Gift Message Extraction — Shopify Admin Skills

Read-only: extracts gift messages, gift recipients, and gift flags from order custom attributes and notes for fulfillment teams to print on packing slips.

Purpose

Pulls gift messages, gift-recipient names, and "is_gift" flags from order custom attributes and order notes for orders that are pending or in-progress fulfillment. Produces a single sheet that the fulfillment team can use to print gift cards / inserts and route gift orders correctly. Read-only — no mutations.

Prerequisites

Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store --scopes read_orders

API scopes: read_orders

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
store	string	yes	—	Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
days_back	integer	no	7	Lookback window of orders to scan
status	string	no	unfulfilled	Order status filter: `unfulfilled`, `partial`, `any`
message_keys	array	no	`["gift_message","gift_note","Gift Message","Gift Note","message","note_to_recipient"]`	Custom attribute keys (any case) that may contain a gift message
recipient_keys	array	no	`["gift_recipient","recipient_name","Gift Recipient","To"]`	Custom attribute keys that may contain a recipient name
flag_keys	array	no	`["is_gift","gift","Gift Wrap","gift_wrap"]`	Custom attribute keys whose presence/value marks an order as a gift
include_order_note	bool	no	true	Also scan the order-level `note` field for free-text gift messages
format	string	no	human	Output format: `human` or `json`

Safety

> ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Output may contain personal text written by customers — handle the resulting CSV with the same care as any customer data export.

Detection Rules

For each order:

Custom attributes — for each lineItem.customAttributes and order.customAttributes:

If key (case-insensitive) ∈ message_keys → capture as gift_message

If key ∈ recipient_keys → capture as gift_recipient

If key ∈ flag_keys AND value is truthy (true, yes, 1, non-empty string) → set is_gift: true

Order note — if include_order_note: true and order.note matches /gift|recipient|deliver to|message:/i, capture the note as a note_hint

An order qualifies for the report if is_gift: true OR gift_message was captured OR gift_recipient was captured

Workflow Steps

Compute filter: created_at:>='' and translate status → fulfillment_status:unfulfilled / :partial / no filter

OPERATION: orders — query

Inputs: query: , first: 250, select name, note, customAttributes { key, value }, lineItems { name, quantity, customAttributes { key, value } }, shippingAddress, customer { displayName, defaultEmailAddress { emailAddress } }, pagination cursor

Expected output: Candidate orders

Apply detection rules to each order

Build report rows — one per qualifying order, including line items so packers know what to wrap

GraphQL Operations

# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query OrdersForGiftExtraction($query: String!, $after: String) {
  orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        createdAt
        note
        displayFulfillmentStatus
        customAttributes {
          key
          value
        }
        shippingAddress {
          firstName
          lastName
          address1
          address2
          city
          provinceCode
          countryCodeV2
          zip
          phone
        }
        customer {
          id
          displayName
          defaultEmailAddress {
            emailAddress
          }
        }
        lineItems(first: 50) {
          edges {
            node {
              id
              name
              quantity
              sku
              customAttributes {
                key
                value
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Gift Message Extraction              ║
║  Store: <store domain>                       ║
║  Started: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC>             ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝

After each step, emit:

[N/TOTAL] <QUERY|MUTATION>  <OperationName>
          → Params: <brief summary of key inputs>
          → Result: <count or outcome>

On completion, emit:

For format: human (default):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
GIFT MESSAGE EXTRACTION  (<days_back> days, status: <status>)
  Orders scanned:        <n>
  Gift orders:           <n>
   ↳ With message:       <n>
   ↳ With recipient:     <n>
   ↳ Flag only:          <n>
  Found in order note:   <n>

  Output: gift_messages_<date>.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "gift-message-extraction",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "period_days": 7,
  "orders_scanned": 0,
  "gift_orders": 0,
  "with_message": 0,
  "with_recipient": 0,
  "flag_only": 0,
  "from_order_note": 0,
  "output_file": "gift_messages_<date>.csv"
}

Output Format

CSV file gift_messages_.csv with columns:

order_name, created_at, is_gift, gift_recipient, gift_message, note_hint, ship_to_name, ship_to_address, line_items_summary, customer_email

line_items_summary is a qty × title list joined with ; .

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Recovery
`THROTTLED`	API rate limit exceeded	Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times
Custom attribute key naming inconsistent across themes	Different storefront templates write different keys	Caller can extend `message_keys` / `recipient_keys` / `flag_keys`
Encoded HTML in messages	Storefront stored HTML entities	Decode `&`, `'`, `"` before printing
Multi-line messages	Customer pressed Enter inside the input	CSV cells can contain newlines — quote properly when exporting

Best Practices

Run twice a day on the morning and afternoon pick wave — gift messages are time-sensitive and missing one ruins the experience.

Check custom-attribute key naming against your theme's gift-message implementation; extend message_keys / recipient_keys if your theme uses non-default keys.

For peak gifting seasons (Mother's Day, Valentine's, December), expand days_back to 14 and switch status: any to capture orders already in fulfillment.

Treat the CSV as PII — gift messages can contain personal sentiments. Restrict access to fulfillment staff who need it.

Sort the output by ship_to_address so packers can pull all gift orders going to the same address together.