atoship — Your AI Shipping Manager

Imagine having a shipping manager who never sleeps, never makes data entry errors, and instantly knows the cheapest way to get your package from A to B. That's what atoship does for your AI assistant.

With this skill installed, your AI becomes a fully capable shipping manager. Just tell it what you need in plain language — it handles carrier selection, rate comparison, label purchase, and tracking updates automatically. What used to take 10 minutes of clicking through carrier portals now takes one sentence.

Before atoship: Open carrier website → enter addresses → compare rates across tabs → copy-paste tracking numbers → manually update order status.

After atoship: "Ship this order to John in Austin, cheapest option under 3 days." Done.

What you can do

• Compare shipping rates — Get live, discounted postage rates from USPS, FedEx, and UPS side by side in seconds
• Buy shipping labels — Purchase labels instantly at checkout; PDF, PNG, or ZPL formats supported
• Track shipments — Real-time package tracking with full event history for any carrier
• Manage labels — View, void, and reprint past shipping labels
• Check wallet balance — Monitor your postage credit and shipping spend
• Validate addresses — Verify delivery addresses before purchasing to avoid surcharges

Getting started

This is an instruction-only skill — no CLI or additional software required. Your AI assistant calls the atoship API directly using your API key.

Step 1: Create a free atoship account

Sign up at https://atoship.com (free, no credit card required to start).

Step 2: Get your API key

Go to Dashboard → Settings → API Keys and create a new key.

Step 3: Set your API key

export ATOSHIP_API_KEY=ak_live_your_key_here

Or configure it in your AI assistant's environment settings.

Step 4: Add funds to your wallet

Go to Dashboard → Billing to add postage credit. Labels are deducted from your wallet balance — you only pay for what you ship.

Note on permissions: Your API key authorizes label purchases and wallet charges. We recommend:

• Start with a small wallet balance (e.g. $20) while evaluating
• Use a test/sandbox key (ak_test_...) for development — test labels are free and never shipped
• Set spending alerts in Dashboard → Billing → Notifications
• Revoke and rotate keys at any time from Dashboard → Settings → API Keys

How to use this skill

Type /atoship and describe what you need. Examples:

• "How much does it cost to ship a 2lb box from Los Angeles to New York?"
• "Buy a USPS Priority Mail label from 90001 to 10001, 1lb"
• "Track my package: 9400111899223456789012"
• "Show my recent shipping labels"
• "What's my account balance?"

Shipping workflow

Step 1 — Compare rates

I'll call the atoship API to get live rates from all carriers:

From: ZIP code or "City, State"
To:   ZIP code or "City, State"
Weight: e.g. 2oz, 1lb, 500g
Dimensions (optional): length × width × height in inches

Results show each carrier's services, prices, and estimated delivery times. USPS, FedEx Ground, FedEx Express, UPS Ground, UPS 2-Day, and more.

Step 2 — Buy a label

IMPORTANT: Always show the user the carrier, service, price, and full addresses, then ask for explicit confirmation (e.g. "Confirm purchase?") before calling the purchase API. Never purchase a label without user approval — this action charges their wallet.

Once you pick a service, I'll collect the full addresses and purchase the label:

Sender:    Name, Street, City, State, ZIP
Recipient: Name, Street, City, State, ZIP

You'll get:

• ✅ Tracking number
• ✅ Label download link (PDF or PNG)
• ✅ Cost deducted from your wallet

Labels can be voided for a refund if unused within the carrier's void window (usually 28 days for USPS, 1 day for FedEx/UPS).

Step 3 — Track a package

Give me a tracking number and I'll show the full event history:

Status:    IN TRANSIT
Location:  Memphis, TN
ETA:       Feb 19, 2026
Events:    Feb 17 10:42 — Departed facility, Memphis TN
           Feb 17 06:15 — Arrived at USPS facility
           Feb 16 18:30 — Accepted at origin post office

Supported carriers

Common use cases

E-commerce order fulfillment — Ship Shopify, eBay, Etsy, or Amazon orders without switching tabs. Automatically find the cheapest carrier for each order.

Small business shipping — Compare USPS First Class vs Priority Mail vs FedEx Ground vs UPS Ground for any package size and weight. Save money on every shipment.

Dropshipping & 3PL logistics — Integrate atoship's API into your fulfillment workflow. Generate labels programmatically and track shipments in bulk.

International shipping — atoship supports cross-border shipping to Canada, UK, Australia, and 200+ countries via USPS International, FedEx International, and UPS Worldwide.

Returns management — Generate prepaid return labels for customer returns with a single command.

Bulk shipping — Use the atoship dashboard at https://atoship.com for CSV import and batch label generation.

Tips

• Cheapest rate: Ask "what's the cheapest way to ship X?"
• Weight units: oz, lb, g, kg all supported
• Label formats: PDF (default), PNG, ZPL for thermal printers
• Signature required: Add "with signature confirmation" when buying
• Insurance: Add "with $100 insurance" when buying
• Reference number: Add "reference ORDER-123" to tag your label

API Endpoint Reference

Base URL: https://atoship.com

All requests require Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY header.

Example: Track a package

curl -X GET "https://atoship.com/api/v1/tracking/9400111899223456789012" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_live_your_key_here"

Example: Get shipping rates

curl -X POST "https://atoship.com/api/v1/rates" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from_address": {"name": "Sender", "street1": "123 Main St", "city": "Los Angeles", "state": "CA", "zip": "90001"},
    "to_address": {"name": "Recipient", "street1": "456 Oak Ave", "city": "New York", "state": "NY", "zip": "10001"},
    "parcel": {"weight": 16, "weight_unit": "oz"}
  }'

Example: Purchase a label

# Step 1: Create draft
curl -X POST "https://atoship.com/api/v1/labels" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from_address": {"name": "Sender", "street1": "123 Main St", "city": "Los Angeles", "state": "CA", "zip": "90001"},
    "to_address": {"name": "Recipient", "street1": "456 Oak Ave", "city": "New York", "state": "NY", "zip": "10001"},
    "parcel": {"weight": 16, "weight_unit": "oz"},
    "carrier": "USPS",
    "service": "Priority Mail"
  }'

# Step 2: Purchase the draft (use the id from step 1)
curl -X POST "https://atoship.com/api/v1/labels/{id}/purchase" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_live_your_key_here"

Why atoship?

Shipping is one of the most time-consuming parts of running an online business. Every order means logging into carrier portals, comparing rates manually, copy-pasting addresses, downloading labels, and tracking updates one by one. For teams processing dozens or hundreds of shipments a day, this is a massive operational burden.

atoship eliminates that entirely. By connecting your AI assistant to the atoship platform, you get a shipping manager that:

• Thinks in seconds, not minutes — Rate comparisons across all carriers happen instantly
• Never makes address typos — Structured data flow from conversation to label, zero manual re-entry
• Remembers context — Your AI knows what you're shipping, where, and for what purpose
• Scales with your business — Whether you ship 1 or 1,000 packages a day, the workflow is identical
• Saves real money — Discounted carrier rates with no volume minimums, no monthly fees

atoship is built for e-commerce sellers, small business owners, logistics coordinators, and developers who want to automate their shipping operations without enterprise contracts or complex integrations.

Key features:

• Discounted rates on USPS, FedEx, and UPS — no volume minimums required
• Unified API for multi-carrier shipping automation
• Real-time tracking and delivery event notifications
• Address validation and standardization
• Wallet-based billing with no monthly fees or subscriptions

Security & API key safety

This skill calls the atoship REST API (https://atoship.com/api/v1) on your behalf. It does not write files to disk, does not access your file system, does not read other environment variables, and only communicates with the single domain atoship.com.

Required environment variable:

• ATOSHIP_API_KEY — Your atoship API key (ak_live_... for production, ak_test_... for testing)

Wallet-affecting actions (require user confirmation before executing):

• purchase_label — deducts the label cost from your wallet balance
• void_label — issues a refund (within carrier void window)

Rule for AI assistants: You MUST ask the user for explicit confirmation before calling purchase_label or void_label. Display the action summary (carrier, service, price, addresses) and wait for a "yes" or "confirm" response. Never execute wallet-affecting actions autonomously.

Read-only actions (safe to call without confirmation):

• get_shipping_rates, track_package, list_labels, get_label, get_account, list_carrier_accounts, validate_address, list_orders, get_order, create_order

Recommendations:

• Start with a test key (ak_test_...) — test labels are free and never shipped
• Use a small wallet balance (e.g. $20) while evaluating
• Set spending alerts in Dashboard → Billing → Notifications
• Rotate/revoke keys at any time from Dashboard → Settings → API Keys

Support & Contact

Having trouble? We're here to help.

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://atoship.com
• Docs: https://atoship.com/docs
• API Reference: https://atoship.com/docs/api
• Dashboard: https://atoship.com/dashboard

For API key issues, billing questions, or carrier integration support, email us at [email protected] and we'll get back to you within one business day.