Shopify automation
How to Use Shopify Flow AI to Create Workflows
Describe the automation in plain language, review what Sidekick drafts, test it against a real order, then turn it on.
Published 2026-08-24 · 12 min read
Shopify Flow is the automation app that ships with your plan, and since Sidekick learned to build workflows you no longer have to assemble one step by step. You type what you want in plain language, Sidekick drafts the trigger, the conditions and the actions, and you get a workflow to review.
The part nobody tells you is what happens between the draft and the automation actually running correctly. Sidekick can pick an action your trigger does not feed. It can miss the business rule you thought was obvious. This page walks the whole loop, from checking your plan includes Flow to testing a draft against a real order without touching your live store.
Which Shopify plans include Flow, and what it costs
Flow is a free app. Shopify lists it as available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, which covers every paid plan a normal store runs on. There is no separate automation subscription and no per workflow charge. If you are paying for Shopify at all, you already have this.
Two capabilities sit behind a higher plan. The Send HTTP request action, which is how a workflow talks to a service outside Shopify, needs Grow, Advanced or Plus. Tasks created by custom partner apps need Plus. Everything else on this page, Sidekick generation included, works on Basic.
You will find Flow in your admin under Apps. If it is not installed yet, install it from the Shopify App Store first, because Sidekick cannot build a workflow into an app that is not there.
| Plan | Flow itself | Send HTTP request | Custom partner app tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Included, free | Not available | Not available |
| Grow | Included, free | Available | Not available |
| Advanced | Included, free | Available | Not available |
| Plus | Included, free | Available | Available |
One requirement that catches people out before they type anything: Sidekick generates workflows on desktop only. On a phone you can open Flow and edit an existing workflow, but the generate path is not there.
Generate a workflow with Sidekick, step by step
The loop is short. Open Flow from Apps, click the Sidekick icon, and describe the automation you want the way you would describe it to a new hire. Sidekick builds the workflow, then answers with an overview of how it operates and a button at the end of the response that opens what it built.
Shopify's own examples are a good guide to the register that works. Tagging orders with fewer than three line items as small is one. Sending a welcome email when a customer's lifetime spend passes a threshold is another. Both name a trigger, a rule and an outcome in one sentence, which is exactly the shape Sidekick turns into a workflow.
If the draft is close but wrong, you have two ways forward. Edit it by hand in the canvas, or keep talking to Sidekick in the same conversation and ask for the change. When Sidekick makes a change it does not apply silently: you get Apply changes or Discard changes, and the workflow only moves when you pick one. That button pair is the difference between an assistant and an autopilot, and it is worth slowing down for.
1Name a real trigger
Flow documents 83 triggers, from Order created to Product variant out of stock to Scheduled time. Say which event starts the automation and Sidekick stops guessing.
2State the rule, not the intent
"Orders under 3 line items" is a rule. "Small orders" is an intent, and Sidekick has to invent a threshold to make it work.
3Say what should happen
Add a tag, send an internal email, hold the fulfillment order, publish the product. Name the outcome in the words the action uses.
4Say what should not happen
Exclusions are invisible to a model that only sees your sentence. If wholesale orders are exempt, that belongs in the sentence.
Reference entries on Shopify's triggers and actions pages, counted 2026-08-24. Conditions are not a fixed list: you build them from Admin API fields, an operator and a value, which is why a condition is the step most worth reading twice on a generated draft.
Tag high value orders for manual review
Create a workflow that starts when an order is created. If the order total is greater than 500 dollars, add the order tag high-value-review and send an internal email to ops@example.com with the order number and the customer name. If the order total is 500 dollars or less, do nothing.
What Sidekick should build
- Order created
- order total greater than 500
- Action: Add order tags, value high-value-review
- Action: Send internal email to the address named in the prompt
Where it goes wrong
- •Sidekick sometimes builds the tag action and skips the email, because one sentence carrying two actions reads as one instruction. Count the actions in the draft against the actions in your sentence.
- •Naming the false branch explicitly, even as "do nothing", stops Sidekick inventing a second path you then have to delete.
Alert the team when a variant sells out
Create a workflow that starts when a product variant goes out of stock. Send an internal email to inventory@example.com with the product title, the variant title and the SKU. Add the product tag restock-watch.
What Sidekick should build
- Product variant out of stock
- Action: Send internal email carrying the three named fields
- Action: Add product tags, value restock-watch
Where it goes wrong
- •The email body is only as good as the fields you name. Ask for the product title, the variant title and the SKU by name or you get a notification that does not say what sold out.
- •There is a matching Product variant back in stock trigger. Build the second workflow at the same time or the tag accumulates forever.
Route risky orders before they are fulfilled
Create a workflow that starts when order risk is analyzed. If the risk level is high, add the order tag hold-review, hold the fulfillment order, and send an internal email to fraud@example.com with the order number and the risk level.
What Sidekick should build
- Order risk analyzed
- risk level is high
- Action: Add order tags, value hold-review
- Action: Hold fulfillment order
- Action: Send internal email
Where it goes wrong
- •This is the one case where the trigger choice is not cosmetic. Shopify explicitly recommends Order risk analyzed over Order created here, because on Order created the risk assessment may not exist yet.
- •If Sidekick hands you an Order created trigger for this, replace it before you test. The workflow will still run, it will simply read an empty risk level and act on nothing.
The three things Sidekick will not infer
Shopify states plainly that Sidekick can omit business specific logic in complex workflows, and asks you to review and test what it generates. That is the honest version. The useful version is knowing which three gaps show up most, because each one fails in a different way.
Merchants report the sharper end of this too. A Shopify Community thread from a store running Flow describes Sidekick inventing IDs that do not exist and producing workflows that loop endlessly. Neither failure announces itself in the draft. Both are visible if you read the trigger and the conditions before you turn anything on.
1An action your trigger cannot feed
Actions need data. A Customer created trigger followed by an Add order tags action has no order to tag, so the run fails with a missing data error. Check that every action belongs to the same object the trigger carries, or that a Get data action supplies it.
2The rule you thought was obvious
Exempt wholesale, skip test orders, ignore anything already tagged. None of that is in the sentence, so none of it is in the workflow. This is what Shopify means by business specific logic.
3Fields that are not populated yet
Some Admin API fields are written asynchronously, especially on orders. Fulfillments, UTM parameters and risk levels can still be empty when the workflow runs, so a condition reading them silently evaluates against nothing.
Two documented limits that no prompt can talk its way past. Conditions that involve tags may not work when the order, product or customer already carries more than 250 tags. And orders and draft orders are separate worlds in Flow: an action aimed at orders will not touch a draft order, and the reverse is also true, until the draft is converted into a real order.
| The gap | How it fails | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Action starved of data | The run stops and an error is displayed | The workflow run log, after the first real trigger |
| Missing business rule | It runs perfectly on the wrong customers | Only in your own reading of the draft |
| Field not populated yet | A condition evaluates against an empty value | A test run, if you test with a real recorded event |
| Invented ID | The step points at something that does not exist | The step itself, when you open it in the canvas |
What Sidekick builds is off until you turn it on
This is the reassurance most people are looking for and almost nobody writes down. A workflow generated by Sidekick arrives Inactive. It does not run, it does not email anyone, it does not tag anything, until you open it and click Turn on workflow yourself. You can generate five drafts on a Tuesday afternoon and none of them will touch your store.
Generated workflows are also tagged automatically with sidekick. That tag is how you find them later, which matters more than it sounds: a year into using Flow you will have workflows you built by hand, workflows from templates and workflows Sidekick drafted, and only one of those three groups is labelled for you.
Once a workflow is live, every edit, activation, deactivation and export is logged in its version history with the name of whoever made the change and a timestamp. You cannot roll back from that history screen directly. You can ask Sidekick to do it, which is the one place where talking to the assistant is faster than clicking.
Roll a workflow back to an earlier version
Roll this workflow back to the version from last Tuesday.
What Sidekick should build
- Sidekick reads the workflow version history
- It creates a draft from the earlier version
- You review the draft and activate it yourself
Where it goes wrong
- •The rollback arrives as a draft, not as a live change. Nothing reverts until you activate it, which is the same safety rule as generation.
- •Version history keeps workflow event data for one year, and some historical data only goes back to April 2026. A rollback target older than that is not there to roll back to.
| Behaviour | Detail |
|---|---|
| Logged automatically | Edits, activations, deactivations and exports, with user and timestamp |
| Revert from the history screen | Not available. Ask Sidekick for a rollback draft instead |
| Retention | Workflow event data is kept for 1 year |
| Earliest data | Some historical event data starts from April 2026 |
| Changes shown per version | The 7 most recent changes by each user |
| Who can see it | Any staff member with access to the Flow app |
A habit worth forming on day one: give every workflow a name that says what it does and who it affects, before you turn it on. Flow names a new workflow for you, and a screen full of similar default names is how a store ends up afraid to delete anything.
Test a workflow without touching a real order
You can test a workflow at any time, before it has ever been active. Shopify is explicit about what a test does not do: it does not send notifications, it does not update orders or products, and it makes no changes to live store data. The run exercises your logic and shows you the result, and your customers see nothing.
Every test starts from trigger event data, and there are three ways to get it. The distinction matters because they answer different questions. Recording watches for the real thing. Creating replays something that already happened. Generating asks Sidekick to invent the cases you would not have thought to try.
For a first workflow, the second option is usually the fastest honest test. Pick a real order from your admin that should match your condition, run the workflow against it, and read what each step decided. If the condition reads a field that turns out to be empty, this is where you find out, before a customer is involved rather than after.
| Method | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Recording events | Activates a test mode that watches for live events on your store that would fire the trigger. You can open a second tab and perform the action yourself | Confirming the trigger fires at all, and catching fields that are still empty at run time |
| Creating events | You build a simulated event from real store data, for example an existing order used as an Order created event, without changing anything | Checking your conditions against data you already understand |
| Generating events | Sidekick generates simulated test events for you from existing store data | Covering the passing case and the failing case without hand picking two orders |
Let Sidekick generate a passing and a failing test event
The third method deserves its own note, because it fixes the weakest part of how people test automations. Left alone, everyone tests the happy path. You pick the order that obviously matches, you watch the workflow do the right thing, and you turn it on having never checked that it correctly does nothing to everybody else.
Sidekick can generate a set of test events from your existing store data covering both sides of the condition, for example one event that passes and one that fails on an Order created workflow. You can use them, edit them or remove them. Running both is what tells you the condition is a real gate rather than a step that lets everything through.
1Run the failing case first
A condition that lets everything through looks identical to a correct one on the passing case. Only the failing case separates them.
2Read every step, not the outcome
The run shows what each step decided. A workflow can reach the right end state through a condition that never actually evaluated.
3Then turn it on
Turn on workflow is the last click, not the first. Nothing you generated runs until you make it.
Sidekick, templates, or building it by hand
Three ways into the same canvas, and the right answer changes with the automation. Sidekick is fastest when you can say the whole thing in one sentence. Templates are pre made workflows written by Shopify that you customise, which is the shortest path when your automation is one of the common ones. Building by hand is slow and you end up understanding every step, because you placed every step.
The honest split for most stores: use Sidekick for the first draft of anything with a clear trigger and one or two actions, start from a template when Shopify already ships one for your case, and go by hand when the workflow has branches whose behaviour you will have to explain to someone later. Nothing stops you generating with Sidekick and then rebuilding a branch by hand, and that combination is what experienced Flow users actually do.
One practical note on templates. Many of them use triggers and actions that belong to apps, and an app trigger only works if that app's connector is installed. A template that looks broken is often a template waiting for an app you do not have.
If the automation you want is an email chain, that is its own craft and it has its own page here. The prompt library covers abandoned checkout, post purchase and win back chains, with the workflow each prompt should produce and the step Sidekick tends to drop.
Generate it with Sidekick
- + A reviewable draft in about a minute
- + No canvas skills needed to get started
- + You can keep refining in conversation
- − Business specific rules get dropped on complex workflows
- − It can pick an action your trigger does not feed
- − Every draft needs a line by line read before it goes live
Start from a template
- + Written by Shopify for a known case
- + The trigger and action pairing is already correct
- + Fastest path for common automations
- − Only helps when a template matches your case
- − App based templates need that app's connector installed
- − Still needs customising to your rules
Build it by hand
- + You understand every step because you placed it
- + No gap between what you meant and what runs
- + Branching logic stays explicit
- − Slow once the workflow has several branches
- − Easy to forget a condition on a later branch
- − You need to know the trigger and action vocabulary
Shopify Flow AI FAQ
Getting started with Flow AI
Is Shopify Flow free?
Yes. Shopify lists Flow as a free app available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. There is no automation subscription and no charge per workflow. Two things sit behind a higher plan: the Send HTTP request action needs Grow, Advanced or Plus, and tasks created by custom partner apps need Plus.
Where is the Flow AI button?
Inside the Flow app, not in the general admin search. Go to Apps, open Flow, and click the Sidekick icon. If Flow is not in your Apps list, install it from the Shopify App Store first.
Can I generate a workflow on my phone?
No. Generating a workflow with Sidekick requires a desktop device. You can still open Flow and edit existing workflows on mobile, but the generate path is desktop only.
What kinds of automation can it build?
Anything the Flow vocabulary covers, which is broad. There are 83 triggers documented, covering orders, products, inventory, customers, returns, fulfillment, disputes and scheduled times, and 109 actions covering tagging, publishing, holding fulfillment, internal email, Slack messages, metafields and Admin API requests. If you can name the event and the outcome, there is usually a path.
When the generated workflow is wrong
Sidekick built something close but not right. Edit it or start over?
Edit by hand when the shape is right and a detail is wrong, like a threshold or a missing tag. Reprompt when the trigger itself is wrong, and say in the new prompt what the last draft got wrong. You can also keep the same conversation going and ask Sidekick for the change, then use Apply changes or Discard changes on what it proposes.
Why does my workflow fail with a missing data error?
Because an action in it needs data the trigger does not carry. Shopify's example is a Customer created trigger followed by an Add order tags action: there is no order in that run, so the action cannot execute and the run stops. Either change the trigger, or add a Get data action that fetches the object the action needs.
The condition never seems to match. What should I check first?
Whether the field it reads is populated at run time. Some Admin API fields are written asynchronously, particularly on orders, so fulfillments, UTM parameters and risk levels can still be empty when the workflow fires. Testing with a real recorded event is how you catch this.
Can I undo a change to a live workflow?
Not from the version history screen, which is a record rather than a control. Ask Sidekick to roll the workflow back to an earlier version and it creates a draft from that version for you to review and activate. Workflow event data is kept for one year, and some historical data starts from April 2026.
Testing and turning workflows on
Will testing a workflow email my real customers?
No. Shopify states that a workflow test does not take actions such as sending notifications, updating orders or products, or making any changes to your live store data. The test exercises the logic and shows you what each step decided.
Does a workflow start running as soon as Sidekick creates it?
No. Workflows generated by Sidekick are Inactive by default. You have to open the workflow and click Turn on workflow yourself. Until you do, it does nothing at all.
How do I find the workflows Sidekick made?
They are tagged automatically with sidekick. Filter your workflow list by that tag and you have every generated one in a single view, separate from the ones you built by hand or started from a template.
How long after the trigger does a workflow actually run?
Workflows run as soon as possible, but Shopify does not define a completion time and there can be a delay between the trigger firing and the actions finishing. Build on that assumption rather than on instant execution, especially when two workflows touch the same object.
Limits worth knowing before you build
Why do my tag conditions stop working on some orders?
There is a documented ceiling. Conditions involving tags might not work when more than 250 tags are attached to the order, product or customer being evaluated. Stores that tag aggressively hit this without any error that names the cause.
Do workflows apply to draft orders?
Only if they are built for draft orders. Flow treats orders and draft orders separately: actions and triggers for orders do not affect draft orders, and the reverse is true too. Once a draft order is converted into an order, your order workflows apply to it.
Can a workflow call a service outside Shopify?
Yes, with the Send HTTP request action, which requires the Grow, Advanced or Plus plan. There is also Send Admin API request, which can use most GraphQL mutations, including ones not yet exposed as Flow actions.
When should I not use Sidekick for this?
When the workflow has several branches whose behaviour you will need to explain to somebody later, or when the rules are specific to how your business works rather than to how Shopify works. Shopify says outright that Sidekick may omit business specific logic in complex workflows. That is the line: generate the common shape, place the unusual parts yourself.
Sources and References
- Shopify Help Center: Creating workflows manually or from a template, including Generate a workflow with Sidekick (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Help Center: Shopify Flow overview and plan requirement (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Help Center: Testing a workflow in Shopify Flow (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Help Center: Actions in Shopify Flow, including the data requirement and the Admin API note (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Help Center: Triggers in Shopify Flow (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Help Center: Reviewing the version history of a workflow, including the Sidekick rollback prompt (read 2026-08-24)
- Shopify Community: merchant thread on Sidekick accuracy in Flow (read 2026-08-24)
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