Shopify Products

Create, update, and bulk-import Shopify products. Produces live products in the store via the GraphQL Admin API or CSV import.

Prerequisites

• Admin API access token (use the shopify-setup skill if not configured)
• Store URL and API version from

  shopify.config.json

  or

  .dev.vars

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Product Data

Determine what the user wants to create or update:

• Product basics: title, description (HTML), product type, vendor, tags
• Variants: options (size, colour, material), prices, SKUs, inventory quantities
• Images: URLs to upload, or local files
• SEO: page title, meta description, URL handle
• Organisation: collections, product type, tags

Accept data from:

• Direct conversation (user describes products)
• Spreadsheet/CSV file (user provides a file)
• Website scraping (user provides a URL to extract from)

Step 2: Choose Method

inventorySetQuantities

Step 3a: Create via GraphQL (Recommended)

productCreate

mutation productCreate($product: ProductCreateInput!) {
  productCreate(product: $product) {
    product {
      id
      title
      handle
      status
      variants(first: 100) {
        edges {
          node { id title price sku inventoryQuantity }
        }
      }
    }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Variables:

{
  "product": {
    "title": "Example T-Shirt",
    "descriptionHtml": "<p>Premium cotton tee</p>",
    "vendor": "My Brand",
    "productType": "T-Shirts",
    "tags": ["summer", "cotton"],
    "status": "DRAFT",
    "options": ["Size", "Colour"],
    "variants": [
      {
        "optionValues": [
          {"optionName": "Size", "name": "S"},
          {"optionName": "Colour", "name": "Black"}
        ],
        "price": "29.95",
        "sku": "TSHIRT-S-BLK",
        "inventoryPolicy": "DENY",
        "inventoryItem": { "tracked": true }
      },
      {
        "optionValues": [
          {"optionName": "Size", "name": "M"},
          {"optionName": "Colour", "name": "Black"}
        ],
        "price": "29.95",
        "sku": "TSHIRT-M-BLK"
      },
      {
        "optionValues": [
          {"optionName": "Size", "name": "L"},
          {"optionName": "Colour", "name": "Black"}
        ],
        "price": "29.95",
        "sku": "TSHIRT-L-BLK"
      }
    ],
    "seo": {
      "title": "Example T-Shirt | My Brand",
      "description": "Premium cotton tee in multiple sizes"
    }
  }
}

Curl example:

curl -s https://{store}/admin/api/2025-01/graphql.json \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Shopify-Access-Token: {token}" \
  -d '{"query": "mutation productCreate($product: ProductCreateInput!) { productCreate(product: $product) { product { id title } userErrors { field message } } }", "variables": { ... }}'

Batching multiple products: Create products sequentially with a short delay between each to respect rate limits (1,000 cost points/second).

productUpdate

mutation productUpdate($input: ProductInput!) {
  productUpdate(input: $input) {
    product { id title }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Variables include

id

productDelete

mutation productDelete($input: ProductDeleteInput!) {
  productDelete(input: $input) {
    deletedProductId
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

productVariantsBulkCreate

Add variants to an existing product:

mutation productVariantsBulkCreate($productId: ID!, $variants: [ProductVariantsBulkInput!]!) {
  productVariantsBulkCreate(productId: $productId, variants: $variants) {
    productVariants { id title price }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

productVariantsBulkUpdate

mutation productVariantsBulkUpdate($productId: ID!, $variants: [ProductVariantsBulkInput!]!) {
  productVariantsBulkUpdate(productId: $productId, variants: $variants) {
    productVariants { id title price }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Step 3b: Bulk Import via CSV

For 20+ products, generate a CSV and import through Shopify admin.

CSV Column Reference

Required columns:

Handle

classic-tshirt

Title

Classic T-Shirt

Body (HTML)

<p>Premium cotton</p>

Vendor

My Brand

Product Category

Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Shirts & Tops

Type

T-Shirts

Tags

summer, cotton, casual

Published

TRUE

FALSE

Variant columns:

Option1 Name

Size

Option1 Value

Medium

Option2 Name

Colour

Option2 Value

Black

Option3 Name

Material

Option3 Value

Cotton

Variant SKU

TSHIRT-M-BLK

Variant Grams

200

Variant Inventory Qty

50

Variant Price

29.95

Variant Compare At Price

39.95

Variant Requires Shipping

TRUE

Variant Taxable

TRUE

Image columns:

Image Src

https://example.com/img.jpg

Image Position

1

Image Alt Text

Classic T-Shirt front view

SEO columns:

SEO Title

SEO Description

Premium cotton tee in 5 colours

Multi-Variant Row Format

The first row has the product title and details. Subsequent rows for the same product have only the

Handle

Handle,Title,Body (HTML),Vendor,Type,Tags,Published,Option1 Name,Option1 Value,Variant SKU,Variant Price,Variant Inventory Qty,Image Src
classic-tshirt,Classic T-Shirt,<p>Premium cotton</p>,My Brand,T-Shirts,"summer,cotton",TRUE,Size,Small,TSH-S,29.95,50,https://example.com/tshirt.jpg
classic-tshirt,,,,,,,,Medium,TSH-M,29.95,75,
classic-tshirt,,,,,,,,Large,TSH-L,29.95,60,

CSV Rules

• UTF-8 encoding required
• Maximum 50MB file size
• Handle must be unique per product -- duplicate handles update existing products
• Leave variant columns blank on variant rows for fields that don't change
• Images can be on any row -- they're associated by Handle

• Published

  =

  TRUE

  makes the product immediately visible

Import Steps

1. Generate CSV using the column format above
2. Use the template from

   assets/product-csv-template.csv

   if available
3. Navigate to

   https://{store}.myshopify.com/admin/products/import

4. Upload the CSV file
5. Review the preview and confirm import

Use browser automation to assist with the upload if needed.

Step 4: Upload Product Images

Images require a two-step process -- staged upload then attach.

stagedUploadsCreate

mutation stagedUploadsCreate($input: [StagedUploadInput!]!) {
  stagedUploadsCreate(input: $input) {
    stagedTargets {
      url
      resourceUrl
      parameters { name value }
    }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Input per file:

{
  "filename": "product-image.jpg",
  "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
  "httpMethod": "POST",
  "resource": "IMAGE"
}

Then upload to the staged URL, and attach with

productCreateMedia

productCreateMedia

mutation productCreateMedia($productId: ID!, $media: [CreateMediaInput!]!) {
  productCreateMedia(productId: $productId, media: $media) {
    media { alt status }
    mediaUserErrors { field message }
  }
}

Shortcut: If images are already hosted at a public URL, pass

src

{
  "images": [
    { "src": "https://example.com/image.jpg", "alt": "Product front view" }
  ]
}

Step 5: Assign to Collections

collectionAddProducts

mutation collectionAddProducts($id: ID!, $productIds: [ID!]!) {
  collectionAddProducts(id: $id, productIds: $productIds) {
    collection { title productsCount }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

To find collection IDs:

{
  collections(first: 50) {
    edges {
      node { id title handle productsCount }
    }
  }
}

Step 6: Set Inventory

inventorySetQuantities

mutation inventorySetQuantities($input: InventorySetQuantitiesInput!) {
  inventorySetQuantities(input: $input) {
    inventoryAdjustmentGroup { reason }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Input:

{
  "reason": "correction",
  "name": "available",
  "quantities": [{
    "inventoryItemId": "gid://shopify/InventoryItem/123",
    "locationId": "gid://shopify/Location/456",
    "quantity": 50
  }]
}

To find location IDs:

{
  locations(first: 10) {
    edges {
      node { id name isActive }
    }
  }
}

Step 7: Verify

Query back the created products to confirm:

{
  products(first: 50) {
    edges {
      node {
        id title handle status productType vendor
        variants(first: 10) {
          edges { node { id title price sku inventoryQuantity } }
        }
        images(first: 3) { edges { node { url altText } } }
      }
    }
    pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }
  }
}

Provide the admin URL for the user to review:

https://{store}.myshopify.com/admin/products

Critical Patterns

Product Status

New products default to

DRAFT

{ "status": "ACTIVE" }

Always confirm with the user before setting status to

ACTIVE

Variant Limits

Shopify allows max 100 variants per product and 3 options (e.g. Size, Colour, Material). If you need more, split into separate products.

Price Formatting

Prices are strings, not numbers. Always quote them:

"price": "29.95"

"price": 29.95

HTML Descriptions

Product descriptions accept HTML. Keep it simple -- Shopify's editor handles basic tags:

• <p>

  ,

  <strong>

  ,

  <em>

  ,

  <ul>

  ,

  <ol>

  ,

  <li>

  ,

  <h2>

  -

  <h6>

• <a href="...">

  for links

• <img>

  is stripped -- use product images instead

Bulk Operations for Large Imports

For 50+ products via API, use Shopify's bulk operation:

mutation {
  bulkOperationRunMutation(
    mutation: "mutation ($input: ProductInput!) { productCreate(input: $input) { product { id } userErrors { message } } }"
    stagedUploadPath: "tmp/bulk-products.jsonl"
  ) {
    bulkOperation { id status }
    userErrors { message }
  }
}

This accepts a JSONL file with one product per line, processed asynchronously.

Asset Files

• assets/product-csv-template.csv

  -- Blank CSV template with Shopify import headers