Discount Cost Trend

Purpose

Tracks how much money the store gave away in discounts over time, bucketed by week, month, or quarter, and broken down by discount code and discount type (percentage / fixed amount / free shipping / automatic). Answers: "is our discount spend trending up or down, and which campaigns are driving it?" Read-only — no mutations. Complements discount-roi-calculator (per-discount return) with a longitudinal view of total cost.

Prerequisites

Parameters

Safety

> ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time.

Workflow Steps

Inputs: query: "created_at:>='' financial_status:paid", first: 250, select createdAt, discountCodes, currentTotalDiscountsSet, totalDiscountsSet, cartDiscountAmountSet, discountApplications { allocationMethod, targetType, value, ... on DiscountCodeApplication { code }, ... on AutomaticDiscountApplication { title }, ... on ManualDiscountApplication { title } }, shippingLines { discountAllocations { allocatedAmountSet } }, pagination cursor

Expected output: All paid orders in the window with discount data; paginate until hasNextPage: false

GraphQL Operations

# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query DiscountCostTrend($query: String!, $after: String) {
  orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        createdAt
        discountCodes
        currentTotalDiscountsSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        totalDiscountsSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        cartDiscountAmountSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        discountApplications(first: 10) {
          edges {
            node {
              allocationMethod
              targetType
              targetSelection
              value {
                ... on PricingPercentageValue { percentage }
                ... on MoneyV2 { amount currencyCode }
              }
              ... on DiscountCodeApplication { code }
              ... on AutomaticDiscountApplication { title }
              ... on ManualDiscountApplication { title description }
            }
          }
        }
        shippingLines(first: 5) {
          edges {
            node {
              title
              discountAllocations {
                allocatedAmountSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }
  }
}

Session Tracking

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

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Discount Cost Trend                  ║
║  Store: <store domain>                       ║
║  Period: <period> × <periods_back>           ║
║  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):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
DISCOUNT COST TREND  (last <periods_back> <period>s)
  Total discount cost:    $<amount>
  Avg per <period>:        $<amount>
  Latest <period>:         $<amount>   (<delta_vs_prev_pct>% vs prior)

  By bucket:
    2025-Q1  $<n>   (cart $<n> / shipping $<n>)
    2025-Q2  $<n>   (cart $<n> / shipping $<n>)

  By discount type:
    code            $<n>   (<pct>%)
    automatic       $<n>   (<pct>%)
    manual          $<n>   (<pct>%)
    shipping        $<n>   (<pct>%)

  Top codes (by total cost):
    "<code>"        $<n>   (<pct>%)
    "<code>"        $<n>   (<pct>%)
    other           $<n>   (<pct>%)

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

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "discount-cost-trend",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "period": "month",
  "periods_back": 12,
  "total_discount_cost": 0,
  "by_bucket": [],
  "by_type": { "code": 0, "automatic": 0, "manual": 0, "shipping": 0 },
  "top_codes": [],
  "currency": "USD",
  "output_file": "discount_cost_trend_<date>.csv"
}

Output Format

CSV file discount_cost_trend_.csv with columns:

bucket, discount_code_or_title, discount_type, orders_count, cart_discount, shipping_discount, total_discount, currency

Error Handling

Best Practices