Someone on your team still tags orders, chases low stock and re-checks the same customer list by hand every week. Much of that is rule-shaped work that Flow can run.
The short answer. The Flow AI assistant is Sidekick, Shopify’s built-in assistant, working inside the Flow editor. Describe a workflow in one sentence that names a trigger (the event), a condition (the test) and an action (the change). Shopify leaves each draft inactive, so check every card before you switch it on.
Who this is for. Operators on a live store who still do rule-shaped work by hand. It is not for anyone still choosing a platform, or anyone who needs judgment instead of a rule. Amounts in the prompts are in USD, so swap in your store currency.
Shopify Flow is the automation tool built into the Shopify admin. It runs on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus (Shopify Flow). Shopify says workflows generated by Sidekick are inactive by default, so you read the draft first.
The checks below come from our Shopify operations work. The wider set of agent jobs lives in our Shopify AI agent hub.
| Published limit | Figure | What it forces |
|---|---|---|
| Active workflows on one trigger | More than 10 degrades performance | Merge related rules into one workflow |
| Items a Get data action returns | Up to 100 | Narrow the query, or a report reads complete and is not |
| Wait steps in one workflow | 40 or fewer | Hand long sequences to the email tool |
| Total wait time per workflow | 90 days | Re-fetch the record after every wait |
The assistant translates your words and does not judge them
It maps your words onto Shopify’s published trigger list and action list. Actions run through the Admin API, the interface code uses to change a store.
Flow is not the same as connecting Claude or ChatGPT to your store. Those are agents: assistants that read live data, work out an answer and act across tools. Flow runs a fixed rule. Agent jobs are in 30 things a Shopify AI agent can do.
Write each prompt as trigger, condition, action, exception
One sentence. Put the exception last.
When <trigger>, if <field> is <operator> <value>,
then <action> <target>. Do not run when <exception>.“Tag my VIP customers” gets a guessed trigger. Be exact.
- Give the operator and the value. “Greater than 500” beats “high value”.
- Use Flow’s action verb. “Add the order tag” beats “flag it”.
- State every wait. Flow infers no timing.
Read the cards, not the summary. The assistant’s summary is often right while the condition operator is wrong. Check the operator and value on each card before you activate.
Inventory prompts fire on every unit sold
All four run on stock movement. Test with one real variant before you widen the rule.
| Prompt you type | What it builds | Check before enabling |
|---|---|---|
| 1. When a product variant inventory quantity changes and available quantity is less than 20, email ops the product title, SKU and quantity. | Trigger: inventory quantity changed. Action: send email | A SKU is the code for one exact item. This fires on every movement, so expect one email per unit sold |
| 2. When a product variant is back in stock, publish the product to the Online Store and remove the product tag sold-out. | Trigger: variant back in stock. Actions: publish product, remove tags | One returning variant fires this. Add a condition on total inventory |
| 3. When a product variant goes out of stock, if total inventory is 0 and the product lacks the tag preorder, unpublish it. | Trigger: variant out of stock. Action: unpublish product | Unpublishing kills the URL, so live ads hit a dead page. With campaigns running, tag and re-sort instead |
| 4. Every Monday at 07:00, get products tagged core and email ops every one with inventory over 50 and no sales in 60 days. | Trigger: scheduled time. Actions: get product data, loop, send email | [Get data returns at most 100 items](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow/getting-started/concepts/advanced-workflows), so a big catalogue reports a partial list |
Order prompts hang on Order paid, not Order created
Two of the four below only work on the paid trigger. The fraud hold needs a matching release, or held orders pile up.
| Prompt you type | What it builds | Check before enabling |
|---|---|---|
| 5. When an order is paid and the total is greater than 750, add the order tag high-value and email fulfillment the total. | Trigger: order paid. Actions: add order tags, send email | Use Order paid, not Order created. An unpaid invoice is not money yet |
| 6. When an order risk is analyzed and the risk level is high, hold the fulfillment order, add the order tag fraud-review and email support. | Trigger: order risk analyzed. Actions: hold fulfillment, add tags, send email | A fulfillment order is Shopify's record of what a location must ship. Build the release too |
| 7. When an order is paid, if the customer's number of orders is equal to 1, add the customer tag first-order. | Trigger: order paid. Actions: add customer tags, add order tags | Shopify warns order count can fill in late. Test with a real order |
| 8. When an order is canceled, remove the order tag high-value and email ops the order number and cancellation reason. | Trigger: order canceled. Actions: remove order tags, send email | Stores automate the tag on and never off. Write the removal |
Customer prompts miss everyone who already qualifies
Flow reacts to events, so a customer who crossed a line last year never fires one. Pair each event rule with a scheduled backfill.
| Prompt you type | What it builds | Check before enabling |
|---|---|---|
| 9. When a customer is created and the amount spent is greater than or equal to 1000, add the customer tag VIP. | Trigger: customer created. Action: add customer tags | Anyone who crossed 1000 earlier never gets tagged. Add a scheduled backfill |
| 10. Every day at 06:00, get customers whose last order date is more than 90 days ago and who hold the tag VIP, then add winback-90. | Trigger: scheduled time. Actions: get customer data, loop, add tags | Exclude customers who already hold winback-90 |
| 11. When an order is fulfilled, wait 10 days, then if the order has no refunds, add the order tag review-request. | Trigger: order fulfilled. Actions: wait, add order and customer tags | [Data fetched before a wait is gone after it](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow/reference/actions/wait). Check refunds after the wait |
| 12. When a refund is created, if the customer's amount spent is now less than 1000, remove the tag VIP and add vip-lapsed. | Trigger: refund created. Actions: remove and add customer tags | A partial refund can drop someone under the line. Decide if that is intended |
Email prompts end in a tool built for sending
Flow’s Send internal email is built for staff and cannot vary the recipient. So customer emails finish in another tool. Keep eligibility in Flow and sending in the email tool. A webhook is a URL at the other tool that Flow posts to.
| Prompt you type | What it builds | Check before enabling |
|---|---|---|
| 13. When a customer abandons checkout, wait 4 hours, then if no order exists, send the abandoned-checkout-nudge event with the checkout URL. | Trigger: customer abandons checkout. Actions: wait, the email app's send action | Shopify creates no abandoned checkout for [card testing or bots](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow/reference/triggers/customer-abandons-checkout). Test with a real checkout |
| 14. When an order is paid, if it contains a product in the collection Starter Kit, add the customer tag onboarding-sequence and post to the email webhook. | Trigger: order paid. Actions: add customer tags, send HTTP request | Confirm the other tool accepts the post and the tag, not only one of them |
| 15. When a product variant is back in stock and the quantity is greater than 10, post the variant ID to the notification app webhook. | Trigger: variant back in stock. Action: send HTTP request | Notifying hundreds about two units costs goodwill. Raise the quantity bar |
| 16. When a customer joins the segment Lapsed 90 Days, send the win-back event, wait 14 days, re-fetch the customer, and if still no order add winback-final. | Trigger: customer joined segment. Actions: wait, get customer data, add tags | A segment is a saved customer list Shopify keeps current. [Wait caps at 90 days](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow/reference/usage-limits) |
Marketing prompts depend on how often they run
Three of these four run on a schedule. How often decides whether anyone reads the output.
| Prompt you type | What it builds | Check before enabling |
|---|---|---|
| 17. Every day at 09:00, get automatic discounts ending within 3 days and email marketing each discount title and end date. | Trigger: scheduled time. Actions: get discount data, loop, send email | Scheduled time can run every 10 minutes. Once a day gets read |
| 18. When a product is created and has the tag launch-q4, add the product tags new-arrival and homepage-feature, then email merchandising. | Trigger: product created. Actions: add product tags, send email | A metafield is an extra field on a product. Product created fires before a bulk import writes variants and metafields. Use Product status updated |
| 19. Every Monday at 08:00, get products in the collection Core Range, and if the price is less than the compare at price, add the tag on-sale. | Trigger: scheduled time. Actions: get product data, loop, add tags | Compare at price is the higher, crossed-out price. Write the removal of on-sale into the same loop |
| 20. When a customer is created and has the tag wholesale-inquiry, post the customer email and company name to the CRM webhook. | Trigger: customer created. Action: send HTTP request | A personal address misroutes when that person leaves. Use a group alias |
One real store showed that the cards need a human
In September 2026 we opened Flow on a client’s athleisure store. The welcome workflow was a switched-off draft with one unfinished condition, and the 10% code in its email had expired. The checkout reminder waited 10 hours, then required 24 hours of inactivity. We fixed both within two days. Shopify’s workflow tester then reported “condition was true” on a real abandoned checkout. That is a simulation, not a delivered email.
| Workflow | Found | Changed to |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome email | Draft, inactive, 1 unfinished condition, expired 10% code | Active, 2 conditions, valid 5% code |
| Checkout reminder | Inactive, wait 10 hours, inactivity over 24 hours | Active, wait 1 hour, non-subscribers only |
Where this breaks: Flow cannot tell you why a number moved
Flow is a rule engine. It reads nothing outside Shopify and its connected apps (usage limits). Two things break. The tag automated on and never off belongs to the segment owner. The workflow that silently stopped matching belongs to whoever reads the run history.
Flow also cannot say why a number moved. Did last quarter’s redesign move conversion, or only traffic? That needs Shopify, analytics and the ad platform read together, which is an agent’s job.
Your plan for this week, in four steps
- Today: pick two prompts that match jobs done by hand. Build them, leave them off, and run one real record through each. Read the run log, the list of every time a workflow fired.
- Tomorrow: write the removal workflow for every tag you automate.
- Before Friday: open every workflow already on the store. Write down every wait time and discount code, and check each code is still valid.
- Next week: pick one question a rule cannot answer and run it read-only, using a card from the 30 Shopify AI agent prompts.
Questions operators ask before they build
What is the Shopify Flow AI assistant?
It is Sidekick, Shopify’s built-in assistant, working inside the Flow editor. You describe a workflow in one sentence and it drafts the trigger, conditions and actions as cards. Shopify leaves each draft inactive until you turn it on.
How do I write a prompt for the Shopify Flow AI assistant?
Write one sentence naming a real trigger, a real condition and a real action, with the exception last. If a draft is wrong, name the wrong card and ask for that card only.
Which Shopify plans include Flow, and can it use AI?
Flow runs on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. The AI drafts the workflow. Flow itself has no reasoning step. To add judgment, send an HTTP request to a service that decides.
Facts checked October 2026, re-check by 5 April 2027. Sources: Shopify Flow, create a workflow, usage limits, trigger list.
