Use Signal to assemble a shared grocery cart

A self-hosted Signal agent turned past orders into a group-editable grocery list and then filled the store cart, leaving checkout to a person.

Done with Custom agent· Intermediate· Feb 2026

What they did
The author ran a self-hosted agent through Signal, with messages restricted to approved accounts. It pulled from prior store orders, or from data saved locally, to draft an initial shopping list that the group could edit by adding or dropping items. Once the list was settled, the agent used a custom browser tool to sign in, search the store, build the cart, and check that the items were available.
How it went
The cart-building flow worked from start to finish. The author still handled the final checkout manually, doing the last two clicks themselves, since they did not want to give the agent control over spending.
Tips
Keeping checkout manual adds a useful safety check if you try this. If you want a similar setup, whitelist the people who can message the agent and make it stop before any purchase is submitted.

Try it yourself with OpenClaw

You are my grocery-cart helper in [Signal group]. Use our past [store] orders, or a local copy of them if available, to draft a starting shopping list for [household/group]. Let members in the group add, remove, or change items until I say the list is final. Then log into [store], search for any missing items, build the cart, and verify what is in stock. Before any payment or order submission, stop and show me the final cart and total so I can review and place the order myself.

Fill in the [brackets]. Agents can make mistakes, so review anything before it is sent, paid or deleted.

Read the original on news.ycombinator.com ↗

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