Shopify Admin Product Lifecycle Manager

Purpose

Queries products matching a tag, vendor, collection, or status filter and bulk-transitions them to a target status (DRAFT, ACTIVE, or ARCHIVED). Used for seasonal launches (DRAFT → ACTIVE), end-of-season sunsetting (ACTIVE → ARCHIVED), and pre-launch staging (creating as DRAFT, activating on a date).

Prerequisites

• Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store --scopes read_products,write_products
• API scopes: read_products, write_products

Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | store | string | yes | — | Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com) | | filter | string | yes | — | Product filter query (e.g., tag:summer-2026, vendor:Nike, status:draft) | | targetstatus | string | yes | — | Target status: ACTIVE, DRAFT, or ARCHIVED | | dryrun | bool | no | true | Preview products without executing mutations | | format | string | no | human | Output format: human or json |

Safety

> ⚠️ ARCHIVED products are hidden from all sales channels and cannot be purchased. ACTIVE products are immediately visible to customers. Run with dry_run: true to review the product list before committing — especially for ARCHIVED transitions which are hard to reverse in bulk.

Workflow Steps

1. OPERATION: products — query

Inputs: query: , first: 250, pagination cursor Expected output: Products with id, title, status, tags; paginate until hasNextPage: false

1. Filter to products NOT already in target_status — skip those already correct

1. OPERATION: productUpdate — mutation

Inputs: id: , status: Expected output: product { id, title, status }, userErrors

GraphQL Operations

# products:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query ProductsByFilter($query: String!, $after: String) {
  products(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        title
        status
        vendor
        tags
        publishedAt
      }
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

# productUpdate:mutation — validated against api_version 2025-01
mutation ProductUpdateStatus($input: ProductInput!) {
  productUpdate(input: $input) {
    product {
      id
      title
      status
    }
    userErrors {
      field
      message
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

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

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Product Lifecycle Manager            ║
║  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):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
OUTCOME SUMMARY
  Products matched:    
  Already at target:    (skipped)
  Status updated:      
  Errors:              
  Output:              lifecycle_update_.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "product-lifecycle-manager",
  "store": "",
  "started_at": "",
  "completed_at": "",
  "dry_run": true,
  "filter": "",
  "target_status": "ACTIVE",
  "outcome": {
    "matched": 0,
    "skipped_already_correct": 0,
    "updated": 0,
    "errors": 0,
    "output_file": "lifecycle_update_.csv"
  }
}

Output Format

CSV file lifecycle_update_.csv with columns: product_id, title, previous_status, new_status, vendor, tags

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Recovery | |-------|-------|----------| | THROTTLED | API rate limit exceeded | Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times | | userErrors on productUpdate | Product locked or invalid state | Log error, skip product, continue | | No products match filter | Filter too narrow | Exit with 0 matches, suggest broadening filter |

Best Practices

• Use tags to mark seasonal batches before running (e.g., tag products with launch:2026-05 before activating them) so the filter is precise.
• ARCHIVED status removes products from all channels including the storefront, POS, and buy buttons — confirm this is the intent before running at scale.
• For large catalogs (500+ products), rate limiting will slow execution — the skill retries automatically but large batches may take several minutes.
• Pair with product-data-completeness-score before activating DRAFT products to ensure they have all required fields.

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.