Gorilla Pulse App & Plugin Documentation

Everything you need to install, configure, and get the most out of Gorilla Pulse on your WooCommerce store. Work top to bottom for a first install, or jump to a section from the sidebar.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or later
• WooCommerce 7.0 or later
• PHP 7.4 or later
• An iPhone running iOS 16 or later with the free Gorilla Pulse app from the App Store
• A license key from gorillapublic.com (for AI features and use beyond the 3-day trial)

Scope Gorilla Pulse reads your store’s own data — orders, products, and marketing attribution recorded on your site. Nothing is required from ad platforms and no external analytics account is needed. Fully compatible with High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS).

Installation

1. Upload and activate the plugin Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the zip from your purchase, click Install Now, then Activate. Your 3-day trial starts now — no payment details needed.
2. Open the settings page Go to WooCommerce → Gorilla Pulse. This is home base: pairing keys, license, alert settings, and ad spend all live here.
3. Install the iPhone app Search “Gorilla Pulse” on the App Store, or scan the pairing QR code — your camera will offer the App Store link if the app isn’t installed yet.

Pairing your phone

1. Generate a key On the settings page, click Generate. A QR code appears — it’s shown once, at generation time, for security.
2. Scan with your iPhone camera Point the built-in Camera app at the QR code and tap the “Open in GorillaPulse” banner. The app opens already paired.
3. Or enter manually In the app’s pairing screen, type your store URL and paste the key from the settings page.

Multiple devices Generate one key per device — yours, a partner’s, a manager’s. Every key is listed on the settings page with its creation date and can be revoked with one click. Revoking a key immediately disconnects that device; everything else keeps working.

What’s in the app

Pulse — today’s revenue, orders, and average order value with comparisons to yesterday and the same weekday last week, an hourly chart, your top seller, and recent orders with tap-through detail. Switch to 7 Days, 30 Days, or a custom range; range views compare to the equal period before.

Source — revenue by marketing channel, drilling into sources and campaigns, powered by the plugin’s own first-party attribution. Enter daily ad spend in the plugin settings and Source shows return alongside revenue.

Alerts — low stock (velocity-aware), unusually large orders, and stuck payments. Deletable in the app; changed conditions resurface as new alerts.

Ask — plain-English questions answered from your live store data, plus a daily AI recap of yesterday. Both require an active license and your explicit in-app consent.

How attribution works

The plugin records a small first-party cookie on your own domain when a visitor arrives with campaign parameters (UTMs) or an identifiable referrer. When that visitor orders — even days later — the order is stamped with its source. No third-party scripts, no data sent anywhere; it’s your store keeping its own books.

Honest numbers Ad blockers and untagged links mean attribution slightly undercounts. Treat channel figures as a reliable floor rather than a complete picture — and expect them to disagree with ad platforms’ self-reported numbers, which grade their own homework.

License management

Found at WooCommerce → Gorilla Pulse. Statuses you may see:

Trial — the 3-day trial is running. Stats, Source, and Alerts work; AI features wait for a license.

Active — your license is valid and verified. Everything works, including AI features and plugin auto-updates.

Trial ended — the trial has lapsed with no license. The app shows a clear message; activate a license to resume instantly. Nothing is lost — attribution keeps recording the whole time.

Activating: click Activate on the settings page and enter the key from your purchase confirmation email. One license covers one production store, with allowance for a staging copy.

Settings

Big order alert threshold Default: 250 — orders at or above this total trigger a Big Order alert. Set it around 3–5× your average order value.

Ad spend Enter daily spend per channel to see return calculations in the app’s Source tab. Optional — revenue attribution works without it.

Pairing keys The device list with per-key revoke, described under Pairing above.

AI features

The daily recap and Ask are generated by Anthropic’s Claude, reached through Gorilla Public’s server. They send aggregated store statistics only — revenue totals, order counts, product names, channel figures — never customer personal information. AI is off until the store owner enables it in the app’s consent screen, and it can be switched off anytime in the app’s Settings. Plans include 50 Ask questions per month (the counter shows in the app); daily recaps don’t count against it.

The API health check

The settings page automatically tests the plugin’s own API every few minutes and shows a warning banner if your site is intercepting requests — the number-one cause of “the app won’t connect.” You can run the same test yourself: open https://yourstore.com/wp-json/gorilla-pulse/v1/ping/ in any browser. Code-like text (JSON) — even an error about a missing key — means healthy. A web page means something is in the way; see Troubleshooting.

Push notifications

Optional sale notifications can be enabled per device in the app’s Settings. Delivery uses Apple’s push service; no customer data rides along — just the fact of a sale.

Troubleshooting

Connection issues

The app says “Your site answered, but not with Gorilla Pulse data”

Something on your site is serving a web page where the API should answer. Run the health check URL above, then check in order: (1) WooCommerce → Settings → Site visibility must be Live — coming-soon and maintenance modes block the API; (2) Settings → Permalinks — choose “Post name” and click Save Changes even if it looks right, which rebuilds routing; (3) security plugins or firewalls blocking the REST API — allow the gorilla-pulse/v1 namespace; (4) a theme or plugin conflict — check your hosting error log for lines mentioning gorilla-pulse.

“Your store didn’t respond in time”

A slow connection or a busy site. Try again; if persistent, check your hosting performance.

“No pairing key received”

A CDN or security layer is stripping the app’s authentication header. Whitelist the X-Gorilla-Pulse-Key request header.

Pairing issues

Scanning the QR opens a browser instead of the app

That QR was generated by an older plugin version. Update the plugin, click Generate for a fresh key, and scan the new code — the banner should read “Open in GorillaPulse.”

The camera shows no banner at all

Confirm the Gorilla Pulse app is installed — iOS only offers the banner when the app is present. Manual entry always works as a fallback.

License issues

The app says the trial has ended

Activate a license at WooCommerce → Gorilla Pulse on your store. The app resumes on its next refresh — no re-pairing needed.

License won’t activate

Check that your site can reach app.surecart.com — some hosts and security plugins block it. Single-site licenses cover one activation; moving stores? Deactivate on the old site first.

Data questions

The app’s numbers don’t match another analytics tool

They shouldn’t, exactly. Gorilla Pulse counts orders recorded by your own WooCommerce store within your store’s timezone; analytics platforms model sessions and often use different attribution windows. Your store’s order list is the ground truth Pulse reports.

A channel shows less revenue than the ad platform claims

Expected — see How attribution works. Platforms self-report generously; Pulse shows what your own database recorded.

Still stuck? Message us from the app (Settings → Support — replies arrive as notifications) or email hello@gorillapublic.com with your plugin version, WordPress version, a description of what you’re trying to do, and screenshots — they help enormously. We reply within one business day.