Draft Order Cleanup

Finds stale draft orders older than N days and optionally deletes them to reduce admin clutter.

shopify-admin-draft-order-cleanup


Purpose

Queries open draft orders older than a configurable age and optionally deletes them. Draft orders accumulate from abandoned B2B quotes, incomplete manual orders, or old integrations and clutter the admin. Stale drafts also inflate pending revenue metrics.


Prerequisites

  • Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store --scopes read_orders,write_orders
  • API scopes: read_orders, write_orders

  • Parameters


    ParameterTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
    storestringyesStore domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
    older_than_daysintegerno30Delete drafts older than this many days
    dry_runboolnotruePreview drafts to delete without executing mutation
    formatstringnohumanOutput format: human or json

    Safety


    > ⚠️ draftOrderDelete permanently deletes draft orders. Deleted drafts cannot be recovered. Run with dry_run: true to review the list before committing. Check that no stale drafts represent active B2B quotes awaiting customer approval before deleting.


    Workflow Steps


  • OPERATION: draftOrders — query
  • Inputs: query: "status:open created_at:<=''", first: 250, pagination cursor

    Expected output: Stale open draft orders; paginate until hasNextPage: false


  • OPERATION: draftOrderDelete — mutation
  • Inputs: id:

    Expected output: deletedId, userErrors


    GraphQL Operations


    # draftOrders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
    query StaleDraftOrders($query: String!, $after: String) {
      draftOrders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
        edges {
          node {
            id
            name
            status
            createdAt
            updatedAt
            totalPriceSet {
              shopMoney {
                amount
                currencyCode
              }
            }
            customer {
              id
              displayName
              defaultEmailAddress {
                emailAddress
              }
            }
            tags
            note
          }
        }
        pageInfo {
          hasNextPage
          endCursor
        }
      }
    }
    

    # draftOrderDelete:mutation — validated against api_version 2025-01
    mutation DraftOrderDelete($input: DraftOrderDeleteInput!) {
      draftOrderDelete(input: $input) {
        deletedId
        userErrors {
          field
          message
        }
      }
    }
    

    Session Tracking


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


    On start, emit:

    ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
    ║  SKILL: Draft Order Cleanup                  ║
    ║  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
      Stale drafts found:   <n>
      Drafts deleted:       <n>
      Total value cleared:  $<amount>
      Errors:               <n>
      Output:               draft_cleanup_<date>.csv
    ══════════════════════════════════════════════
    

    For format: json, emit:

    {
      "skill": "draft-order-cleanup",
      "store": "<domain>",
      "started_at": "<ISO8601>",
      "older_than_days": 30,
      "dry_run": true,
      "outcome": {
        "drafts_found": 0,
        "drafts_deleted": 0,
        "value_cleared": 0,
        "currency": "USD",
        "errors": 0,
        "output_file": "draft_cleanup_<date>.csv"
      }
    }
    

    Output Format

    CSV file draft_cleanup_.csv with columns:

    draft_id, draft_name, customer_name, customer_email, created_at, total_value, currency, action


    Error Handling

    ErrorCauseRecovery
    THROTTLEDAPI rate limit exceededWait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times
    userErrors on deleteDraft already completed or cancelledLog as skipped, continue
    No stale draftsAll drafts are recent or none existExit with 0 results

    Best Practices

  • Set older_than_days: 60 or higher for B2B stores where quotes may have longer sales cycles.
  • Review the dry-run list for drafts with notes or high value before deleting — these may be legitimate pending quotes.
  • For B2B scenarios, consider filtering out drafts tagged with b2b-quote or similar before running the delete step.
  • Run monthly as a routine admin hygiene task.