> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mealops.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Restaurant Onboarding

> From signed up to discoverable and orderable by AI agents — and what to check when something isn't showing up.

How a restaurant — or a whole chain — gets from "signed up" to "discoverable and orderable by AI agents" on MealOps, and what to check when something isn't showing up.

MealOps' Phantom platform connects your existing POS to AI ordering agents (like CoachImHungry and partner assistants). Orders placed by agents flow into your kitchen exactly like any other channel order; you keep full control over hours, lead times, order caps, and approvals.

## The zero-touch path (Deliverect)

If your restaurant runs on Deliverect, onboarding is nearly automatic:

1. **Connect the MealOps channel in Deliverect.** Your Deliverect representative (or you, from the Deliverect console) enables MealOps as a channel for your location(s).
2. **Phantom sets everything up automatically.** When the channel registers, Phantom creates your restaurant, imports your menu, links chain locations under one brand, and applies safe defaults: agent ordering starts **off**, with manual order review and conservative order caps, until you're ready.
3. **Your menu syncs continuously.** Every menu you publish from Deliverect is imported — items, prices, photos, modifiers (including nested modifiers and meal deals), multiple menus with their own service hours, allergen tags, and calories. Item snoozes (86s) and busy/paused mode flow through in real time.
4. **You receive a claim invite by email.** The invite goes to the location's contact email and links you to your operator console at [https://phantom.mealops.ai](https://phantom.mealops.ai).
5. **Complete payout onboarding.** From the console, connect payouts (Stripe). **Your restaurant is invisible to agents until payouts are enabled** — this is the last gate before going live.

Not on Deliverect? Email [support@mealops.ai](mailto:support@mealops.ai) — the MealOps team can stage your location manually, and additional POS integrations are in progress.

## Your operator console

The console at [https://phantom.mealops.ai](https://phantom.mealops.ai) is where you run everything:

* **Orders** — live queue, approvals, statuses, and history.
* **Menu** — imported menus with local curation: price overrides, hiding items, and local 86s. These per-location overrides survive menu re-imports; edits you make in your POS keep flowing through underneath them.
* **Hours** — see the section below.
* **Ordering rules** — prep time, required notice, order caps (max order value, max item quantity, max headcount), blackout windows, and approval mode.
* **Payouts** — Stripe payout onboarding and status.
* **Agent ordering** — the global toggle that controls whether AI agents can order from you at all. Individual agents are vetted and approved by MealOps platform-wide; if a specific agent causes problems, report it to [support@mealops.ai](mailto:support@mealops.ai) (orders are attributed to agents, and MealOps can suspend an agent across the platform).

## Going live checklist

A restaurant becomes discoverable and orderable by an agent when all of these are true:

1. The restaurant is active (not archived) with its POS channel connected and enabled.
2. Agent ordering is switched on.
3. Stripe payouts are enabled.

You never approve individual agents — MealOps vets and approves every agent once, platform-wide, before it can order anywhere. Your controls are the agent-ordering toggle in Settings, busy/paused mode, and reporting a problem agent to support.

Also worth checking before launch (these don't block discovery but will hurt orders):

* The menu imported and looks right (no empty menu).
* A pickup phone number is set — courier delivery hard-fails without one.
* The address has map coordinates — saving the address in Settings re-checks courier coverage automatically.
* The contact email has claimed the console (so a human sees approvals).

If something isn't showing up, [support@mealops.ai](mailto:support@mealops.ai) can run a readiness report that pinpoints the exact blocking gate.

## Hours

* **Deliverect stores:** the hours on your Deliverect location record are authoritative and sync automatically (edits you make in Deliverect reach Phantom when your menu publishes and on periodic refresh — agents fetch fresh hours when they view your restaurant).
* **Manual hours:** hours set directly in the console are marked manual and are never overwritten by the POS sync. This is the only hours channel for non-Deliverect stores.
* **Planned closures:** set blackout windows (holidays, private events) in ordering rules; agents can't schedule orders inside them.
* **Multiple menus** (Lunch / Dinner / Catering) each carry their own service windows — agents see items greyed outside their menu's hours and can't order them for those times.

## Timing: prep, notice, and busy mode

Agents are held to your kitchen's real timing. Three knobs, all in ordering rules:

* **Prep time** — how long the kitchen needs on a normal day. Seeded from your POS default preparation time when available; override it any time. Publishing an accurate prep time makes your "earliest orderable time" honest — agents schedule accordingly.
* **Required notice** — a minimum scheduling notice, separate from prep (useful for catering: "orders need 24 hours' notice").
* **Busy / paused mode** — flip busy mode in Deliverect and it flows straight through: **busy** adds your chosen delay to every new order's timing; **paused** blocks any order due within the next two hours while still allowing scheduled orders further out. Un-pause and orders resume instantly.

For delivery orders a courier floor also applies (see Delivery below). The platform enforces all of this server-side — an agent cannot place an order that violates your timing.

## Delivery

* **Courier delivery** is fulfilled by DeliverThat where covered. Courier dispatch adds a scheduling floor (roughly 95 minutes' advance notice) and a delivery fee quoted at checkout. Coverage is probed automatically from your address.
* **Self-delivery**: if you run your own drivers, ask support to enable self-delivery — then the courier floor disappears and your prep time is the only timing constraint. New stores default to **pickup-only** until delivery is explicitly confirmed, so nobody's order waits on a courier that doesn't exist.
* If a store neither self-delivers nor has courier coverage, agents simply see it as pickup-only (with the reason).

## Orders, approvals, and payment

* **Approval mode** is yours to choose: **auto** (orders accept automatically), **manual review** (every order waits for your tap), or **threshold review** (small orders auto-accept; large ones wait for review). New stores start conservative.
* Orders are **prepaid**: the eater's card is charged or authorized before the order ever reaches you.
* **Payout on acceptance**: when you accept an order, the payment is captured and your payout is triggered to your connected Stripe account.
* Agents can cancel an order only **before** you accept it (the ticket and any courier are cancelled and the payment reversed automatically). After acceptance the order is yours — item changes require a cancel-and-reorder, which keeps your POS ticket trustworthy.
* Order caps (max order value, max item quantity, max headcount) are enforced before any order reaches you.

## Chains and brands

* Locations connected under one Deliverect account are grouped automatically as one **brand**; the first location's menu serves as the brand template. Grouping is explicit — restaurant names are never used to merge locations, so identically named independents can't be confused.
* A location with no menu of its own serves the brand template menu; local differences (prices, hidden items, local 86s) live in per-location overrides that survive re-imports.
* **Brand defaults** let a chain set policy once — approval mode, ordering-rule seeds, branding — and have every new location inherit it on day one.
* **Brand membership** grants a manager access to every current and future location of the brand from one login; per-restaurant roles still work for single-store managers.
* Chains get cross-location reporting rollups over any date range.

## Menu quality

Every menu import is checked automatically: \$0-priced items, duplicate PLUs (deduplicated), and modifier groups that can't be satisfied are flagged for review. Items needing review are excluded from agent ordering until resolved (`needs_review`), so agents can never sell something your POS can't make.

Two habits keep your menu healthy:

* Make **structural** edits (items, prices, modifiers) in your POS — they sync through.
* Make **local, per-location** edits (hide an item here, price differently there, 86 something today) in the console's menu overrides — they persist across syncs. Editing availability directly instead of using overrides is why a menu edit might seem to "revert" after the next POS publish.

## Getting help

[support@mealops.ai](mailto:support@mealops.ai) — onboarding, readiness checks, menu import questions, enabling self-delivery, reporting a problem agent, and payouts.