shopify-admin-cancel-and-restock — Shopify Admin Skills

Cancel an unfulfilled order, optionally restock inventory, and optionally notify the customer — all in a single validated workflow.

Purpose

Cancels an unfulfilled or partially-unfulfilled order with configurable restock, refund, and customer notification options — without navigating the Shopify admin. Useful for fraud exception handling, out-of-stock cancellations, or customer-requested cancellations before dispatch. Cannot cancel orders that are already fully fulfilled.

Prerequisites

Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify auth login --store

API scopes: read_orders, write_orders

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
store	string	yes	—	Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
format	string	no	human	Output format: `human` or `json`
dry_run	bool	no	false	Preview operations without executing mutations
order_id	string	yes	—	GID of the order (e.g., `gid://shopify/Order/12345`)
reason	string	no	`OTHER`	Cancel reason: `CUSTOMER`, `DECLINED`, `FRAUD`, `INVENTORY`, `STAFF`, `OTHER`
restock	bool	no	true	Restock inventory for cancelled line items
refund	bool	no	true	Issue refund for any captured payments
notify_customer	bool	no	true	Send cancellation email to customer
staff_note	string	no	—	Internal note recorded on the cancellation

Safety

> ⚠️ Steps 2 executes orderCancel which is irreversible. A cancelled order cannot be reopened. If refund: true, any captured payment is automatically refunded. If restock: true, inventory quantities are immediately restored. Run with dry_run: true to verify the order state and confirm it is cancellable before committing.

Workflow Steps

OPERATION: order — query

Inputs: id:

Expected output: Order name, displayFulfillmentStatus, displayFinancialStatus, cancelledAt (must be null), fulfillmentOrders.status (must be OPEN or ON_HOLD — abort if any fulfillment order is IN_PROGRESS or CLOSED)

OPERATION: orderCancel — mutation

Inputs: orderId, reason, restock, refund, notifyCustomer, staffNote

Expected output: orderCancelUserErrors — empty on success; order is now cancelled with cancelledAt timestamp

GraphQL Operations

# order:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query OrderForCancel($id: ID!) {
  order(id: $id) {
    id
    name
    displayFulfillmentStatus
    displayFinancialStatus
    cancelledAt
    totalPriceSet {
      shopMoney { amount currencyCode }
    }
    lineItems(first: 50) {
      edges {
        node {
          id
          title
          quantity
          variant {
            id
            sku
            inventoryQuantity
          }
        }
      }
    }
    fulfillmentOrders(first: 5) {
      edges {
        node {
          id
          status
        }
      }
    }
    customer {
      id
      defaultEmailAddress {
        emailAddress
      }
      firstName
      lastName
    }
  }
}

# orderCancel:mutation — validated against api_version 2025-01
mutation OrderCancel(
  $orderId: ID!
  $reason: OrderCancelReason!
  $restock: Boolean!
  $refund: Boolean!
  $notifyCustomer: Boolean!
  $staffNote: String
) {
  orderCancel(
    orderId: $orderId
    reason: $reason
    restock: $restock
    refund: $refund
    notifyCustomer: $notifyCustomer
    staffNote: $staffNote
  ) {
    orderCancelUserErrors {
      field
      message
    }
    userErrors {
      field
      message
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

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

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: cancel-and-restock                   ║
║  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>

If dry_run: true, prefix every mutation step with [DRY RUN] and do not execute it.

On completion, emit:

For format: human (default):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
OUTCOME SUMMARY
  Order:               <name>
  Cancellation reason: <reason>
  Restocked:           <true|false>
  Refund issued:       <true|false>
  Customer notified:   <true|false>
  Errors:              0
  Output:              none
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "cancel-and-restock",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "started_at": "<ISO8601>",
  "completed_at": "<ISO8601>",
  "dry_run": false,
  "steps": [
    { "step": 1, "operation": "OrderForCancel", "type": "query", "params_summary": "order <id>", "result_summary": "<status>", "skipped": false },
    { "step": 2, "operation": "OrderCancel", "type": "mutation", "params_summary": "reason: <reason>, restock: <bool>, refund: <bool>, notifyCustomer: <bool>", "result_summary": "cancelled at <timestamp>", "skipped": false }
  ],
  "outcome": {
    "order_name": "<name>",
    "reason": "<reason>",
    "restocked": true,
    "refund_issued": true,
    "customer_notified": true,
    "errors": 0,
    "output_file": null
  }
}

Output Format

No CSV output. The session summary reports the cancellation result inline. If restock: true, list the variant SKUs and quantities restored.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Recovery
`cancelledAt` is not null	Order is already cancelled	No action needed
Fulfillment order `status: IN_PROGRESS`	Order is being picked/packed	Contact warehouse to stop — cannot cancel programmatically once IN_PROGRESS
`orderCancelUserErrors`	Order has already been fully fulfilled	Use `refund-and-reorder` skill instead
Order not found	Invalid order GID	Use `order-lookup-and-summary` skill to find the correct ID

Best Practices

Always run dry_run: true first — check displayFulfillmentStatus and fulfillment order statuses before committing to a cancel.

Set reason: FRAUD for high-risk orders — this reason is logged in Shopify's fraud analytics.

If the order has already been captured (status PAID), set refund: true — an uncredited cancellation will cause customer disputes.

For large cancellation batches (e.g., out-of-stock event), loop through order IDs using format: json to capture each result for audit logging.

If the warehouse has already started picking, do not cancel via API — contact them directly and cancel only after they confirm no physical work has started.

Cancel And Restock