shopify-matrixify

Shopify Matrixify

The bulk-data workhorse of the catalog-cleanup suite. Matrixify moves store data in and out as spreadsheets, so it is how you touch thousands of records at once instead of one at a time in the admin. Almost every destructive mistake here comes from one of two misunderstandings: what a blank cell means, and what omitting a row means. Internalize the safety doctrine below before you touch a production catalog.

Canonical docs: matrixify.app/documentation. This skill is the operational playbook the docs don't spell out.

Store access

Matrixify runs inside the store, not through the Admin API. You do the work in two places:

• The Matrixify app (Shopify admin → Apps → Matrixify): run Export to pull a sheet, run Import to push one. Every import shows an Analyze preview and, after it runs, an Import Results file.
• A spreadsheet you edit locally (Excel or any CSV editor) or generate with throwaway code.

No token lives in this skill. To verify a write landed, re-export the affected records and inspect the cells, or read them back through the Admin API: the storefront is CDN-cached and lies about freshness.

Safety doctrine

Read this section twice. Every rule here was learned by someone breaking a live store.

1. Back up first: the export IS the backup. Before any bulk write, run a full export of the entity you're about to touch (Products, Collections, etc.) and save the file. If the import goes wrong, that export is your restore path. There is no "undo import" button.
2. MERGE is the default and it is safe. An empty Command cell defaults to MERGE (except Orders/Draft Orders, which default to NEW). MERGE updates rows that exist, creates rows that don't, and leaves untouched anything you didn't put in the file. Stay on MERGE unless you have a specific reason not to.
3. A blank cell in an import DELETES that value: it does not skip it. This is the single most expensive trap in Matrixify. If your sheet has a Metafield: custom.care [multi_line_text_field] column and a product's cell is empty, the import writes empty, wiping the existing metafield. Same for any field: blank Body HTML clears the description, blank Vendor errors out. Only include columns you intend to change. The fix is column omission, not blank cells. Absent column = untouched; present-but-blank column = deleted.
4. REPLACE is destructive by definition. REPLACE deletes the existing record (or nested set: variants, images, tags) and recreates it from only what's in the file. Anything not in the file is gone. Reach for REPLACE only when you truly want the file to be the complete new truth, and back up first.
5. Omitting a row does NOT revert a prior import. Dropping a handle from your next file doesn't undo what a previous import did to it. Matrixify only acts on rows present in the current file; it has no memory of the last run. To reverse a change you must import a new file that explicitly sets the old values back.
6. Sub-command MERGE ≠ entity MERGE. Setting the entity Command to MERGE does not by itself govern tags, images, or variants. Those have their own command columns (Tags Command, Image Command, Variant Command), each of which defaults to MERGE when absent (per the matrixify.app docs). MERGE is the safe default, but state it anyway: always pair a Tags column with an explicit Tags Command so the intent (add vs. REPLACE the exact list vs. DELETE listed) is unambiguous on the sheet rather than relying on the default.