t find it with dropdowns and keyword search. **Virelo** adds a conversational shopping assistant to your WooCommerce store. A shopper types something like _“a rain jacket for hiking, under $80”_ and Virelo answers with real products from **your** indexed catalog — including a short reason for each match, the live price, the current stock status, and a working link to the product page. Every recommendation is **grounded**. The AI model can only choose from products Virelo retrieved from your database, and price and stock are verified against WooCommerce right before the card is rendered. No invented products, no dead links, no stale prices. This plugin is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Automattic or WooCommerce. #### How it works 1. **Index** — Virelo builds a searchable index of your products in your own WordPress database, in batches, in the background. 2. **Retrieve** — a shopper question is turned into a filtered, ranked shortlist using price, stock, attributes, keyword signals, and embedding similarity. 3. **Ground** — only that shortlist is handed to the language model, so answers cannot drift outside your catalog. 4. **Verify** — product identity, price, and stock are re-checked live before the recommendation is shown. #### What shoppers get * **Plain-language search** instead of filter stacking * **Multi-turn chat** that keeps context — budget, colour, size, occasion, or “ show me something else” * **Clarifying questions** when the request is too vague to answer well * **Match reasons** so the recommendation is explainable, not a black box * **Live price and stock** at render time * **Optional voice input** using the browser Web Speech API * **Add to cart** directly from a recommendation for simple, in-stock products #### What merchants get * **Bring your own AI provider** — OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, LongCat, OpenRouter, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, or WordPress AI Client connectors on WordPress 7.0+ * **No external vector database** — hybrid retrieval runs inside your WordPress database * **Optional local embeddings** so you can run retrieval without paying for an embeddings API * **Parent or variation indexing** so size and colour rows can be matched individually * **Analytics** for shopper queries, matches, and click-through * **Unmatched demand insights** — see what shoppers asked for that your catalog could not answer, then buy or write accordingly * **Tunable retrieval** — result count, similarity threshold, and candidate pre- filter limit * **Abuse-protection rate limits** for anonymous and logged-in visitors * **Background indexing** via Action Scheduler, so large catalogues do not block admin * **Privacy tooling** — integrates with WordPress personal data export and erase #### Place it anywhere * Floating bubble across the site * Search bar in a hero, header, or any section * “Ask Virelo” button that opens the assistant * Full embedded chat panel * Gutenberg block, plus shortcodes: `[virelo type="search"]`, `[virelo type="button"]`,`[ virelo type="panel"]`, `[virelo type="floating"]` #### Styling and branding Set your own widget title and accent colour so the assistant matches your theme. The “Powered by Virelo” attribution is **optional and off by default** — it appears only if you deliberately switch it on. #### Privacy first Virelo does **not** phone home. Outbound requests go only to the AI provider you configure, optionally to WordPress AI connectors on your site, and optionally to a webhook URL you set. Nothing is sent until you save credentials and a feature is actually used. See the **External services** section for a full per-provider breakdown. ### External services This plugin connects to external services that **you** choose and configure. It does **not** send data until credentials (or a webhook URL) are saved and a feature is used (catalog reindex or shopper chat/search). No requests are made to the plugin author’s servers. **OpenAI** * Why: optional AI chat and embeddings provider. * When: only after an administrator selects OpenAI, saves an API key, and reindexes or a shopper uses Virelo. * Data transmitted: product titles, descriptions, and related catalog fields for embeddings; shopper prompts (up to 500 characters) and short catalog candidate snippets for chat. * Endpoint: `https://api.openai.com/v1` * Terms of Service: https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use * Privacy Policy: https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy **Anthropic Claude** * Why: optional AI chat provider (embeddings may use local hashing or another configured embedding mode). * When: only after an administrator selects Claude, saves an API key, and a shopper uses Virelo (or related configured features). * Data transmitted: shopper conversation messages and product/catalog snippets required for grounded recommendations. * Endpoint: `https://api.anthropic.com/v1` * Terms of Service: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms * Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy **Google Gemini** * Why: optional AI chat and embeddings via Gemini’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint. * When: only after an administrator selects Gemini, saves credentials, and reindexes or a shopper uses Virelo. * Data transmitted: catalog text for embeddings; shopper prompts and candidate product snippets for chat. * Endpoint: `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai` * Terms of Service: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms * Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy **LongCat** * Why: optional AI chat provider (`https://api.longcat.chat/openai/v1`). * When: only after an administrator selects LongCat, saves an API key (and any required configuration), and a shopper uses Virelo or another feature that calls the chat API. No LongCat requests occur until then. * Data transmitted: conversation messages; product information and catalog candidate snippets required to generate grounded AI responses; model and request parameters needed for the API call. * Terms of Service: https://longcat.chat/platform/private/ * Privacy Policy: https://longcat.chat/platform/private/POLICY.html **OpenRouter** * Why: optional AI chat and embeddings gateway to models you choose in settings. * When: only after an administrator selects OpenRouter, saves an API key, and reindexes or a shopper uses Virelo. * Data transmitted: catalog text for embeddings; shopper prompts and product snippets for chat. * Endpoint: `https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` * Terms of Service: https://openrouter.ai/terms * Privacy Policy: https://openrouter.ai/privacy **Custom OpenAI-compatible API base** * Why: optional merchant-entered HTTPS base URL compatible with OpenAI-style chat/ embeddings APIs. * When: only after an administrator enters the base URL and credentials and uses reindex or chat. * Data transmitted: same categories as above (catalog text and/or shopper prompts and product snippets), sent to the host you configure. * Terms / Privacy: governed by the service behind the URL you enter; review that provider’s policies before use. **WordPress AI Client connectors (WordPress 7.0+)** * Why: optional site-level AI connectors configured in WordPress instead of (or alongside) a direct provider API key. * When: only when connectors are available/configured on the site and Virelo uses them for a chat request. * Data transmitted: shopper prompts and catalog candidate snippets required for grounded answers, via the connectors you enable in WordPress. * Terms / Privacy: follow the policies of each connector/provider configured on your WordPress site. **Optional merchant webhook** * Why: notify your own systems about search-related events. * When: only after an administrator saves a webhook HTTPS URL and a configured feature fires the webhook. * Data transmitted: anonymized search-related payload for your own integrations. * Terms / Privacy: your destination URL; you control that endpoint. Fonts (Outfit) are bundled locally under the SIL Open Font License. No remote font CDN is used. ### Privacy * Shopper search text and session tokens may be stored in your WordPress database for analytics for up to 90 days. * Search text may be sent to your configured AI provider as described under External services. * Use **Tools Export Personal Data** / **Erase Personal Data** for users who have an associated Virelo session token. * Suggested privacy policy text is registered with WordPress via the Privacy Policy guide. * Store owners should also review their AI provider’s privacy policy and disclose Virelo on their storefront privacy page. ## Blocks This plugin provides 1 block. * Virelo Add a Virelo search bar, Ask Virelo button, chat panel, or floating bubble anywhere. ## Installation 1. Upload the plugin ZIP via **Plugins Add New Upload Plugin**, or install from WordPress.org. 2. Activate the plugin (WooCommerce must be active). 3. Go to **WooCommerce Virelo**. 4. Choose your AI provider, enter your API key, and save — or configure a WordPress AI connector on WordPress 7.0+. 5. Click **Reindex Catalog** and wait until indexing finishes. 6. Visit the storefront — the floating assistant appears when enabled, or place the block or a shortcode. ## FAQ ### Do I need an AI API key? You need either an API key from a supported provider, or a WordPress AI Client connector configured on your site (WordPress 7.0+). Embeddings can also run locally, so retrieval does not have to depend on a paid embeddings API. ### Which AI providers are supported? OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, LongCat, OpenRouter, and any OpenAI-compatible base URL you enter. On WordPress 7.0+ Virelo will prefer a configured WordPress AI Client connector for chat when one is available. ### Do I need Pinecone, Weaviate, or another vector database? No. Retrieval is hybrid and runs inside your existing WordPress database, so there is no extra infrastructure to host or pay for. ### Can the assistant recommend a product that does not exist? No. The model can only select from the candidate products Virelo retrieved from your catalog, and each recommendation is re-verified for identity, price, and stock before it is displayed. ### Does it work with variable products? Yes. You can index parent products or individual variations, so requests that hinge on size or colour can match the right variation row. ### Will it slow down my store? Indexing runs in the background in batches via Action Scheduler rather than during page loads. The assistant loads on the storefront and calls your configured provider only when a shopper actually asks something. ### Who pays for AI API usage? You do — requests use your provider API key or your site’s AI connectors. Configure the abuse-protection rate limits under **WooCommerce Virelo** to keep unexpected traffic in check. ### Does this plugin phone home? No. Outbound requests go only to the AI provider (or custom API base) you configure, optionally to WordPress AI connectors on WordPress 7.0+, and optionally to a webhook URL you set. Nothing is sent to the plugin author’s servers. ### What data is sent to the AI provider? Product titles, descriptions, and related catalog text may be sent when indexing/ embeddings run. Shopper prompts and short catalog snippets may be sent when Virelo answers a query. This happens only after you save credentials and use those features. ### Is “Powered by Virelo” shown on the storefront? No, not by default. Attribution is optional and stays off until you enable **Show“ Powered by Virelo” attribution** under **WooCommerce Virelo Settings**. ### I added products but the assistant does not mention them Run **Reindex Catalog** under **WooCommerce Virelo**, or wait for the background queue to pick up the changes. New and edited products are queued automatically. ### Which shortcodes are available? [virelo type=”search”], `[virelo type="button"]`, `[virelo type="panel"]`, and `[ virelo type="floating"]`. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Virelo – Shopping Assistant for WooCommerce” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ aamir099 ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aamir099/) [Translate “Virelo – Shopping Assistant for WooCommerce” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/virelo-shopping-assistant/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/virelo-shopping-assistant/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/virelo-shopping-assistant/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/virelo-shopping-assistant/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.1 * New plugin icon and banner artwork for the plugin directory * Expanded plugin documentation: how retrieval and grounding work, provider support, placement options, and a broader FAQ * No functional changes to the plugin runtime #### 1.0.0 * Initial WordPress.org submission as Virelo – Shopping Assistant for WooCommerce * Unique virelo_ prefix for classes, options, tables, REST, shortcodes, and assets * Prefer WordPress AI Client for chat when available; embeddings via configured providers * Abuse-protection rate limits only (no commercial query caps or license locks) * REST nonce required for chat query and click endpoints * Optional “Powered by Virelo” attribution is opt-in and off by default * Uninstall removes only plugin-owned options, tables, transients, and scheduled events ## Meta * Version **1.0.1** * Last updated **2 days ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.7 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.0.4** * PHP version ** 8.1 or higher ** * Tags * [AI](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/ai/)[chatbot](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/chatbot/) [product search](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/product-search/)[Shopping Assistant](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/shopping-assistant/) [woocommerce](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/woocommerce/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/virelo-shopping-assistant/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/virelo-shopping-assistant/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/virelo-shopping-assistant/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ aamir099 ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aamir099/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/virelo-shopping-assistant/)