Shopify Admin Bulk Customer Tag Update

Purpose

Applies bulk tag changes (add, remove, or both) to customers selected by a query filter (e.g., total_spent:>=500, tag:newsletter) or by an explicit list of customer GIDs. Tags are how Shopify segments customers for discounts, marketing, and support workflows; this skill makes batch changes safe, dry-runnable, and auditable. Use when migrating from one tag taxonomy to another, when retiring a campaign-specific tag, or when applying a new segment tag identified by an analytics report.

Prerequisites

• Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store --scopes read_customers,write_customers
• API scopes: read_customers, write_customers

Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | store | string | yes | — | Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com) | | format | string | no | human | Output format: human or json | | dryrun | bool | no | true | Preview matching customers and the planned tag changes without executing mutations | | filter | string | conditional | — | Customer query filter (e.g., tag:newsletter, total_spent:>=500); required if customer_ids is omitted | | customerids | array | conditional | — | Explicit list of customer GIDs; required if filter is omitted | | addtags | array | no | [] | Tags to add (union with existing tags) | | removetags | array | no | [] | Tags to remove (set difference) | | mode | string | no | merge | Tag write mode: merge (apply add/remove to existing) or replace (overwrite tags entirely with add_tags only) | | max_customers | integer | no | 1000 | Run-size cap; abort if filter matches more than this |

Safety

> ⚠️ Step 2 executes one customerUpdate mutation per customer in the matched set. Tag changes are immediate and visible to staff and to any apps reading customer tags (loyalty, marketing automation, segmentation). mode: replace overwrites existing tags entirely — manually-applied operational tags will be lost. The default is dry_run: true and mode: merge. Always run dry-run first, review the matched count, and confirm add_tags/remove_tags are spelled correctly — Shopify tags are case-sensitive.

Workflow Steps

1. OPERATION: customers — query

Inputs: When filter is set: query: , first: 250, pagination cursor. When customer_ids is set: batch query with query: "id: OR id: ..." (chunk into batches of 25 IDs). Select id, displayName, defaultEmailAddress { emailAddress }, tags. Expected output: Customer list with current tags. Abort if match_count > max_customers.

1. For each matched customer, compute the target tag set:

• If mode: merge: target = (existing ∪ add_tags) \ remove_tags
• If mode: replace: target = add_tags (remove_tags ignored)

Skip the customer if target == existing (no-op).

1. OPERATION: customerUpdate — mutation

Inputs: For each customer with a non-empty diff: input: { id: , tags: } Expected output: customer.id, customer.tags, userErrors; collect failures

GraphQL Operations

# customers:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query CustomersForBulkTagging($query: String!, $after: String) {
  customers(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        displayName
        firstName
        lastName
        defaultEmailAddress {
          emailAddress
        }
        tags
        numberOfOrders
        amountSpent {
          amount
          currencyCode
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

# customerUpdate:mutation — validated against api_version 2025-01
mutation CustomerTagsUpdate($input: CustomerInput!) {
  customerUpdate(input: $input) {
    customer {
      id
      displayName
      tags
    }
    userErrors {
      field
      message
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Bulk Customer Tag Update             ║
║  Store:                        ║
║  Started:              ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝

After each step, emit:

[N/TOTAL]   
          → Params: 
          → Result: 

If dry_run: true, prefix every mutation step with [DRY RUN] and do not execute it.

On completion, emit:

For format: human (default):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
BULK TAG UPDATE OUTCOME
  Filter:            explicit IDs">
  Mode:             
  Add tags:         
  Remove tags:      
  Customers matched: 
  Customers updated:   (or "skipped — dry_run")
  No-op (already in state): 
  Errors:           
  Output:           bulk_tag_update_.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "bulk-customer-tag-update",
  "store": "",
  "started_at": "",
  "completed_at": "",
  "dry_run": true,
  "mode": "merge",
  "outcome": {
    "matched": 0,
    "updated": 0,
    "noop": 0,
    "errors": 0,
    "add_tags": [],
    "remove_tags": [],
    "output_file": "bulk_tag_update_.csv"
  }
}

Output Format

CSV file bulk_tag_update_.csv with columns: customer_id, name, email, previous_tags, tags_added, tags_removed, new_tags, status

The status column reports updated, noop, or error: .

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Recovery | |-------|-------|----------| | THROTTLED | API rate limit exceeded | Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times | | userErrors on customerUpdate | Invalid input or read-only customer | Log error, skip customer, continue | | match_count > max_customers | Filter is too broad | Refine filter or raise max_customers deliberately | | Both filter and customer_ids empty | No selection | Abort with parameter error | | Tag is empty string | Whitespace-only entry | Strip and skip empty values | | Case-mismatched remove_tag | Tags are case-sensitive | Re-run with exact casing |

Best Practices

• Always run with dry_run: true first — review the matched count and a sample of previous_tags → new_tags diffs before committing.
• Prefer mode: merge (the default) for almost all use cases — mode: replace is appropriate only when fully resetting a customer's tag taxonomy and you have an audited backup of prior tags.
• Tags are case-sensitive: VIP and vip are distinct in Shopify. Standardize casing in your taxonomy.
• For ongoing operational segments, prefer date-stamped tag names (e.g., cohort-2026-Q2) so historical cohorts remain identifiable as new tags accumulate.
• Pair with vip-customer-identifier or customer-spend-tier-tagger to feed segment tags from analytics outputs into the customer record.
• Use remove_tags as the cleanup pass after a campaign — leaving stale campaign tags clutters segmentation in marketing tools.
• When customer_ids is supplied directly (e.g., from another skill's CSV), the run is fully deterministic — no filter ambiguity.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: 40RTY-ai
• Source: 40RTY-ai/shopify-admin-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: http://skills.40rty.ai

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.