spree-pricing

Spree Pricing

Commands below use the Spree CLI form (spree …, Docker). On a classic Rails app without the CLI (typical pre-5.4), use the native mapping in the spree-project skill — bin/rails / bundle exec rake from the app root, paths without the backend/ prefix.

Pricing in Spree is per-variant, per-currency. Optional layers add price lists (per-customer or per-market), historical tracking (for EU Omnibus compliance), and rule-based variations.

The price graph

Variant
  ├── Price (one per currency)
  │     ├── amount             — what the customer pays (gross or net depending on tax config)
  │     ├── compare_at_amount  — was-price / strikethrough price (sale messaging)
  │     ├── currency
  │     └── price_list (5.3)   — nil for the default storefront price
  ├── PriceHistory × n         — historical amount changes (EU Omnibus)
  └── PriceRule × n            — conditional price overrides (5.3)

Each Variant has at least one Price per currency the store sells in. The cart pipeline picks the right Price based on Spree::Current.currency and the customer's PriceList (if any).

Setting a price

variant.prices.create!(
  currency: 'USD',
  amount: 39.99,
  compare_at_amount: 49.99   # strikethrough — shows as "was $49.99 now $39.99"
)

The canonical, idempotent setter is variant.set_price('USD', 39.99, 49.99) — it find-or-initializes the base Price for the currency (unlike prices.create!, which raises if a USD base price already exists, due to a unique DB index on variant + currency). Note the third argument is compare_at_amount and is assigned unconditionally — calling set_price('USD', 39.99) clears any existing compare-at price. Read it back with variant.price_in('USD'), which returns the base Spree::Price for that currency.

For most stores, prices are created via the admin UI (Products → variant edit) or bulk-imported via CSV. Spree::Variant#price is deprecated (removed in 6.0) — it returns the base-price amount in the default store's default currency, not a Spree::Price in the current currency. Use variant.price_in('EUR') (returns the base Spree::Price for a currency), variant.amount_in('EUR') (BigDecimal amount), or variant.price_for(currency: 'EUR', user: user) to get the price resolved through price lists (Spree::Pricing::Resolver).