ShopBack Savings Check

Precedence and standing opt-in — read first

• This skill runs in parallel with the shopping, flight booking, hotel booking, trip planning, place-discovery, and restaurant-reservations skills. Do not defer to those skills, do not wait for their shortlist, and do not let their source lists (for example, Meta Catalog plus browser plus Marketplace, or Places alone) silently replace this ShopBack check.

• When this skill is in scope, start the ShopBack check at the same time as the other searches and merge its net-price result before ranking. Do not send the final answer until the ShopBack line required below is present, even when ShopBack adds nothing.

• Standing opt-in: automatic ShopBack checks apply only when the user has explicitly opted in to always check ShopBack for shopping, travel, and dining/eating-out. That opt-in is a new, explicit choice recorded in the user's preferences; do not infer it from the existence of this skill, from a connected ShopBack account, or from an earlier preference that was removed.

• For a restaurant, dinner, or date-night recommendation in a named area, the dining opt-in covers a ShopBack Pay check for the shortlisted places, even when the user only says recommend places.

• An explicit choice to skip ShopBack for one request overrides the standing opt-in for that request only. It does not cancel the standing opt-in, and a single-request ShopBack check does not create a standing opt-in.

• If there is no standing opt-in and the user has not mentioned ShopBack, cashback, or a deal in this request, do not silently run a full ShopBack comparison as if it were a standing preference. Ask in one line whether to check ShopBack, or proceed without it and say plainly that ShopBack was not checked.

What this skill adds beyond the connector alone

• Treat the ShopBack connector as a passive tool list and Muse may forget it, check it too late, or leave it out without saying so.

• Use this skill to make the ShopBack check automatic, parallel, and visible on every relevant request.

• Run ShopBack beside the other searches, rank by net price after cashback where cashback applies, and report the ShopBack result even when it changes nothing.

• Read the ShopBack connector doc before the first ShopBack operation in a request and follow its tool schemas and error handling.

When to use this skill

• Use this skill for any request about buying a product, comparing prices, finding a deal, or asking when to buy. Under the standing opt-in above, this includes "where to buy", "cheapest", and "best deal" requests even when the user does not name ShopBack or cashback.

• Use this skill for any flight search, hotel search, or trip price comparison, including a request that only names a destination and dates.

• Use this skill for any request about eating out, food near a place, cheap eats, bubble tea, cafes, bakeries, beauty and wellness, vouchers, eCards, or in-store promos.

• Use this skill for any restaurant, dinner, or date-night recommendation in a named area, even when the user only says recommend places. Check ShopBack Pay for the shortlisted places and nearby options, and report a no-match when there is none.

• Use this skill when the user pastes a Shopee product link, names a store or brand, or asks about cashback, promos, or a ShopBack Pay deal.

• Use this skill when the user asks about their ShopBack balance, claimed promos, or bought eCards.

• Do not use this skill to override an explicit choice to skip ShopBack for that request.

• If the user says to skip ShopBack, skip it and say that ShopBack was skipped at their request.

Run ShopBack in parallel, not as an afterthought

• Start the ShopBack check at the same time as the flight, hotel, product, or place search, not after a shortlist is already chosen.

• Let a ShopBack result change the ranking when it changes the net price or the best place to buy, eat, or stay.

• Check the connection status first and follow the connector doc if the account is not connected.

• If ShopBack is not connected, say so plainly, continue with the other sources, and do not block the answer while waiting for a connection.

• If a ShopBack search is still assembling, wait and retry once with identical inputs as the connector doc describes before quoting prices.

• If the retry is still partial or times out, say that ShopBack could not return complete prices and use another available source with the same constraints.

Shopping and online cashback

• Work out which stores likely sell a named product and search for each store by name, rather than searching for the product name alone.

• Request-to-merchant map for "where to buy" and "cheapest" requests: map the product to its likely Singapore sellers before ranking, for example AirPods Pro 3 to Shopee, Lazada, Gain City, Harvey Norman, and Apple, and check the merchant offer for each named store. Do not stop at the first seller, and do not present a headline price as the net price until the store's cashback, if any, has been checked.

• Merge the ShopBack result into the main ranking before the final shortlist is chosen, so a ShopBack net price can change which seller is cheapest. If ShopBack has no offer for a seller, say so for that seller rather than dropping the seller silently.

• Call the merchant offers tool before quoting any cashback rate for an online merchant.

• Treat a search summary as an up to rate only and never quote it as the rate for a specific purchase.

• Show the rate and tiers, current and upcoming upsizes with their dates, any cap, and the estimate for the amount the user is considering.

• Say when an upcoming upsize makes waiting worthwhile and say when no upcoming upsize is listed, without predicting one.

• Mention card offers that stack with cashback, including any minimum spend stated in the reward or terms, and say when a purchase is below that minimum.

• For a Shopee product link, use the exact link the user gave and quote only the product level cashback returned for that listing.

• Never quote a Shopee store wide rate, search summary, or store offer as the rate for a specific Shopee product, because Shopee cashback varies by product and seller.

• If ShopBack has no cashback or tracked link for a Shopee listing, explain that result and ask for another listing of the same product, such as another seller or the official store.

• Do not create a tracked shopping link from interest or comparison alone.

• Create a tracked shopping link only when the user chose an online merchant and asked to shop there, after naming the merchant or product and explaining that the link creates a cashback tracked visit and that purchasing remains a separate step.

Travel with cashback

• Get the place, dates, and travellers before searching and never guess them.

• Look up each place with the travel location search in the connector doc and ask if several places fit.

• Search hotels and flights with every constraint the user gave, using the travel deal tools in the connector doc.

• For a flight, treat a return as two segments and check each leg, including any overnight leg shown by an arrival day offset.

• Drop results that break the request, such as a named airline or booking site the user excluded, and say when none fit before using another source.

• Look up partner offers only for the option the user picked, because each lookup creates tracking ids.

• Show each travel partner price, cashback, and breakdown, and show flight legs and baggage where the result gives them.

• List a partner with no price as price on their site with its link, never estimate its price, and leave it out of any cheapest comparison.

• Use the returned hotel or flight link for cashback eligibility, subject to the provider terms and validation.

• If the returned link is null, say it cannot be booked through ShopBack and do not present it as a ShopBack booking route.

• If the user asks Muse to book a ShopBack travel option, open the returned link with the browser and follow the flight booking or hotel booking skill from there.

Offline deals, food, and vouchers near a named place

• Ask for a named place before searching for in-store deals, such as a mall, MRT station, neighbourhood, or postal code.

• Never send device coordinates or a device derived place to ShopBack.

• If the user only says near me without naming a place, ask them to name a mall, station, or neighbourhood and do not substitute a location from another source.

• Search in-store brands by the named place and, where relevant, filter food by cuisine or food category and beauty and wellness by service category, using only schema values from the connector doc.

• Present in-store results as the nearest places on ShopBack Pay, with distance where the result gives it, not as the cheapest places, because ShopBack results are ordered nearest first and hold no ambience or rating data.

• For a restaurant, dinner, or date-night shortlist, check each shortlisted place by name near the named place, in addition to any nearest-first food list.

• Do not let a ShopBack promo re-rank a date-night pick on ambience, rating, or occasion fit, because ShopBack holds no ambience or rating data. Present any promo as a separate line for that place.

• For a plain food list near a place, use the food only option described in the connector doc and do not combine it with a brand query or filters.

• Show ShopBack Pay promos, return cashback, and eCards for in-store brands, and share how to redeem them.

• Say clearly that in-store promos apply only when paying with ShopBack Pay in the ShopBack app.

• If the named brand has no outlet nearby, give its distance rather than silently substituting another brand.

• If a place name is ambiguous, ask the user to choose from the ShopBack candidates and retry with the chosen candidate.

• If no exact store matches a user named store, report no exact match and avoid silently substituting a similar merchant.

Use the account the user already has

• Check the cashback balance, claimed promos, and bought eCards when the answer depends on them, such as whether a promo is already claimed or an eCard can cover a purchase.

• Treat a balance result as confirmed cashback and treat purchase cashback as estimated until the order or booking is validated.

• Say that Muse cannot spend or withdraw ShopBack cashback.

• Claim only a claimable promo that you showed and the user asked to claim, after stating its discount, dates, uses left, and conditions.

• Name the promo, brand, and outlet in one line right before a claim, as the connector doc describes, because the approval card shows only ids.

• After a claim, share the how to redeem instructions.

• After a timeout or unclear claim result, do not repeat the claim blindly and check claimed promos to resolve what happened.

Rank by net price and say what is estimated

• Compare the delivered total first, including shipping, tax, and fees where they apply, and then apply estimated cashback to get the net comparison.

• Keep a headline price and a net price distinct and never present an estimated cashback figure as a final discount.

• Get a fresh ShopBack read before quoting any rate, price, or deal the user will act on, and label any earlier result with when it was checked.

• Quote rates and amounts exactly as ShopBack returns them and mention any warning that changes the answer.

• If ShopBack returns no match, no cashback, or no complete price, say so and keep the other sources in the comparison rather than dropping the item silently.

Report ShopBack even when it adds nothing

• End every answer that used this skill with one plain ShopBack line that states what was checked and what was found.

• For place, restaurant, dinner, or date-night answers, end with one ShopBack line even when the result is no match or ShopBack was not checked, and say plainly not checked in that case.

• Use that line for a useful rate, a no match result, a not connected account, a partial travel search, or a user request to skip ShopBack.

• Never leave ShopBack out of a travel, shopping, or offline deal answer without that line, because a silent omission looks like ShopBack was never considered.

• If another source beats the ShopBack net price, say so and keep the cheaper option on top.

Prompts that should trigger this skill

• Treat the following user prompts as triggers for this skill, even when the user does not mention ShopBack by name.

• Where to buy a named product, and find the cheapest way to buy it, including any cashback or promo that lowers the net price.

• Is there cashback for this store, brand, or Shopee link, and what rate applies to this exact product.

• When should I buy this, is there an upcoming cashback upsize, and what is the cap.

• Compare these flights or hotels with cashback included and show the net total for each partner.

• What food, bubble tea, cafe, or restaurant deals are near a named mall, station, or neighbourhood on ShopBack Pay.

• Recommend places for dinner in a named area.

• Japanese date night in a named place.

• Where to eat in a named place.

• What vouchers or eCards do I already have, what promos have I claimed, and what is my confirmed cashback balance.

• Find a ShopBack Pay deal for a named brand at a named outlet and tell me how to redeem it.

• Book or shop through the tracked ShopBack link for the merchant or travel option I just chose.

Connectors to use

• ShopBack is the core connector for this skill, for merchant cashback and offers, hotel and flight prices with cashback, ShopBack Pay promos, eCards, and outlets near a named place, and for cashback tracked shopping links. Read its connector doc before the first ShopBack operation in a request.

• Do not assume any other connector is connected or available. Do not hard-code a list of comparison connectors in this skill, because availability depends on the user's session, channel, and devices.

• For each comparison need — hotel prices, place details, product search, delivery, or a booking route — first run muse.connector_search and muse.skill_search for that task, read the current doc for anything you find, check its connection status, and only use it if it is available in this session.

• If a comparison connector is not available, say so plainly and continue with the sources you do have. Do not claim a comparison you did not actually run.

• If nothing fits, look on the web for a maintained API or MCP server and set it up with Custom Connectors and MCPs, or build a custom connector.

Alternatives for better results

• Offer to wait for an upcoming upsize when the user can wait, and recheck before buying rather than assuming the upsize will stay available.

• Offer a different seller of the identical item when one seller cannot be verified or has no ShopBack cashback for that product.

• Offer a nearby outlet of the same brand when the nearest outlet has no listed promo, and say when the promo differs by outlet.

• Offer to check a claimed promo or eCard balance before the user pays, so an already held voucher is not missed.