The best Shopify Flow examples are dull on purpose: one trigger, one condition, one action, no surprises. Below are ten you can copy, with the exact trigger and action names from Shopify’s documentation, and three where an AI step earns its place. First, the rule that decides whether you need Flow at all or something bigger.
We are noprob agency. We build Shopify stores, and we work every day with AI agents built on Claude Code. The costliest mistake in store automation is the wrong shape: an agent built where a workflow would do. This guide is the cheap half of that decision, checked against Shopify’s help center on 29 October 2026.
When is a Shopify Flow workflow enough, and when do you need an agent?
A workflow is enough when you can write every path before the first run. You need an agent when the next step depends on what the previous step found. Anthropic draws the same line in Building effective agents: workflows follow paths fixed in advance by code, while agents decide their own steps and tool use as they go. Its advice is to look for “the simplest solution possible” and add complexity only when needed.
Flow sits on the workflow side. It has a trigger, conditions with a True and a False branch, and actions. Put a model inside one step and it is still a workflow, because you drew every road. My rule: start with the workflow and make the agent earn its seat. Four questions settle it in a minute:
- Can you write every branch before the first run? If yes, it is Flow. If you keep writing “it depends”, it is not.
- Is the input a field or a sentence? Status, total, tag and quantity are fields: use a plain condition. A free-text note is a sentence: a model can label it, still inside a workflow.
- What does a wrong decision cost? Money, stock or a customer’s trust means a person approves. Tags, notes and drafts can be wrong and cost nothing.
- Does the next step depend on what you discover on the way? Look up the order, read the returns policy, then decide what to say: that is an agent.
Tagging a VIP customer is a workflow. “Where is my order?” is not: it needs the order, the shipping status and the policy before it can answer, which is agent work (we cover it in AI customer service for Shopify). Most stores need both: workflows for everything with a fixed shape, an agent for the conversations. The full map is in AI agents for Shopify: chatbot, workflow or agent.
Where does AI fit inside Shopify Flow?
Flow has no AI action of its own, so AI gets in through three doors. On 29 October 2026 we read Shopify’s actions reference: it lists dozens of actions, from Add order tags to Wait, and none is an AI action. What exists:
- Sidekick builds the workflow. Open Flow, click the Sidekick icon and describe the automation in plain language. Per Shopify’s help, it works on desktop only, the result is inactive by default and tagged “sidekick”, and Sidekick might omit business-specific logic in complex workflows, so you review and test before turning it on. Shopify announced it on 11 December 2025 in its changelog. What Sidekick does in the rest of the admin is in Shopify Magic and Sidekick.
- Send HTTP request calls a model. The action sends a request to any URL: method, headers, body. Flow waits at most 30 seconds, and the response comes back in a variable you use in later steps. It is the only door to an outside model.
- Run code shapes the answer. The action runs JavaScript with a 5-second limit and no network access, so it cannot call a model itself. It is where you read the reply and turn it into clean values. The fourth door matters most: a person who reads what the AI wrote.
Which Shopify plans include Flow and the AI steps?
Flow is free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, but the action that reaches a model is not on Basic. According to Shopify’s Flow help page:
- Flow itself: a free app on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Staff need Flow permissions to turn workflows on.
- Send HTTP request: Grow, Advanced and Plus. On Basic, Flow has no way of its own to call an outside model.
- Sidekick that builds workflows: desktop only, on the plans that have Flow.
- Tasks from custom partner apps: Plus only.
- Usage limits: they vary by plan and follow Shopify’s API limits.
- Language: Shopify’s Flow page says the app is available in English only, which matters for the team that will read the run logs.
Which Shopify Flow examples can you copy today?
Ten workflows cover most of what a store needs from Flow in its first month. You can build them by hand from Apps, Flow, Create workflow, or start from the template library: Browse templates, pick one, review it and click Install. Templates carry placeholder data, so change tags and recipients before you turn them on. Shopify’s developer documentation says the library has hundreds of templates. The names below come from the triggers and actions references. Three have an AI step and end in a tag, a note or a draft field; the other seven are plain fields and tags, so they deliberately have no model.
| Workflow | Trigger | Condition | Action | AI step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. VIP tag | Order paid. | Order total above the threshold you choose. | Add customer tags (“vip”). | None. A prompt like “tag customers as VIP when they place an order over $200” is also the example Shopify itself uses to show Sidekick building a flow. |
| 2. Low-stock alert | Product variant inventory quantity changed. | Quantity at or below your threshold and the prior quantity above it, so you get one email and not one per sale. | Send internal email. | None. |
| 3. Hide and republish | Product variant out of stock. | The product has nothing left to sell. | Unpublish product. The mirror workflow starts from Product variant back in stock and ends with Publish product. | None. |
| 4. Risky order triage | Order risk analyzed. | The risk recommendation is Cancel or Investigate. | Add order tags, Hold fulfillment order, Send internal email. | None, on purpose. A person decides whether to cancel. |
| 5. Return requested | Return requested. | The customer has the “vip” tag from workflow 1. | Add order tags (“return-open”), Send internal email to support with priority. | None. |
| 6. Subscription payment failed | Subscription billing attempt failure. | - | Add customer tags (“payment-failed”), Send internal email. | None. Only for stores with subscriptions. |
| 7. Order note triage | Order created. | The order note is Not empty and exists. | Add order tags (“note-to-read”) and Send internal email first, then Send HTTP request with the note, Run code to read the reply, Add order tags with the label. | Sorts the note into a closed list such as gift message, address change, delivery request, other. |
| 8. Draft copy for a new product | Product created. | The description is Empty or does not exist. | Add product tags (“needs-copy”), Send HTTP request with title, type and attributes, Run code, Update product metafield (a draft field). | Writes a draft that a person reads and pastes. It never publishes. Same rule as for Sidekick: clean data in, human review out. |
| 9. Customer drifting away | Customer joined segment (a segment you built for customers who have not ordered in a while). | - | Add customer tags, Send HTTP request, Run code, Update customer note, Send internal email. | Writes a draft message in the customer note. The person who knows the customer sends it, or does not. |
| 10. Watch your workflows | Workflow error occurred. | - | Send internal email, or Send Shopify alert for errors. | None. Build this first. Shopify’s examples page lists templates for both. |
How do you add an AI step to a Flow workflow without breaking it?
Put the AI step last, keep it narrow and let it write only things a person can undo. The recipe for workflows 7, 8 and 9:
- Do the essential actions first. If the request fails (a Fail setting, an unexpected response code or a timeout), the run fails and later actions do not run. Tag and notify before you ask a model anything.
- Call your own endpoint, not the model directly. Send HTTP request needs a URL, headers and a body. An endpoint you control holds the prompt, the validation and the logs in one place, and you can change the model without touching Flow.
- Keep the key in a secret. Flow stores secrets on its Settings page, hides them in the interface and redacts them from run logs. Creating a secret or turning on a workflow that uses one needs the Manage connections and secrets permission.
- Send only what the model needs. For an order note, send the note, not the name, email or address. Customer text can contain personal data, so read your provider’s data terms. The risks are in AI agent security on Shopify.
- Ask for a closed list and JSON. Something like: “Classify this note into one label from this list: gift message, address change, delivery request, other. Reply with JSON only: {"label": "..."}.” A closed list is easy to check; a free sentence is not.
- Validate in Run code. Parse the body with JSON.parse, and if the label is not in your list, return “other”. Never trust the reply to be well formed.
- Choose the error settings on purpose. Retry keeps trying for up to 24 hours on 5XX and 429 responses. For a label that would arrive a day late, Ignore is the better choice.
- Keep your tag vocabulary small. Shopify warns that conditions on tags may fail past 250 tags on one order, product or customer, and that some order fields fill in later, so test before you turn the workflow on.
What should never be a Flow workflow with AI inside?
Never let a workflow with an AI step spend money, cancel, refund or write to a customer on its own. All four are irreversible or visible. Shopify’s own templates do automate payment capture and cancellation, but they act on the risk signal Shopify computes, for example Capture payment if the order is not high-risk and Cancel and restock high-risk orders, not on a model’s guess.
The safe verbs for an AI step are tag, note, draft and notify. If you catch yourself wanting more, you have found a task that probably needs an agent with proper tools and limits, not a longer workflow. That is a build in its own right, and it starts with how to build an AI agent for your store.
Does your store data support these workflows?
Flow acts on what the store already knows: tags, metafields, statuses and inventory, so messy data gives messy automations. If two tags mean the same thing, or half the products have no type, every condition above misfires. This is why we map data in detail during a migration. The Shopify Launch Sprint moves your store to Shopify in 14 days with our Custom AI System, and tags, metafields and product data are mapped before launch, which is the groundwork your future rules need.
If you are still on another platform, the Shopify migration guide shows what moves and how, and Nazzi’s migration from WooCommerce is here. The rule is the same everywhere: decide which tags and fields will carry your rules before the first order arrives. Flow is the easy part afterwards.
Where do you start this week?
Start with the workflow that watches the others, then add one rule per day.
- Install Flow from the Shopify App Store and give the right staff Flow permissions.
- Build workflow 10 (Workflow error occurred) so failures reach a human.
- Add the low-stock alert and the risky order triage, and read the first week of run logs.
- Build workflow 7 with a closed list of labels, and review the labels by hand for two weeks before you trust it.
- Write down the tasks where you kept saying “it depends”. They are your list for an agent.
Frequently asked questions
What is Shopify Flow?
Shopify Flow is a free automation app that watches your store for an event (the trigger), checks a condition and then runs one or more actions. It is built for fixed rules, not open-ended decisions.
Is Shopify Flow free, and which plans have it?
Yes, on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Send HTTP request needs Grow, Advanced or Plus, and tasks from custom partner apps need Plus.
Does Shopify Flow have AI?
Not as an action: Shopify’s actions reference lists none as of 29 October 2026. Sidekick builds workflows, and Send HTTP request calls an outside model.
Can Sidekick build a Flow workflow?
Yes, on desktop. The workflow comes out inactive, so you test it and turn it on yourself.
Can Shopify Flow call ChatGPT or Claude?
Yes, through Send HTTP request, with a 30-second wait at most. Run code reads the reply but cannot make network calls.
When do I need an agent instead of a workflow?
When you cannot write every branch in advance. If a fixed rule solves it, use Flow.
If your store is already live, the AI Accelerator is 30 days one-to-one: we analyze your processes with you and switch on up to two quick wins together. If you are changing platform, the Sprint comes first.
The Shopify Launch Sprint moves your store to Shopify in 14 days with our Custom AI System: a fixed calendar, a public price and 4 written guarantees.
Antonio Manitta
Founder & eCommerce Manager at NoProb Agency
For over 7 years I have helped fashion, supplements, and DTC brands scale their eCommerce. I work in long-term partnership with three brands at a time, building stable systems that compound.
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